Against the Wind - National Air Traffic Controllers Association

week. Under PATCO, it had been three weeks. And
developmentals had to check out on at least two control
positions before receiving FAM trip privileges;
PATCO trainees received the benefit immediately.
NATCA made one significant improvement
over PATCO. The FAA
agreed to grant regional
representatives 50 percent
of official time off
to conduct their duties.
PATCO board members
who took leave to serve
the union did so without
pay from the agency.
“The contract is not
a panacea. However, it goes
well beyond a start,” Great
Lakes Regional Representative
Joseph Bellino said. 2
Half of the union
contract team joined Bell and Spickler on different segments
of a tour to twenty-three cities to sell the pact to
the rank and file. The group found itself repeatedly defending
a clause that appeared frequently throughout
the document: “if operational conditions permit.” Controllers
worried that the phrase diluted their rights. But
without it—in connection with guaranteed breaks, for
example—an arbitrator could rule that the article in
question was unenforceable and, therefore, void.
“
The contract is not
a panacea. However, it goes
well beyond a start.
— Great Lakes Regional Rep Joseph Bellino
The costly briefing tour helped educate the members.
But with little cash to spare in the union, it drew
criticism from some who accused NATCA’s top officers
of wasting thousands of dollars on what they dubbed
“Steve and Ray’s Excellent Adventure,” paraphrasing the
title from a popular Hollywood
film that year.
Regardless, union
members overwhelmingly
approved of the
contract. The three-year
pact took effect May 1,
1989, after they ratified
it by a vote of 3,920 to
748—a margin of 84
percent. Subsequent contracts
would strengthen
and expand controllers’
rights. For now, NATCA
founders and activists
who’d spent more than five years creating their union
and securing its first collective bargaining agreement
basked in an enormous sense of accomplishment.
Power Struggles
“Steve and Ray’s Excellent Adventure” was one
of many skirmishes over money and control that
beset the first National Executive Board. Having run
Oct. Jan.
An initiation fee takes effect after a major organizing drive in
which more than 2,000 controllers join NATCA. Membership is 1991
19
about 10,600—or more than 70 percent of the work force.
13
Chapter 5: The Art of the Deal
129
The negotiators: President Steve Bell,
right, and Ray Thoman, the FAA’s deputy
director of labor and employee relations,
went head to head during talks on the
union’s first contract. / Stan Barough
An 8 percent pay raise called an “interim geographic adjustment”
is given to 5,933 FAA employees at facilities in the New
York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco areas.