Against the Wind - National Air Traffic Controllers Association

sole financial commitment to the campaign (in addition
to Barte’s regular long-distance phone bill). Fed
up with the lack of support and its effect on the pace
of organizing, Barte began contacting other unions to
solicit their backing. Thornton, who stayed in touch
with key activists while collecting unemployment,
worked the phone, too.
The Communications
Workers of America
sounded eager to help,
but would offer funding
only after controllers had
collected the requisite
30 percent of signatures.
With a work force of
about 12,500 controllers,
that amounted to 3,750
names, an expensive
proposition.
Officials at the
American Federation of
State, County and Municipal
Employees, the
American Federation of Teachers, and the Teamsters
all responded, “We’ll get back to you,” and never did.
MEBA President Clayton E. “Gene” DeFries sounded
the same refrain. Growing despondent, Barte wrote
off the former PATCO organizer.
In late October 1985, leaf-peeping season had
1985
13
Nov.
come and gone in New England, and winter coats
were in style again. The white and scrub pine tree
needles carpeting Barte’s back yard seemed to symbolize
more than a passing season. Barte gloomily
figured the frost that had stalled the organizing effort
was about to kill it in a deep freeze.
Suddenly, there was
a thaw. At three o’clock one
afternoon, his phone rang.
DeFries informed him that
“
MEBA would organize the
controllers, but the news
could not be made public
until December 2. An ecstatic
Barte agreed to keep quiet.
In mid-November,
Thornton and ten activists
met with AFGE’s David
— MEBA President Gene DeFries Kushner in Alexandria,
Virginia. AFGE had spent
about $250,000 and was
limited in how much more it
could do, Kushner warned.
He talked about a national organizing committee and
another mailing. But the withering support prompted
growing disenchantment from several people sitting
around the table, including Barte, who knew this
would be AFGE’s last meeting with them.
The curtain was coming down.
Let me emphasize that this
new air traffic controllers’
organization will indeed be
new. It will not be a disguised
rebirth of the old PATCO.
ABC News devotes its program “Nightline” to ATC, representing the first
major TV broadcast about the topic since the strike ended. Howie Barte
challenges FAA Administrator Donald Engen’s contention that the FAA is
Chapter 3: A Long and Winding Road
67
sufficiently staffed with controllers and says management hasn’t changed
since the strike. Joe O’Brien from New York TRACON and two unidentified
controllers also appear on the program, along with Rep. Guy Molinari.