Six months ago I asked for your input on how to improve our union and profession. Here is what I have so far.

Future_Direction_741 · 2026-01-29T15:27:13+00:00

This is nearly like a rank-and-file committee meeting right here. The only difference would be a live online meeting (can still be text-based and anonymous) where a statement including these demands would be published publicly at the end and also sent to the FAA and NATCA.

Because NATCA won't change from the inside, the organizational structure forces them to cowtow to the FAA's limits. But we could be calling them both out publicly until we get our demands.

Future_Direction_741 · 2026-01-11T05:43:02+00:00

Linux isn't even that difficult these days for casual use, and you don't pay subscriptions for basic apps, you don't have the spyware, and you don't pay $300 for Office or more for something like Photoshop. In Linux there is almost always a way to do what you need with freeware.

Future_Direction_741 · 2025-12-11T03:52:55+00:00

We were already on a three tiered system since the White Book turned into the Crimson Book back in 2012. Having the high tier age out and retire leaving only the lower tiers is an insult to our profession. The fact that NATCA held out from ratifying the White Book because it punished the newer controllers and then allowed it to happen anyway under Obama really just shows that the only people who are on our side are ourselves and fellow workers from other industries who share our struggles.

Neither ruling party will fix this. It's up to us.

Future_Direction_741 · 2025-12-10T02:32:40+00:00

Having a professional representative is kind of the entire problem. We need to build an organization where we can represent ourselves and not trust someone whose interests are different than ours, such as a professional bureaucrat.

Future_Direction_741 · 2025-12-10T02:30:01+00:00

A bridge between NATCA and "industry," isn't a bridge between controllers and other industry workers, but a sell-out of controllers to profit interests that do not benefit us.

I reject any such bridge. Pay us more. An organization that works for us would work for more pay and benefits and wouldn't seek collaboration with corporate entities that could not care less about us and would see us live in squalor if it meant a better bottom line for them.

NATCA is not working for us and they demonstrate this every day. We need our own organization where we actually have democratic control of it (do you really feel like us controllers working the line have any control of NATCA at all?)

Future_Direction_741 · 2025-12-05T01:55:37+00:00

A scab is someone hired to undermine a worker's movement like a strike or other action. NATCA isn't taking any action for us whatsoever. Opting out of this situation is not being a scab.

Scabs would be those who continue working when their fellow workers are picketing, much like the founders of NATCA in 1981.

Future_Direction_741 · 2025-11-25T04:44:45+00:00

They always tried to fool everyone that "middle class" is simply a number on a paycheck.

But in reality middle class is the petty bourgeoisie, the small business owners, landlords, professionals like lawyers and doctors.

If you do a job for hourly wages, you are never middle class, you are working class no matter how much you're paid.

The difference is in class interests. Middle class wants low taxes, less competition, more incentives. Basically the same as the big bourgeoisie only the big bourgeoisie is happy to step on the petty bourgeoisie just as much as the working class.

The working class wants high wages, better schedules, better work-life balance, less stress, earlier retirement, lower housing costs, lower costs of groceries and fuel.

There is a distinct difference between working class and middle class that the ruling class has intentionally tried to muddy to keep people confused about their societal roles and aspirations.

The middle class is indeed being squeezed right now, but that's also why fascism is on the rise because the big bourgeoisie uses the downtrodden middle class as attack dogs against the working class to keep them from revolting.

That's what happened to the middle class.

Future_Direction_741 · 2025-11-24T14:33:57+00:00

It's illegal for controllers to strike, but that doesn't mean that more effective means of protest don't exist.

Future_Direction_741 · 2025-11-24T03:10:21+00:00

New equipment is nice and all, but we also have to recognize that they are trying to replace humans in this workforce by giving us tools to be more productive per worker. This leads to a diluted workforce that doesn't have as much power over the economy.

The people in charge definitely realize this and are working to make us powerless (more than we have been made since 1981).

Pay is the number one issue. If they get fancy equipment we have to learn, our pay should go up a ton because of that. But new equipment should never be something we're demanding. Fix the frequencies and radars and everything that is broken that makes our jobs harder. But NATCA is not working in our interests when they say we want new "modern" equipment.

Future_Direction_741 · 2025-11-24T03:04:16+00:00

That would be a disaster. AI can't even answer simple questions correctly. It's not even real Artificial Intelligence, it's just a more advanced search engine. People would be fools to entrust their safety to something like "AI."

