I think that vid’s an extreme example, but teachers unions have been extremely effective over time. A big part is they play the public relations game the right way. “Teachers are underpaid” is a sentiment a lot of people have. That’s not just common knowledge, that’s through the work they’ve done to get the word out. Thanks in part to that, a lot of states and districts across the country have given teachers pretty substantial pay raises over the last few years. That could be us too. Instead of saying “we need to be paying the people teaching our kids more” NATCA could and SHOULD be preaching “we need to pay the people who keep airplanes from smashing into each other more.”
This is the biggest problem people have with NATCA. They never publicly acknowledge that controllers are underpaid, much less advocate for a raise. They could be going on news channels, sitting for interviews with papers, hell when Santa is sitting in front of Congress they could be preaching this. And they are completely silent.
That is why I voted for JD and why we all better hope and pray he wins.