Against the Wind - National Air Traffic Controllers Association

NATCA approached the organization in early 1998.
“The entire direction of the council and the AF
of L-CIO was to bring existing organizations into bigger
organizations, so this flew in the face of all of those
resolutions that had been passed previously,” says John
Leyden, who was director of the organization’s Public
Employee Department and sat on its Executive Council.
History provided both an obstacle for NATCA
to overcome and a persuasive argument in favor of its
recognition. A three-member special committee on
AFL-CIO national charters expressed concern about
the PATCO strike and its effect on organized labor.
They wanted assurances from President McNally, Executive
Vice President Randy Schwitz, and Osborne
that NATCA did not intend to repeat history. But the
committee was also mindful of what NATCA had
achieved during its short tenure.
“Unquestionably, the mass discharge of the
PATCO strikers near the beginning of Ronald Reagan’s
administration represented one of the most
shameful acts of union-busting by our federal government
in the past several decades,” the committee
stated in its report.
The panel credited NATCA and MEBA with
helping to ensure that “the air traffic controllers’
legacy has not been quietly forgotten, that it remains
a symbol warning the labor movement against complacency
and against forgetting that an attack on
one union is an attack on all.”
28
Aug.
NATCA and the FAA sign an unprecedented five-year, $1.6 billion collective
bargaining agreement after negotiating for nearly a year. The new pact
includes a ten-tier pay reclassification system that had been under devel-
A month after NATCA appeared before the
committee to present its case, the AFL-CIO Executive
Council agreed to accept the union as a direct
affiliate. “It was the right thing to do. I think [AFL-
CIO President John] Sweeney saw the wisdom,” says
Leyden, who lobbied on NATCA’s behalf. “That’s going
to be a monumental step for them to stay in the
house of labor.”
Bob Taylor, a frequent visitor at the George
Meany Center for Labor Studies when NATCA held
its facility rep training there, often watched workers
from other unions nearly come to blows with controllers
over misunderstandings about PATCO and its
successor.
“With the direct affiliation,
the distinction of NATCA
as a scab union has been laid
to rest,” he says.
At a meeting later that
spring in Las Vegas, the AFL-
CIO presented NATCA with its
cherished independent charter.
McNally approached the podium to accept it
and told Sweeney, “You understand how much this
means to us.”
“I understand,” Sweeney responded. “But I’ve
got a big agenda, Mike. Make it quick.”
McNally thanked the audience and said: “I understand
you have a lot of important work to do here.
Chapter 6: Spreading its Wings
opment since 1992. Members voted 8,219 to 747 in favor of the contract, a
92 percent margin. The contract takes effect September 15, 1998.
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