Against the Wind - National Air Traffic Controllers Association

he instructed them to “let McCain feel the pain.” Krasner
included McCain’s phone and fax numbers. Board
members forwarded the information to hundreds of
facility representatives. The local union presidents, reinforced
by an army of grass-roots activists organized
by the National Legislative Committee, quickly jammed
the senator’s phone lines.
“They shut down McCain’s office with incoming
calls,” Montoya recalls.
At the eleventh hour, McCain gave his okay to
Hatfield. On the afternoon of Friday, March 29, the
last business day before NATCA would lose its very
essence, Congress passed a continuing resolution that
included three special items: aid for Bosnia, Midwest
flood relief, and restoration of Chapter 71 rights.
Montoya awaited the outcome while pacing in
a staff room in the Hart Senate Office Building. The
moment he saw a fax showing the approved resolution,
he called Krasner.
“It’s done,” he said.
Shortly after, NATCA pagers across the nation
started beeping.
“It was the most beautiful of all beautiful turns
of events,” says Ruth Marlin, who served as chairwoman
of the National Legislative Committee in
1996 and was later elected executive vice president.
“We effectively used the legislation designed to cripple
us to get everything we ever wanted.”
McCain’s FAA Reauthorization Act became
Oct. Oct.
The FAA develops a structured system for implementing Critical
Incident Stress Debriefing, which was provided for under
Article 74 of the 1993 NATCA/FAA contract.
law the following October. As his staff members had
promised, it included the “shall negotiate” language.
During the four months that NATCA fought for
its survival on Capitol Hill, the union simultaneously
engaged in another massive effort to help reinvent
the FAA under the congressionally mandated reform.
Along with NAATS and PASS—the other two groups
in the Aviation Labor Coalition—NATCA and the
agency created task forces to discuss virtually every
aspect of personnel procedures, from pay and leave
policies to training to disciplinary actions.
Information from these meetings at agency
headquarters flowed into a command post at the
end of a maze of corridors on the second floor of
the Mayflower Hotel, two blocks from the national
office. The “back room” was crammed with tables,
computers, a photocopier, and a crew consisting of
NATCA members Carol Branaman, Jon Ramsden,
Joe Trainor, and then-Labor Relations Director
Richard Gordon.
They consolidated the data, researched employee
practices at other companies, and prepared
proposals for a new FAA. All of their material was
collected in a thick, black notebook known as “the
football,” which someone monitored at all times. The
football never left the room.
The group submitted several dozen suggested
reforms to the union and disbanded on April 1. Krasner,
McNally, and Montoya spent the summer hag-
Chapter 5: The Art of the Deal
159
NATCA members
prepared proposals
for a new FAA. All
of their material was
collected in a thick
black notebook known
as “the football,” which
someone monitored at
all times.
Former Western-Pacific Region Vice President Karl Grundmann
starts work as a liaison at FAA headquarters. This new program
enables NATCA to better represent its interests in the agency.