Speak out against ATC Privatization!

[ATC United]

Speak out against ATC Privatization!


Guys, we need your help to dispel the myth that most controllers are supportive of Privatization.

If you have been following the news, you know that it is not a dead issue and is expected to be raised again in January as the Tax plan just got passed (Infrastructure is next!)

If you are interested in speaking out please email us: [email protected] .

Please include your facility and a good number to get in touch. We are looking for folks all over the country to voice their opposition to this taxpayer swindle called HR2997 and every single voice counts!


Still not convinced Privatization is a bad idea? Read on:

Let’s start with the Architect of HR2997/AIRRACT, the Honorable Congressman Shuster, it’s your career, aren’t you curious about the guy who wants to Privatize it? read up:

Shuster admits relationship with airline lobbyist

Shuster lounges poolside with airline lobbyists as he pursues FAA bill

Shuster was going around back in Fall of 2014 getting support for Privatization

The Fall of 2014 (October 2014) was when our NATCA Constitution was amended to support Privatization (PSA-5, Minneapolis Convention)

An important plan such as this one isn’t cooked up overnight. It simply did not come out of the blue.


Back in 2003, when faced with the same Privatization threat, the response was remarkably different. Of course we did not have Rinaldi in charge then either

Pitfalls of Air Traffic Control Privatization (PDF Download Available)

This was a NATCA funded study on why Privatization is bad business for everyone, written by respected economist Dr.Sclar or Columbia University.


Research a bit too old for you? Read this: It is from Delta, published 2016.

http://news.delta.com/sites/default/files/The Costs of Privatizing Air Traffic Control_0.pdf

No matter what you may have heard, NATCA is pushing for Privatization. They are lobbying for this to happen:

As Jordan Morales, NATCA Legislative activist from Columbia Metropolitan Airport writes in Greenville Online"

"We recently had the opportunity to show U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) around our facility and talk to him about this pressing issue. He got to see first hand the hard work that our controllers do to keep the flying public safe. We told him about the need for stable, predictable funding for the air traffic system and about the staffing crisis that we are in. We urged him to support this bill (HR2997) and your nation's air traffic controllers hope the public will do the same with their elected officials."

Opinion: Stable funding needed for air traffic controllers

Jason Rebmann, NATCA Facility Rep for Tampa Tower writes in the Tampa Bay Times

"That is why we support current U.S. House legislation, HR 2997, the 21st Century Aviation, Innovation, Reform and Reauthorization Act, which would create a federally chartered, not-for-profit air traffic control corporation to operate the system. "

Wednesday's letters: Tampa airport tower needs work

Still not buying it? These two guys are independent citizens and could have done this without NATCA’s approval right? Watch this:

The future of air traffic control

That 87 minute long video is filled with Trish Gilbert actively speaking out in favor of Privatization at the well respected Brookings Institute about a month ago. You can watch the whole video. The only person speaking out against Privatization is Jim Coon from AOPA.

What are some of the Unintended Consequences of Privatization?

According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, Privatization will trigger Sequestration and across the board cuts to Medicare, Military Retirement, FEMA Flood Insurance and a lot more critical programs:

https://democrats-transportation.ho...yg_uploaded/CRS Sequestration DC 10-30-17.pdf

Here is another excellent letter written by De Fazio on the dangers of Privatization (also sits on the Transportation Cmte)

https://democrats-transportation.ho... ATC Privatization Concerns and Opponents.pdf


Privatization also increases the Federal Deficit by $100 Billion over just 10 years. That’s Billion with a B.

Here is what the non-partisan Congressional Research Service had to say on the matter:

https://democrats-transportation.ho...H.R. 2997 Budget Sequestration (CRS Memo).pdf


Only the Airlines and their Proxy groups (A4A, Citizens for On Time Flights) are backing Privatization.

The American Conservative Union refuses to support HR2997

ACUF Analysis on HR2997 – 21st Century AIRR Act

It’s not even True Privatization. Privatization should mean Competition based on free market principles.

There is no bidding process here. It simply involves transferring more than $50 Billion of taxpayer assets to a new corporation for free! One that the airlines are pushing for. If this newfangled corporation ever goes bankrupt, (yes it can declare bankruptcy), we the American taxpayers will still be on the hook for a bailout! Talk about a taxayer swindle!

It’s your Career! Make an informed decision.

