Will NATCA and the FAA extend the contract?

[Move78]

I wouldn't be basing my decision to leave NATCA on the lack of day 1 raise, but rather the complete lack trying when it comes to garnering support from the public and FAA leadership on matters of pay and staffing.

That October 18th NATCA email that explicitly excludes mentioning pay particularly infuriated me: "This year, IFATCA’s theme is "Invest in People: The Future of ATM." At NATCA, we couldn’t agree more. Proper staffing, benefits, working conditions, and training is vital to maintain the safety of the flying public."

NATCA has allowed the public to grow more angry at us and rage at predominantly fake problems (DEI, anyone?), instead of ensuring they understand that the incidents they are seeing are mostly attributable to fatigue, lack of staffing, and a decline in overall mental health (if you're struggling with the price of eggs, I can't imagine it's easy to focus at work... not to mention housing costs).

We needed to be on top of this a year and a half ago, and more and more I'm understanding that ALL leadership... both on the FAA and Union side... DO. NOT. GIVE. A. FUCK.

But the good news is, there's always the chance an unelected billionaire will be triggered like a little bitch by something one of us says and use his granted authority to put us all out of our misery.

Huzzah!

Cross staffing off, dumbass

 

[ATCJoe85]

Bullshit.
Some people suck at the job. The SWA squeeze play with traffic on final is a perfect example. Attributing that incident to fatigue and lack of tools is bullshit and hurts the bulk of the workforce that does a good job.

I'm hurting because of a lack of staffing and lack of pay raise, not a bruised ego.

People want to blame anything else other than personal responsibility. Austin with that squeeze play, DCA with their runway crossings they blame on "fatigue" rather than controller being dumb and unqualified.

Some people want to ignore that under Obama the FAA changed their hiring practices and added the biographical questionnaire to increase diversity rather than merit.

The public is mad at us, and if you guys contend that the vast portion of us are already good at our jobs (I'd agree) then the best bet to advocate for ourselves isn't to rage against DEI or villify individual controllers, but rather to highlight the major issues we face... fatigue, staffing, being overworked, low morale, etc.

Fatigue and staffing go on incident reports, DEI does not.


"Quality of controllers is down" sounds like boomer whining. IIRC, the last time a controller caused a passenger jet crash was in the 90s. Then there was BBQ cats in 09?
Lexington?

Any crashes since that have garnered the attention that those did- that were attributable to ATC error?

 

[Sassyquatch]

The SF1188 doesn't get you out of NATCA, it stops your dues from being paid out of your paycheck. After a few pay periods of this if you don't pay NATCA directly you then get kicked out of NATCA for non-payment of dues. So, if you submit the 1188 to your payroll person, and start paying NATCA directly, that will result in you being month to month with NATCA.

Honestly didn't even know this was an option at all but thank you!! I've got one foot out the door right now, it sounds like a couple of people at my facility will be leaving this year but I was going to wait another year to leave. What I didn't like is that if I do leave next January that I'd still be paying them until the following march. Is there a way to resume dues allotment straight out of my paycheck again if NATCA actually did something beneficial for us over the course of a year and I changed my mind?

 

[PooseMaGoose]

"Quality of controllers is down" sounds like boomer whining. IIRC, the last time a controller caused a passenger jet crash was in the 90s. Then there was BBQ cats in 09?
Lexington?

Any crashes since that have garnered the attention that those did- that were attributable to ATC error?

Spoken like somebody who lacks a true and complete understanding of aviation risk and how risk management actually works.

“A controller hasn’t been fully responsible for a passenger jet crash since the 90s so any criticism of ATC quality is just whining.”

With your logic, even if the rates of NMACs, losses, runways incursions, operational errors, and ATC contributing factors are up, it’s all good because that last piece of Swiss cheese by chance didn’t turn to result in a major airline accident. Nothing to see here. Controllers are as good as they’ve ever been because the worst case scenario last happened in the 90s.

** facepalm **

 

[32andBelow]

RFK was a heroin addict and he’s gonna tell us we don’t know what we are talking about. Oy.

 

[AB19]

RFK was a heroin addict and he’s gonna tell us we don’t know what we are talking about. Oy.

Who better than the guy who took everything

 

[KP-ATC]

Honestly didn't even know this was an option at all but thank you!! I've got one foot out the door right now, it sounds like a couple of people at my facility will be leaving this year but I was going to wait another year to leave. What I didn't like is that if I do leave next January that I'd still be paying them until the following march. Is there a way to resume dues allotment straight out of my paycheck again if NATCA actually did something beneficial for us over the course of a year and I changed my mind?

You can rejoin at any time, but you have to pay a year's worth of dues as an initiation fee. 100% of that fee goes to your local and the local is allowed to reimburse you the entire fee if they choose.

 

[the inquirer]

You can rejoin at any time, but you have to pay a year's worth of dues as an initiation fee. 100% of that fee goes to your local and the local is allowed to reimburse you the entire fee if they choose.

From what I’ve seen in the past, they try to get you to not leave right when you put paperwork in. And many times they will give you back the years of dues if you come back.

 

[GroundClutter]

Stay out for 2+ and you're breaking even and then in the green

 

[32andBelow]

Stay out for 2+ and you're breaking even and then in the green

I don’t think they have to let you back in. One dude at my facility got kicked out lol

 

[GroundClutter]

I don’t think they have to let you back in. One dude at my facility got kicked out lol

Well shit if that's the case I guess technically NATCA actually gave someone a raise

 

[FightingIrish2012]

You mean when they said you could even die in a motorcycle crash and if your corpse tested positive for Covid at the coroner’s office, your cause of death would be listed as Covid? Yeah those death toll numbers were real solid…

That did happen, that’s why they adjusted the death toll down 400K deaths last summer or the summer prior to that.

 

[Wizard]