Against the Wind - National Air Traffic Controllers Association

20
1981
Against the Wind
2
Feb.
needs were. It was all in personal needs as far as careers,”
he says. “The most enjoyable times were when
we were without a manager.”
Fifteen years later, the same issues would
motivate Landry, Gilbert, and many others to form
NATCA, and offer persuasive arguments for attracting
widespread interest in the new union.
Back in 1967, frustration
finally led to action.
O’Hare Tower/TRACON
controllers were exhausted
from working manda-
tory overtime and angry
that premium pay was
based on a lower scale,
meaning they earned less
than normal for the extra
hours.
After the FAA denied
their request for a special
raise, the controllers staged
a work-to-rule slowdown
by strictly adhering to legal separation standards,
which they often winked at with management’s tacit
approval to minimize traffic backups. Chicago’s central
location and its status as an airline hub caused
delays to radiate nationwide.
Chastened, the FAA granted the controllers
three step-increases on the government’s GS—Gen-
The FAA commissions the first Direct Access Radar Channel at Salt Lake
Center. Raytheon Company developed DARC as a backup system to
eral Schedule—pay scale, equal to a $1,100 annual
raise. To stave off requests at other facilities, the
agency maintained that only O’Hare merited the extra
money because of Chicago’s high cost of living, its
staff shortage, and difficulty in attracting transfers.
Controllers elsewhere objected to the distinction.
They argued for a comprehensive policy change
that became a battle cry
for PATCO and NATCA
over the next thirty years.
Namely, that compensation
should be based
“
on complexity of operations
and not merely the
number of takeoffs and
landings.
Atlanta and Chicago
controllers jointly
crafted a formula to reclassify
all facilities and
sought signatures from
a majority of the work
force to pressure the FAA into upgrading salaries
across the board—a plan they dubbed “Operation
Snowman.”
Although the petition drive fizzled, the effort
ignited a desire to create a national group to represent
controllers’ interests. In the fall of 1967, two
NAGE local presidents—Jack Maher at New York
We were lectured to rather
than consulted with. The
people who made the rules
never pushed tin.
— Lebanon Tower controller Dave Landry
be used during failures and scheduled maintenance of the primary radar
system.