Against the Wind - National Air Traffic Controllers Association

1998
5
Sep.
I want you to understand how important
this is to us. In order to show how much
it means to us, I guarantee that when
your business is done your flights home
are going to get out on time.”
A Growing Family
NATCA holds its seventh biennial convention at the Westin Hotel in Seattle.
Delegates revise the national seniority system. Previously, members
who went into staff or management positions lost all seniority; now, they
The direct affiliation came as NAT-
CA began to embrace other FAA workers
in the union. Interest in expanding
membership dated
to 1990, when
NATCA unionizedcontrollers
at Cherry
Point Marine
Corps Air Station.
It had also
recently started to reorganize towers run
by private contractors. In 1994, NATCA
stepped outside its active controller
ranks for the first time by seeking to organize
traffic management coordinators.
Although 62 percent of the TMCs who
voted rejected the move, they later reconsidered
and joined in May 2000. *
The formal decision to expand representation
occurred at the 1996 conven-
Chapter 6: Spreading its Wings
191
Bob Taylor: NATCA’s labor relations director,
a former Eastern Airlines employee
and official with the International Association
of Machinists and Aerospace Workers,
has seen the union’s bargaining units
grow from two to twenty. / NATCA archives
AFL-CIO charter: The labor organization
prefers to absorb new unions as affiliates
of existing entities. However, it granted
NATCA direct affiliation in 1998. / Japphire
* Traffic management coordinators are
controllers who work in centers, TRACONs,
towers, and the FAA’s Command Center.
Their mission is to minimize airborne delays
by monitoring the weather, runway capacity
at major hub airports, and other factors.
When necessary, the coordinators adjust
traffic flows by temporarily holding planes at
their point of departure, which is known as a
“ground stop,” and through other means.
will lose only the amount of time they spend outside the bargaining unit.
Delegates also allow the engineers and architects a seat on the National
Executive Board, and authorize the board to buy an office building.