Against the Wind - National Air Traffic Controllers Association

48
1983
Against the Wind
4
Jan.
A fired striker, Thornton had been out of work
until early 1982. He and his family survived on his
wife’s nursing salary until he picked up a job selling
insurance, although he continued to lobby Capitol
Hill to get the strikers rehired. Several months later,
John Leyden told Thornton about the job at AFGE
and he soon found himself working happily for the
largest federal employee union in the country.
But when his boss approached him about
organizing the Washington Center controllers—he
was the only PATCO member on staff—Thornton
resisted.
“I didn’t want to do it,” he says. “These were
people who had replaced me. I had a lot of baggage
to get over.” Wrestling with his emotions, Thornton
finally recognized the wisdom of helping after Leyden
said to him, “There’s no way the government will
allow fired controllers to be rehired unless they’re
unionized.”
One evening in December 1983, as Thornton
headed toward the door at AFGE headquarters on his
way to meet some of the Leesburg organizers, union
President Ken Blaylock caught his eye and stopped
him. “Now, John, when you get there, you tell those
people that AFGE was the only union to support
PATCO. Make sure they know that,” Blaylock said.
Thornton nodded politely. He knew the NAT-
CA contingent would never respond to that type of
message and suddenly realized how little the clerical
The FAA increases requirements for on-the-job instructors.
They must be certified on the position they are training, worked
it for at least 30 solo hours, and been certified as an instructor.
A Face from the Past
After serving as a controller in the Air
Force for eight years—including a year at
Phan Rang Air Base in Vietnam—John Thornton
joined the FAA in 1973 at Washington
National Tower/TRACON.
He ran for president of the PATCO local
three years later while still a trainee. His
brother-in-law, Victor Padgett, an FPL at the
facility, tossed his name in the ring, too, telling
Thornton, “I didn’t think anyone should
run unopposed.”
But Padgett cast his ballot for Thornton,
who won by a single vote.
Tall, soft-spoken, and professional,
Thornton distinguished himself as a union
leader at the facility and as a voting representative
at several PATCO conventions, speaking
for towers and TRACONs from Pittsburgh
south to Richmond and Roanoke, Virginia.
With a young daughter at home, the
36-year-old father worried about the health
consequences of his job. He couldn’t bear to
endure the same fate as a friend a few years
older who’d suffered a heart attack and was no
longer able to pick up his children. Thornton
joined the chorus for a strike in hopes of gaining
a better retirement and shorter workweek.
Like other notables in PATCO, his
activism attracted unwanted attention. He