Against the Wind - National Air Traffic Controllers Association

96
1987
Against the Wind
7
Sep.
Coalition, joined by Northwest Mountain, hosted a
combined hospitality suite. A fully stocked bar covered
a credenza that ran the length of one wall. After
the convention, Central Regional Rep Dan Brandt
paid the hefty room and bar tab with a credit card.
Thornton, who approved expense reports, gulped
deeply before reimbursing Brandt.
The upcoming national election dominated
conversations in the war rooms. Nominations
opened in another week, voting would take place in
the spring, and results would be tallied in July.
Many union members viewed Steve Bell as the
heir apparent for president. Seven months before,
on the day the FLRA tabulated the votes to certify
NATCA, he’d announced his candidacy to the others
on the board. The 35-year-old preacher’s son was an
inspirational speaker, had gained visibility during
NATCA’s formation, and enjoyed a powerful political
base rooted at New York TRACON.
Karl Grundmann from Los Angeles TRACON
had been perceived as a contender for political office
as far back as NATCA’s founding convention.
Tall, astute, and at ease in front of a crowd, 34-yearold
Grundmann became Kelly Candaele’s leading
spokesman during organizing on the West Coast.
He was seen as a natural candidate for executive
vice president.
Fred Gilbert, an early NATCA stalwart from
Chicago Center, and Ray Spickler, the Kansas City
Eastern Regional Representative Steve Bell and other controllers
in the New York area appear on behalf of NATCA in the
city’s traditional Labor Day parade.
The Bell / Grundmann Ticket
native of Maryland, Karl Grundmann
A quit high school—”before I got asked to
leave”—to join the Navy in 1977. He served as
an aviation bosun’s mate at Lemoore Naval Air
Station, south of Fresno, where he befriended
the tower crew and then trained as an air
traffic controller. After the FAA hired him two
years later, he worked briefly at Sacramento
Tower and was certifying at Burbank Tower/
TRACON when the strike countdown began.
As luck would have it, Lemoore needed
radar controllers. Grundmann’s old commander
called to offer him a civilian transfer
to the Defense Department, a five-level bump
on the GS pay scale if he accepted the job.
Grundmann took the offer and subsequently
sidestepped the difficult decision of whether
to strike. Three weeks after the walkout, the
FAA rehired him at Burbank.
“It was very uncomfortable for a while
to walk past the picket line,” Grundmann
says. “But I believed the FAA. All I heard was
‘we’re going to take care of you.’ ”
Before long, though, the ten-hour, sixday
weeks began to grate. Grundmann also
took exception to the FAA’s public pronouncements
that the air traffic system was returning
to normal. “All it would have taken would
have been one major accident, one controller