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I thought I’d focus the update on this author’s assessment of potential future events for this Union in the current political climate. In the way of disclaimer I should emphasize that these are my thoughts exclusively and not a matter of official assessment.
After the elections earlier this month we are faced with four more years of the Bush administration. I think they ran a brilliant campaign and Karl Rove in my opinion is a political genius. And as there are many areas where I support the administration and believe they have performed well, there are others where I intensely disagree with their policies which drove this longtime republican to support the other side, at least in the Presidential race. If you supported the Bush/Cheney ticket I would think it was because on balance you placed other issues on a higher priority than your job or general ATC issues. This is fine but we are going to need your help to mitigate some of the things coming down the pipe as a result of that reelection. If you supported the Kerry/Edwards ticket well it didn’t work out, thanks for trying, and we really need to come together.
Stay with me while I talk LMR for a moment. In the FAA as a whole to some extent and this region to a great extent, a tactic was utilized in dealing with grievances and other issues being they would either ignore them or rule against the Union even though law or rule or regulation or most especially our collective bargaining clearly showed them to be in error. The strategy was that even if they were totally wrong they figured, correctly, that the Union did not have the means or manpower to arbitrate every grievance decision or bring every other issue to a regulatory authority such as the FLRA or MSPB. Soon after the Bush/Cheney administration took over policies came about to weaken even those protections. The FLRA was stacked with anti labor panelists, Marion Blakey was appointed as administrator, laws were weakened and 60 plus years of court rulings and precedents were routinely reversed. Funding for general budgets, modernization and hiring were drastically cut. The list goes on. Now the FAA’s somewhat successful strategy of ignoring the contract, law etc. became much more prevalent and successful nationwide. You see, our contract and those laws and regulations are only as good as the agency’s willingness to honor them or barring that, some other oversight organization’s (such as congress or the FLRA) willingness to force the Agency to honor them.
Now I know a history of recent LMR difficulties is not the normal subject for a legislative update, but this all neatly segues in to our upcoming contract negotiations, appropriations funding for the agency, possible privatization and contracting out, the survival of our reclass, hiring, firing, staffing, modernization, safety, our worker rights etc. You see the same situation that aggravated the LMR arena has bled over into the legislative arena and is now poised to get much, much worse. And the story is the same. In many areas NATCA is fighting this but the problem is that no matter how correct and righteous we are with the law or regulations or the contract, sometimes there is nothing there to prevent the Agency from figuratively extending their middle finger our direction and essentially saying “yeah we know your right but so what … you can’t make us”. It is a very alarming situation.
Consider the possibilities.
There are of course numerous other areas for unwelcome change which I’ll save for other updates. So what do we do about this? Well, you still have some of the sharpest people around representing you in this Union. We have gained tremendous political prominence and respect because of our PAC and or record as truth Sayers. We have a Union that is still in decent shape financially and enjoys the privilege of representing folks who a re responsible for essential areas of public safety and economically necessary functions.
But in light of what’s coming down the pipe, many of these issues will be decided in the halls (or more likely back door rooms) of congress and potentially in the court of public opinion. Two things you can do to help. Give generously to the NATCA PAC. If the saying “give to the PAC like your job depends on it … because it does” was mostly true before, it is without a doubt absolutely and factually true now. I don’t care if you are republican or democrat, spend-easy or tight wad, grizzled veteran or new developmental, so much is depending now on our maintaining a strong political presence and we need to grow the PAC much more. Secondly, in the future we will come to you for grassroots efforts to educate and enlighten the public on your issues. Be ready to volunteer the time to help.
On the plus side, it looks as if provisions concerning new overtime regulations and an easing of A76 requirements in favor of businesses have both been removed from the big omnibus bill working it’s way through congress. This won’t be the last you hear of these issues but it’s on hold for the moment.
The following articles should be of interest. One is a congressman’s take on why the FAA is dragging their feet so much on hiring new controllers. The other is quotes from a speech by Administrator Blakey which are sobering. Please read them, be prepared to act and also try your best to have a good week.
Grant Anderson
DeFazio Links Privatization to Staffing Issue
Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., the ranking member of the House Aviation Subcommittee who spoke out passionately against privatization last year, says he sees that issue re-emerging as the "hidden agenda" in the Federal Aviation Administration's failure to address the staffing crisis with new hires.
DeFazio, in comments printed by The Register-Guard of Eugene, Ore., in a story about controller retirements at Eugene Tower, noted that the Bush Administration's fiscal 2005 budget request did not provide for any replacement controllers.
"They've been dragging their feet, and the only thing I can figure is they'll run us up to a wall and say, `Hey, we have a problem here,' " DeFazio said. "Then they'll use that as an excuse to contract out air traffic controller jobs."
DeFazio also predicted the FAA would have a hard time selling Congress on a reduced training period for controllers and extending the mandatory retirement age past 56.
Aviation Week & Space Technology (11/15/04):
Money Talk
Setting the stage for potentially stormy labor negotiations during the second half of her five-year term as FAA administrator, Marion Blakey tells employees in a satellite-phone broadcast that their pay structure is out of whack and, when measurable against the private sector, increasingly higher than the market. Blaming "agreements negotiated before I got here"--under her predecessor, Jane Garvey--Blakey says employees are treated differently. Among nonunion employees, this year's market study on pay shows the agency's personnel receive 11.4% more than "the industry rate," compared with an 8.2% premium a year earlier. A few technical and engineering jobs are "well below market," but these are the exceptions and no one should expect across-the-board increases. The aviation trust fund is generating less money for the agency and general-fund appropriations are harder to get, even as airlines use smaller aircraft and the FAA's workload increases. The message to the National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. and other unions is simple: The FAA "cannot and will not sign something we can't afford."
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