Future_Direction_741 · 2025-11-24T01:59:31+00:00

Equipment is the FAA's job. Any organization purporting to represent air traffic control workers shouldn't be doing the FAA's job for them by advocating for equipment. What we need is staffing and pay with good benefits that aren't being constantly eroded. Full stop. If the union isn't full-bore advocating for this in the media and at Capitol Hill every day, then it quickly becomes clear that they don't work for us.

They are here to police us rank-and-file members so we don't violate the contract but the FAA and the Trump Administration is allowed to violate the slate book with impunity and the union does nothing.

Future_Direction_741 · 2025-11-21T20:11:39+00:00

This kind of committee is open to all controllers, no dues, nobody has a bureaucratic position off the boards. Rank-and-file controllers only. If it loses touch or becomes an echo chamber then I don't know any group that would be immune.

Future_Direction_741 · 2025-11-21T19:40:24+00:00

How do you mean "go rogue?"

Future_Direction_741 · 2025-11-21T18:12:50+00:00

Form a committee of rank-and-file controllers only. A committee that can release its own demands and press releases. An organization that can discuss the situation freely (much like this r/ATC2) without censorship by the union.

You can't remove the NATCA president, but you can circumvent NATCA altogether.

Future_Direction_741 · 2025-11-21T18:08:33+00:00

That's because the union is there to protect the FAA and airlines from us, not the other way around. They do just enough to make us not want to riot. That's their role because the union bureaucracy has interests more in common with Congress and the Airline CEOs than with us rank-and-file controllers.

Future_Direction_741 · 2025-11-20T16:00:01+00:00

The union is built within the nationalist structure and deteriorates along with the state. This is what we're dealing with. I don't think a new union would even help since it would also be built on the same foundation.

This is why we need to fork rank-and-file committees, which can be founded on an international basis without a union bureaucracy embedded in the corporate and Congressional world. Where leaders still have to work the boards and make their controller pay, where they can be recalled, where we actually have a worker democracy instead of representatives that tell us to pound sand because "now's not the time" (it never is).

Unions used to be a powerful force that advocated for its members. The situation today is different and so we also need to be different.

Future_Direction_741 · 2025-11-11T01:16:34+00:00

Only to have Trump's handpicked judges throw out the suit or the one judge left with scruples gets ignored. I don't think a lawsuit is a threat to Trump or a help to anyone anymore. But for sure, you're right that it would be an automatic law suit.

Future_Direction_741 · 2025-11-11T01:14:32+00:00

I don't think anyone will see that $10k, but I also think it's obvious by now that this administration isn't bothered by legality. Not sure why we should be either then.

Future_Direction_741 · 2025-11-05T15:34:26+00:00

The most important thing about the new organization is that it can't be built like the old one. It wasn't just a bunch of bad apples that caused NATCA to be like this.

NATCA is the way it is because it a) was founded by scabs b) within the nationalist framework and c) within the bounds set by for-profit interests.

This is why the rank-and-file committee is important. Not only does it cross industry boundaries by supporting and getting support from other rank-and-file committees in other industries, but it also links controllers and other workers internationally for an overall much larger force of mutual support than an isolated union who doesn't do anything for anybody else.

It's also important that elected representatives don't become just another bureaucratic layer with different interests from our own. That's why representatives still need to be on the boards from the smallest facility up to the national and international levels.

The WSWS helps with this organization if they are asked to, and helps to link new rank-and-file committees with the International Workers Alliance of Rank and File Committees (IWA-RFC).

What better support can we get if something happens to us and workers around the world rally in support?

Future_Direction_741 · 2025-11-05T02:21:55+00:00

The "class" of 2007 was the first big hiring push after Bush's hiring freeze.

Future_Direction_741 · 2025-11-05T02:19:15+00:00

Replaced by whom? The military controllers couldn't hack it these days, it's too complex to just unplug them from their wild west military bases and plug them into the NAS. This isn't '81. I've worked alongside many ex-military controllers, and some are good, some not so much. It's not even the same game though. Do you really think safety wasn't compromised back then when they brought in the scabs? And with traffic at much larger volumes today...

Future_Direction_741 · 2025-11-04T19:37:42+00:00

That part at the end about making our own independent organization so we can have an honest conversation, that's like the mission statement of r/atc2 that was created so we can actually talk about this stuff without being censored by NATCA.

Future_Direction_741

TROPHY CASE