Against the Wind - National Air Traffic Controllers Association

one each to the remaining five. In a fiery speech to the
delegates, Kansas City Center controller Ray Spickler,
from the four-state Central Region, contended the
divisive move would pit large facilities and regions
against small ones. Delegates rejected the measure.
They also considered a Southern Region resolution
to consolidate NATCA’s nine regions, which
mirrored the FAA’s, into seven, as PATCO had done. *
“We were really looking for an efficient organization.
It didn’t make sense to have nine regions and it still
doesn’t,” Krasner says now.
Today, many agree that NATCA and the FAA
would be better off with just three or four matching
regions—or even a single national entity—to reduce
overhead costs and foster more unity. “We’ve perfected
the FAA model to an art form and we really need
to stop doing that,” says Carol Branaman, who was
elected Northwest Mountain Region vice president in
2000. “If I had my way, we wouldn’t have a bunch of
regional anything. It would be different.”
But in 1988 in Atlanta, some delegates viewed
the move as a power play among the larger regions.
Representatives from Alaskan, Central, and New England—they
were loosely known as the Small Region
Coalition—sent letters opposing the proposal to all facilities.
“We feel that by limiting NATCA to only a few
regions, all controllers will not get the proper representation
they deserve, and that there will exist certain
internal power structures that helped destroy PATCO,”
22
July
T. Allan McArtor takes over as FAA administrator from Donald Engen,
who resigned twenty days earlier. McArtor logged 200 combat missions
in Vietnam, winning the Silver Star and Distinguished Flying Cross. He also
Alaskan Regional Rep Will Faville Jr. wrote.
The proposed amendment was withdrawn,
though not before Barte threatened to pull New England
delegates out of the convention.
The First National Election
Heavy lobbying ensued in the hotel’s bars and
regional “war rooms,” which were making their first
appearance at a NATCA function. The Small Region
Chapter 4: The House that NATCA Built
Honorary Lifetime Members
FYI
John F. Thornton 1988 NATCA nat’l. organizer, sr. leg. affairs director
John F. Leyden 1992 PATCO president 1970-80
James Breen 1994 New England regional representative 1988-92
Robert D. Taylor 1994 Director of labor relations
Richard Swauger 1996 National technology coordinator
Cathy Meachum 2000 NATCA Charitable Foundation co-founder
Emeritus Members
Gary Molen 1994 Northwest Mountain Region VP emeritus
Ed Mullin 1994 Southwest Region VP emeritus
Barry Krasner 1996 National president emeritus
Michael McNally 2000 National president emeritus
flew with the Air Force Thunderbirds for two years. McArtor worked
for Federal Express Corporation for eight years until his appointment as
administrator.
95
* Under the proposal, New England Region
would be consolidated into Eastern. Central
and a renamed Western Region would absorb
Northwest Mountain states, and several
other realignments would occur west of the
Mississippi River. A new Pacific Region would
include Alaska, Hawaii, and U.S. territories in
the South Pacific.