Against the Wind - National Air Traffic Controllers Association

timely advancement of new-hires. Rick Jones and
others in the room agreed that the only way they
could try to change the new policy, along with other
issues, was through a labor union.
Philosophical deliberation quickly turned tactical:
Who could lead their embryonic group? For
president, Jones suggested Jack Crouse, an Air Force
veteran who had worked at Rochester Tower and
Baltimore Approach before transferring to the center
about six weeks before the strike. Easygoing and
articulate, Crouse seemed like a good choice and the
controllers appointed him without
bothering to vote.
They also agreed on Charlie
Bolling for vice president and a
tall, heavyset controller named Mike
Scott, who’d previously worked at
Chicago Center, for treasurer. For secretary,
they prevailed on John Bentley,
a Washington Center mainstay since
1970 who was perfectly suited for the
position. He owned a key tool of the
trade—a RadioShack TRS-80 ® computer.
With that settled, a new question arose: What
should they call themselves? Someone suggested
PATCA, replacing “Organization” with “Association.”
Crouse shook his head. Too close to PATCO, he said.
Someone else proposed NATCO, and the wheels be-
5
Nov.
The FAA announces it will consider specially qualified air traffic controller
applicants who are 31 to 35 years old, waiving the previous age limit of
gan turning. The Air Traffic Control Association still
existed, so ATCA was ruled out. But what if they added
the word “National” in front of it?
The group made no decision that day, but they
soon adopted the name National Air Traffic Controllers
Association, despite their intention to form a
single-facility union. The organizers created simple
membership cards and those who joined contributed
whatever they could afford each month. NATCA’s
founders wanted to get back with the AFL-CIO, as
their predecessor
union had
been. But they
learned the
vast labor organization
was
not accepting
unions
directly. Instead,
NAT-
CA would
need to join
through an AFL-CIO affiliate.
Undeterred, NATCA contacted the American
Federation of Government Employees, which represented
about 750,000 workers employed by sixtyseven
agencies and the District of Columbia. The controllers’
issues were all too familiar to organizer John
Thornton, whom AFGE had hired a year earlier.
Chapter 3: A Long and Winding Road
31. The change applies to the November 8-30 application period and any
other application periods through 1984.
47
New union: Within six months of its
founding, two-thirds of Washington Center
controllers had signed a petition supporting
the proposed labor organization.