Which Way Do We Go ?

I’m guessing the spike in blog traffic yesterday was from people looking for news on the NATCA contract arbitration. If so, sorry to disappoint. Yesterday’s decision was mostly about pay (or so everyone thinks) and keeping up with pay never was my thing. Safety was -- and there were enough people looking after pay so that I didn’t have to keep up.

A lot of people have trouble believing that. Well, take a look at the site. Do you think I’m making any money off of it ? (Speaking of which, don’t any of you guys read books ?)

No one seems to be happy about the arbitration panel’s decision. But in the short term, I don’t think there is anything to be done. NATCA is in a very weak position strategically. In the middle of the Great Recession, there won’t be any public sympathy for a highly-paid profession. With so many newly-hired controllers, there isn’t the tight-knit solidarity needed to address the problem. NATCA is in the middle of an election with the current President a very lame duck.

Here ae some selected passages from the Mediation Award (a .pdf file).

”Subsequently, management imposed its own version of all conditions of employment. That so-called “White Book” contained numerous provisions that served, from 2006 to 2009, as the terms and conditions of employment for bargaining unit employees ...“

“...Some provisions addressed work rules related to the daily business of running this highly complex shop. Others were economic take-backs, in the name of fiscal prudence, that constituted unprecedented draconian reductions in compensation, bordering on the unconscionable. “

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“Whatever else may be said of the White Book document, it is neither a
“Collective Bargaining Agreement” nor an “Agreement.” The abrupt imposed changes in working conditions from the collectively negotiated Green Books to the unilateral White Book was so profound, and spawned so much hostility and distrust, that the labor-management relationship since has degenerated into a state of dysfunctionality. “

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“Notwithstanding the vigorous and extremely fruitful efforts of the
bargainers, however, there remained a small number of Articles where common ground could not be achieved.4 In accordance with the precepts of the MTF agreement, those matters were submitted for final resolution by the Panel. The decision that follows may properly be characterized as a compromise, subject immediately to the caveat that we have not engaged in an exercise of “splitting the baby.” It has not been the goal of this Panel, nor is it our proper function, to somehow achieve mutual happiness – that is rarely the concomitant of a bargaining process. “

We are a long, long way from “mutual happiness”. I don’t know where we’ll go from here. I know where I would go but I’m no longer a controller.

Don Brown
August 14, 2009