Going through 3 pages and links should take some time. And it should. It deals with life changing consequences, one that will negatively affect us all for years to come. If you can read the 7110.65 and SOPs and LOAs, please spend some time poring through this info. Read to Understand. Feel free to Pass it on to every single Controller you know. None of the information contained here has come from NATCA, not one of the hundreds of emails they sent out regarding Privatization mentions any of the facts talked about here. Everything posted is verifiable with Links provided.

Please helps us get this out to as many Controllers as possible. Feel free to share the PDF.



Twitter.com/ATC_United

Facebook.com/ATCUnited

 

[ATC United]

Ah the Politics of Fear!

No wonder even though the majority of Controllers are against it, no one dares voice a complaint. This is how NATCA was able to ramrod this through, without even taking a poll of the membership.

This bill will take 30,000 people out of Federal Workforce and put their long term pay and benefits at jeopardy (Pay is set by the CEO of the new corporation, and if you think they will be a lot more charitable and pay you more, get a reality check, that's not how Corporations work). Don't you think we have a say in this matter?

There are hundreds of Organizations, including AOPA, NBAA, EAA, hundreds of mayors and Politicians on both sides of the aisle that are opposed to this. That's a lot of people with a lot of connections on the hill.

In fact the opposition to this has been steadily growing. High time we add our voices to the list.

No matter how this turns out, in 20 years when all is said and done, don't you wanna look back and have taken a stand for your own career/retirement? Or are you gonna sit there quietly while the fight's being done by Pilot and other Aviation groups?

Too afraid to rock the NATCA boat? I got news for ya buddy, that boat's called the Titanic and Rinaldi and Trish are steering us towards an Iceberg!

We pay NATCA our dues, every two weeks without fail. They are supposed to work for us, not the other way around. The least they could have done was ask us before pursuing legislation that changes our employer and takes us out of Federal Service.

 

[Super Salt]

Isle or aisle? 😉

 

[ATC United]

Isle or aisle? 😉

I was talking about St.Martin, that Isle has two sides you know.. lol. Fixed it.

 

[DL0509]

On a side note has anyone seen the NATCA safety not for sale buttons? Theres a few people at my facility interested in them.

 

[ATC United]

Thanks to everyone who has contacted us already, we need 3 more folks to speak out. If you are interested in voicing your concerns, email us at [email protected].

 

[Move78]

I think we need strong opponents like @ATC United to debate these ideas with NATCA leadership in a closed door, cameras off, setting attended by large numbers of the membership somewhere in Pennsylvania next Aprilish.
I attended a regional meeting in DC last year and would classify myself as hard privatization skeptic beforehand. Likely contributed to by an existing bias and a, forever cemented, mistrust of the airlines having worked for an airline before the FAA. Objectivity is crucial however and to my surprise I left there feeling very different about this issue.

 

[MJ]

I think we need strong opponents like @ATC United to debate these ideas with NATCA leadership in a closed door, cameras off, setting attended by large numbers of the membership somewhere in Pennsylvania next Aprilish.
I attended a regional meeting in DC last year and would classify myself as hard privatization skeptic beforehand. Likely contributed to by an existing bias and a, forever cemented, mistrust of the airlines having worked for an airline before the FAA. Objectivity is crucial however and to my surprise I left there feeling very different about this issue.

Is there debate or even the ability to do so? Other than ratification of the contract, I can’t think of anything where opinions were solicited or multiple viewpoints given face time.

 

[Mike Kilo]

Probably just select individuals higher up. There was never anything at the facility level or any indication in an email aside from “Let’s have a seat at the table”.

Probably the same people who pushed NCEPT!

 

[Move78]

Is there debate or even the ability to do so? Other than ratification of the contract, I can’t think of anything where opinions were solicited or multiple viewpoints given face time.

I've never attended a convention before but I'm also unaware of this being explored

 

[DL0509]

I think we need strong opponents like @ATC United to debate these ideas with NATCA leadership in a closed door, cameras off, setting attended by large numbers of the membership somewhere in Pennsylvania next Aprilish.
I attended a regional meeting in DC last year and would classify myself as hard privatization skeptic beforehand. Likely contributed to by an existing bias and a, forever cemented, mistrust of the airlines having worked for an airline before the FAA. Objectivity is crucial however and to my surprise I left there feeling very different about this issue.

I worked for DAL for 7 years and in that time jobs that were performance based faced layoffs 4 times, other airlines im sure faced the same things. There is no way I would want to work for a company whose board is dominated by the airlines.

 

[ATC United]

 

[ATC United]

Guys the NATCA convention is a lost issue. Let me tell you why.
First off every facility with less than 50 members (the majority of the towers out there) the delegates to the convention are the Fac rep and VP. With a few exceptions these are the few guys that are pushing Privatization down onto the membership. For the bigger facilities, you can elect delegates, but remember the majority of the delegates are by default.

