Against the Wind - National Air Traffic Controllers Association

Chapter 5
The Art of the Deal
Seated on one side of a long table in a narrow hotel conference room in
Washington, D.C., Ray Thoman, the FAA’s deputy director of labor and
employee relations, slid a proposed collective bargaining agreement
across to a clean-shaven, fair-haired man with wire-rimmed glasses.
NATCA President Steve Bell let the proposal
rest on the table and looked Thoman in the eye. Barry
Krasner and union contract team Co-Chairman Mark
Kutch, who flanked Bell, watched and waited. This
meeting on November 16, 1988, represented the first
bargaining talks between a controllers’ union and the
agency in more than seven years. NATCA had rehearsed
this moment, and Bell responded on cue.
“Thank you very much,” he said. “We know
how hard you must have worked on this. We’d like
to work off ours.” Bell then slid a thicker document
across the table.
Thoman, broad-shouldered with black hair
and a graying beard, smiled politely. “I thank you for
your efforts. It was obviously a lot of work,” he said.
“But it is a sophomoric attempt because of your lack
of expertise in this area.” 1
Thoman’s comment was not entirely off the
mark. The NATCA reps in the room, including Bell,
were controllers—not businessmen. Nevertheless,
they clearly understood the historic nature of this
gathering and their responsibility of helping to ensure
the well being of more than 13,000 families.
They’d prepared as if this were the Super Bowl.
The union’s ten-member contract team had
been carefully chosen to represent a balance of terminals
and centers across the regions. They’d attended
a two-day seminar on negotiating skills conducted
by the American Arbitration Association. They’d
also spent two intensive weeks at MEBA’s expansive,
colonial-style training facility in Easton, Maryland,
working up proposals.
NATCA’s first contract: Built on the
foundation of PATCO’s last agreement, the
1989 pact also broke new ground.