Against the Wind - National Air Traffic Controllers Association

224
Against the Wind
FYI
Until 1998, the FAA
ranked its towers and TRA-
CONs on a five-tier scale
according to traffic volume.
Level V was reserved for
the busiest facilities. En
route centers were ranked
on a different three-level
scale, and controllers at the
busiest facilities were paid
the same as those at Level V
towers and TRACONs.
Level I VFR (Visual
Flight Rules) towers were
not equipped with radar
and handled general aviation
traffic in good weather only.
Under the reclassification
plan adopted by the
FAA in 1998, all facilities are
now ranked from ATC-4 to
ATC-12 based on traffic volume
and operational complexity.
Two higher grades—
ATC-13 and -14—were built
into the scale to accommodate
future growth.
2001
agreement with the FAA
to implement the Direct
Placement Program.
“It was a victory for
the people. It was a loss for
the union,” says Krasner,
who regards the issue as
the one key failure of his
presidency.
A twelve-member
Level I Contracting Committee,
composed equally
of FAA managers and
union representatives, was
formed to carry out the
program. The agency gave
NATCA some latitude by
allowing it to recommend
which facilities would be
transferred to private operators
each year.
Although the program was hailed as a success
for the controllers involved, the overall toll on
the union is represented by what its members call
the “Wall of Shame.” Covering one side of the main
conference room on the fifth floor of NATCA headquarters
are the local charters of 101 towers that were
once unionized but have since been contracted out.
Another thirty-four privately run towers have been
Jan. Jan.
The FLRA certifies NATCA as the exclusive bargaining representative
for the FAA’s 50 regional and center counsel.
4
20
Japphire
Wall of Shame: Union charters from towers that have been contracted out to private firms hang in a
conference room at NATCA headquarters. The union has reorganized thirty-four contract towers.
reorganized by NATCA. Unless it’s absolutely necessary,
Krasner won’t enter the room.
“I just can’t look at it,” he says. “It eats me
alive.”
One of Krasner’s fears about the Direct Placement
Program reared its head not long after the
remaining towers went private, posing a significant
challenge to NATCA’s future. In 1998, Congress directed
the FAA to study the feasibility of expanding
Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater leaves office after
serving since February 14, 1997.