So if you wish to propose an amendment to the constitution to fight Privatization, you will have to go through the existing leadership first. (Good luck).

These guys never break rank and are always disseminating the info top down.

There is a reason why most of us do not get regular Union updates regarding Privatization or why it never mentions any of the stuff that we talk about here. These are not alternative facts, and we are not living in an alternate reality.

Privatization is back on the agenda in January.
Just Monday Trump met with Bill Shuster and Elaine Chao to discuss his plan for Infrastructure and yes this falls under Infrastructure. Both Chao and Shuster have been pushing Privatization hard.

Just because you do not hear about something does not mean it isn't a threat anymore. That's by design.

Your future pay, benefits are all at stake here. But this toxic legislation does a lot more damage, don't take my word for it, listen to your concerned Congressmen:

Please spend 5 minutes reading through these pages below. It is your career. Make your voice heard. Email us at [email protected] to voice your concern!

 

[breakaway2000]

To clean up a few things.

Any member can submit an amendment. You submit it directly to Trish Gilbert and all proposed amendments will be published and sent to the union body. The deadline is December 18th and all applicable information can be found here.
Convention 101

If you are a part of this union and care as much about this issue as it appears you do, you have the opportunity to write an amendment, stand on stage in front of 1,000+ people, and present your case.

My main questions to @ATC United are simple. Are you still in the union? If so, are you going to make your voice heard?

 

[ATC United]

We have tried this approach before. Like I mentioned the majority Union Convention body is already preselected. You will be going up against the rest of the Convention members, Facreps, VPs etc.

By now the Privatization plan, aka let's get our seat at the table plan has been so drilled into these guys that an outside voice will be drowned out.

Let's talk some numbers here. This plan will Privatize 30,000 employees! Only a tiny majority, maybe less than 1000 are in favor of Privatization.

This is the real reason why there was no membership poll on an issue that dates back, in its current efforts to at least 2013.

4 years and no membership poll on a plan that would Privatize 30,000 people.

You can understand why we are upset.

And yes I'm a Union member who cares. I know Area reps who feel the same way and we are all in touch. But Fac reps and vps from all over the nation? Nobody wants to rock the Titanic here.

 

[breakaway2000]

So what I'm hearing is, you have the known ability to have an amendment published, that will be sent, in writing, to every single NATCA member and on top of it, have a platform to present a counter-argument, and you're not taking advantage of that opportunity?

The proper way (and believe it or not, the way that is taught) is to sit down with your membership and go through each amendment. Cast a vote. Your delegate is responsible for following the way of the membership. If a voice vote is insufficient and a roll call vote is needed, your delegate is responsible for the breakdown of votes at your facility for that specific amendment.

It certainly appears that you want a platform, take advantage of the opportunity before you.

 

[N90-EWR]

So what I'm hearing is, you have the known ability to have an amendment published, that will be sent, in writing, to every single NATCA member and on top of it, have a platform to present a counter-argument, and you're not taking advantage of that opportunity?

The proper way (and believe it or not, the way that is taught) is to sit down with your membership and go through each amendment. Cast a vote. Your delegate is responsible for following the way of the membership. If a voice vote is insufficient and a roll call vote is needed, your delegate is responsible for the breakdown of votes at your facility for that specific amendment.

It certainly appears that you want a platform, take advantage of the opportunity before you.

Unfortunately, he is right about that. I remember being at an N90 Union meeting back when the topic of privatization was first introduced, and many of us present there voiced our concerns, and opposition to Dean (at the time he was Fac Rep, now he's RVP), as well as Kevin (Now fac rep).

Even though everyone I talked to directly here at N90 was against privatization at the time (and still are), when they went as our delegates to the convention, they voted against what our local membership wanted, because "they know what's best for us even if we don't agree".

 

[breakaway2000]

To try and simplify things. You had two individuals that went against the primary duties of being a delegate when they went against the majority. The majority then continued to elect (or chose not to run against) these people.

 

[MJ]

These options aren’t mutually exclusive. Both can be pursued. In the big picture, if the goal is to stop legislation, influencing the politicians is more important than influencing the union.

 

[CWATC]

One other thought to share.... The FAA doesn't just go away here. They become oversight which means the AOV workforce becomes the primary function of the agency and grows in numbers exponentially. Where is the cost savings of this privatization? You have to continue paying for the current workforce while the FAA takes on an exponentially larger AOV work force for the oversight function.