Against the Wind - National Air Traffic Controllers Association

ment, which increasingly leaned on the decimated
work force to move more metal.
The pressure cooker atmosphere was often brutal
for trainees, half of whom washed out. Walking on
eggshells trying to please their instructors, they frequented
the local T.G.I. Friday’s and other watering
holes, hoping to pass muster with the FPLs in an
initiation rite to certification.
The atmosphere also helped spawn close
friendships and a hotbed of unionism that
brought together such activists as Phil Barbarello,
Steve Bell, Joe Fruscella, Steve Kelley, and
Joe O’Brien, all of whom worked in the Newark
sector, and Barry Krasner over in the LaGuardia
area. *
George Kerr was now on the boards at the TRA-
CON, too, working in the Islip sector. After losing his
re-election bid as the Eastern Region vice president
for PATCO, he left office a month before the strike.
Kerr suffered from hepatitis A, a condition that prevented
him from passing the FAA’s medical exam, his
ticket back to the boards. Consequently, he watched
sadly from home as thousands of fellow union members
forfeited their careers.
By the time he recuperated, PATCO had been
decertified. With the help of the FAA Eastern Region
director and the agency’s head of labor relations, who
respected Kerr’s honesty and even-handedness, he
was rehired in September 1982.
Fall
The FAA institutes Structured Staffing at its centers. The program limits
the number of radar controllers, which delays training for new-hires and
increases overtime for journeymen. Structured Staffing also gives priority
Kerr immediately saw that little had changed
within the FAA. He also felt a certain debt over getting
his job back. “I’m a trade unionist and I do believe
in this thing called the brotherhood,” he says.
When new controllers sought his advice
on workplace issues, he offered
it freely.
Krasner, O’Brien, and others
had learned about NATCA
at Washington Center. Frustrated
by the ineffectiveness
of the TRACON’s Human Relations
Council, they heeded
Kerr’s whispered suggestions
about organizing and held a meeting
for controllers in early 1984 at the
Westbury Holiday Inn. Only a handful of people
showed up, but the group was determined to move
forward. They appointed O’Brien and Krasner as
president and vice president, respectively, of an organization
with no formal name.
Krasner, who grew up in Flushing, New York,
had quit high school five months before graduation
(he later earned his GED) and served as a surveillance
radar controller on a guided missile frigate in
the Atlantic. After his discharge from the Navy, he
attended electronics school and opened a shop with
a friend. But the business relationship soured and he
drifted along selling electronics parts. By the time of
Chapter 3: A Long and Winding Road
for on-the-job training to controllers with college credits regardless of
previous ATC experience. The FAA dissolves Structured Staffing in June
1984, but it leads some frustrated controllers to thoughts of a union.
51
Joe O’Brien: The former Navy controller
was 22 when he started at New York
TRACON in February 1982. Two years
later, he was appointed the facility’s first
local president. / Courtesy of Howie Barte
* In spring 2002, New York TRACON boasted
100 percent membership in NATCA. With
250 controllers and fourteen traffic management
specialists, it was the largest such local
in the country. Chicago Center ranked as the
local with the most members—400.