Against the Wind - National Air Traffic Controllers Association

56
Against the Wind
Donna Gropper: Since the FAA hired her
in 1975, Gropper has worked in numerous
union and management positions. She is
now air traffic manager at Orlando Tower/
TRACON. Workers and management laud
her collaborative philosophy. / Japphire
* PATCO’s bargaining unit included automation
specialists, who maintain the software
programs that run radarscopes and other
equipment at FAA facilities. They logically
became involved in efforts for a new union.
1984
May
ters who kept him on the go and a half-built addition
in the back of his home waiting to be finished, Barte
declined. “All I wanted was a contract,” he says. “I
didn’t want to be a leader. I didn’t have time to get
involved.”
Thornton then asked Gropper, who agreed.
Like Barte, she had been involved in
PATCO as the secretary and vice
president of the union local at
Mac Arthur TRACAB (a combined
tower and TRACON)
on Long Island. However,
Barte, a passionate, driven
individual who could
not stand idly on the
sidelines, called Thornton
back. “We’ll give
you two for the price of
one,” he said. “We’ll be
co-reps.”
Throughout the
summer, the two arduously
mounted their drive
for signatures, quickly turning
petitions over to AFGE from the
four facilities that attended the May meeting as well
as others in New England. During all of their spare
time, Barte burned up the phone lines making contacts
while Gropper tapped a staccato beat on their
AFGE files a petition with the FLRA to form NATCA at Washington Center.
The petition is signed by 214 controllers, about two-thirds of those
working in Leesburg, Virginia. In June, AFGE also files petitions for Atlanta
Royal typewriter crafting a monthly newsletter to
spread the gospel.
On October 22, 1984, AFGE filed a petition on
behalf of all facilities in New England, making it the
first region to seek an election for a union. The bargaining
unit would represent about 665 controllers,
automation specialists, and air traffic assistants. *
“It really took fire in the Northeast,” recalls
Gropper, who later moved into several management
positions along the Eastern Seaboard
before assuming her current job as air traffic
manager at Orlando Tower/TRACON. “But I
was amazed by how the rest of the country
came through pretty quickly, too. It
was a grass-roots effort.”
By this time, AFGE had filed petitions
from twenty-eight facilities and organizing
had branched out into Kansas,
Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and as far
away as Alaska.
A Damaging Rift
Even as the controllers celebrated reaching
a major milestone in New England, several brewing
problems threatened their momentum.
In Atlanta, the Riley brothers disliked AFGE’s
policy of making their proposed union a council
rather than a separate affiliate. “We have different
Center, and New York Center and TRACON for a union called the
American Air Traffic Controllers Council (AATCC). NFFE files for unions
at control towers in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and Bradley, Connecticut.