Against the Wind - National Air Traffic Controllers Association

expressed interest in running.
“It clicked for me
right away,” he says. “I
felt that the union needed
to promote women
and minorities better.
This was just a middleaged
white guy’s organization.
We needed a
different perspective at
the table.”
Called a visionary by
some of her colleagues, Branaman authored a paper
proposing the adoption of professional standards.
“It’s a theory by which peer assessment is much more
effective than the top-down hierarchy that we’ve
got going,” she says. “You have to function in teams,
teams who care about one another and who are responsible
for one another.”
While some see the value of the proposal,
Branaman thinks it was introduced before its time:
“It takes the union into a gray area. It’s uncomfortable
for people. But it’s where we’re going, where we
have to go.”
2000
11
Oct.
Former Southwest Regional Rep Ed Mullin,
an early proponent of professional standards, agrees.
“We’ve never been good at the inward look. It’s easier
to blame the agency,” he says. “If we’re professional
about it, we need to deal with it. It’s arrogant and
stupid to ignore it.”
1. Sharn, Lori. 1990. Air controllers face long-standing problem. USA Today. 13
April, final edition.
2. 1991. TCAS installation should cease indefinitely until the system’s flaws are
ironed out. NATCA Newsletter. October.
3. 1993. Unnecessary altitude deviations due to TCAS are increasing, wreaking
havoc on the air traffic control environment. NATCA Newsletter. February.
4. Weintraub, Richard. 1994. FAA grounds two key parts of big computer
project. The Washington Post. 4 June, final edition.
5. 1997. NARI receives more than $1 million in grants. The Air Traffic Controller.
September.
6. Miller, John M., and Saffle Jr., Charles F. 1996. The JOVIAL/MIL-STD-1750A
Integrated Tool Set.
7. 1989. IFATCA ’89. NATCA Newsletter. June.
8. Shorrock, Tim. 1996. Ex-MEBA president gets five-year sentence. Journal of
Commerce. 30 January.
9. 1996. 1996 convention propels NATCA into the future. Radar Contact.
October.
10. Ibid.
The FLRA certifies NATCA as the exclusive bargaining representative for
FAA employees in the Logistics, Finance, and Computer Support divisions
in the Alaskan Region.
Chapter 6: Spreading its Wings
219
Carol Branaman: Women served on the
union’s National Executive Board for the
first time in 2000. Branaman, a controller
since 1975, was elected Northwest Mountain
Region vice president. / NATCA archives