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All future and current ATC's need to follow the link and ask their Senators to vote yes for S1300. This is the Senate version of S1300 FAA re-authorization that contains the NATCA language to eliminate the FAA's imposed work rules, return us retro to the green book, and back to the table for a FAIR contract...

Go to http://www.unionvoice.org/natca/join and sign up ...

For more info:

AIRPORT JOURNALS: S. 1300 Needs Your Support
By Robert B. Schultz, Attorney at Law

S. 1300, currently stalled in the U.S. Senate, would provide fair and binding arbitration to the pay and work rules dispute between the FAA and air traffic controllers.

If you've followed the dispute between air traffic controllers and the FAA, you may be concerned about the effects this dispute may have on flight safety. If so, your concerns are well founded. I know because I worked for the FAA in air traffic control in 1982 after President Reagan fired the striking PATCO controllers. From what I'm told, working conditions and controller/supervisor relations are worse now than they were then.

On Labor Day weekend 2006, the FAA unilaterally imposed new ATC work rules and conditions after the breakdown of collective bargaining. They can do that under the 1996 FAA Reauthorization Act. That law, codified into the Federal Aviation Act as 49 U.S.C. § 106(l)(1) and §40122(a), authorized the FAA to "fix (controller) compensation . as may be necessary to carry out the functions of the (FAA). In fixing compensation and benefits ., the [FAA] shall not engage in any type of bargaining, except to the extent provided for in section 40122(a)."

Section 40122(a) says, "(1) In developing and making changes to the personnel management system, the (FAA) shall negotiate with the exclusive bargaining representatives of (FAA) employees. . (2) If the (FAA) does not reach an agreement under paragraph (1) with the exclusive bargaining representatives, the services of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service shall be used to attempt to reach such agreement. If the services of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service do not lead to an agreement, the (FAA's) proposed change to the personnel management system shall not take effect until 60 days have elapsed after the (FAA) has transmitted the proposed change, along with the objections of the exclusive bargaining representatives to the change, and the reasons for such objections, to Congress."

NATCA, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, currently represents air traffic controllers. By law, the FAA must negotiate with NATCA. But no law requires the FAA to negotiate in good faith. After the FAA makes a show of negotiations, it's required to submit its dispute to a federal mediation service. But mediation, by definition, isn't binding on either party; it's just negotiation with the assistance of a supposedly neutral third party. So after the FAA has made a show of mediating the dispute, it needed only to submit its proposed work rule and compensation changes to Congress and wait 60 days for the changes to take effect. That's exactly what happened in 2006.

NATCA pointed out that "several key parts of the imposed work rules have real and potentially dangerous consequences for the safety and efficiency of the air traffic control system." These include pay freezes and pay cuts for veteran controllers, which remove any financial incentive to continue working past retirement eligibility date. The large block of controllers hired in 1982 after the controller strike are now reaching retirement age. In fact, one in four controllers nationwide reached their eligibility date by the end of 2007. The FAA underestimated its controller retirement forecast to Congress in 2005 by 36 percent and isn't prepared for a spike in retirements due to the imposed work rules. Indeed, the new rules, which imposed a 30 percent average wage cut for new controllers, has made it harder for the FAA to recruit and hire its much-needed next generation. The new rules, barring sick leave for rest and eliminating the former mandatory break after two hours on position, promise overworked and fatigued controllers.
Last September 2007, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a new FAA Reauthorization Bill (H.R. 2881). Among other things, it rewrites paragraph (2) of Section 40122(a) above as follows: "(A)(2) If the (FAA) does not reach an agreement under paragraph (1) . the (FAA) and the bargaining representative (i) shall use the services of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service to attempt to reach such agreement . [or] (ii) may by mutual agreement adopt alternative procedures for the resolution of disputes or impasses arising in the negotiation of the collective-bargaining agreement. (B) If the services of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service . do not lead to an agreement, the (FAA) and the exclusive bargaining representative of the employees . shall submit their issues in controversy to the Federal Service Impasses Panel. The panel shall assist the parties in resolving the impasse by asserting jurisdiction and ordering binding arbitration by a private arbitration board consisting of three members."

Note that this House bill eliminates the illusory step of submitting the work rules to Congress. If all else fails, it provides for fair and binding arbitration.

Of this bill, NATCA said: "Today's 267-151 vote approves sending NATCA and the FAA back to the negotiating table to finish work on a contract, nearly 18 months after the FAA pulled the plug on talks and declared an impasse after having not budged one cent from its original 2006 contract offer, knowing full well that it would be able to impose its terms. That it did on Sept. 3, 2006, a day that began a free fall in the number of experienced controllers not seen since the PATCO strike and firings in 1981. . According to the latest FAA figures available, just 11,467 experienced controllers are left in the country. That's an 11-year low and more than 1,100 fewer than were working on 9/11, despite rising traffic volume that's sped by 9/11 levels at many airports and radar facilities and has left Americans completely frustrated and angered by a record number of flight delays."

Unfortunately, the bill's stalled in the Senate—not over the proposed arbitration provision, but rather over funding issues (S. 1300). Meanwhile, the situation worsens. According to a recent NATCA press statement, "The nation's air traffic controllers, faced with a 10 percent loss of their workforce in the last year, a record pace of new losses this year and worsening stress and fatigue levels that have drawn the critical eye of two major government watchdogs, are declaring a staffing emergency in four key areas of the country with some of the busiest airspace in the world: Atlanta, Chicago, New York and Southern California. A staffing emergency means that controllers do not have enough trained and experienced personnel on the ground to safely handle the volume of traffic in the air and at major airports."

S. 1300, which has the support of virtually the entire aviation community, needs your support as well.