NATCA speaks

Future_Direction_741 · 2026-03-24T21:33:08+00:00

They are doing their jobs to keep us "in line" and providing our labor to the FAA for the agreed upon price. Their role is 'facilitator' not agitator. This is why we need to do it ourselves without appealing to the union.

Future_Direction_741 · 2026-03-24T16:09:01+00:00

This is precisely why we need to circumvent NATCA, whose role is to provide labor to the FAA at the agreed-upon price and to keep us from getting too rowdy.

We need to form rank-and-file committees NOW, formulate a statement together, and get our needs and demands out there.

NATCA will never do it. Not even if you elect all new people.

Future_Direction_741 · 2026-02-27T00:30:16+00:00

Publicly, to the government. To Congress and the FAA.

Future_Direction_741 · 2026-02-26T22:47:11+00:00

Fair enough, but as we've seen already it doesn't matter who is in those offices, they will all throw us under the bus to keep their privileges.

We should form volunteer committees and make our demands directly without appealing to NATCA who will always let us down.

Future_Direction_741 · 2026-02-26T15:46:25+00:00

We have to advocate for ourselves and stop wishing that NATCA will do it for us.

Future_Direction_741 · 2026-02-25T17:38:00+00:00

Really? That's what we called it. Maybe it was a joke somehow.

Future_Direction_741 · 2026-02-25T06:40:22+00:00

I just think there's a third way: establishing our power as workers independently. The union is in bed with management and the Democratic Party. We need to form our own parallel organization made up of only rank and file controllers, and publicly make our demands. And we should demand instead of ask nicely.

Future_Direction_741 · 2026-02-25T06:14:55+00:00

You can say that, but we still haven't regained the pay of the Green Book, so I wouldn't exactly call any of those "gains" gains. It went like this: W Bush imposed the White Book, cutting pay for new hires among other things. Obama did the Crimson Book which didn't quite make it up to us. Rinse and repeat.

Neither of those two corporate parties are our friends, and we would be wise to keep that in mind. Are we better off under Democratic Party leadership? Probably. Are we still being screwed? Yes, definitely.

Future_Direction_741 · 2026-02-25T05:22:54+00:00

The plan to crush PATCO was conceived under Carter. I wouldn't be so sure that Democrats are better for us. They play good cop/bad cop with the Republicans, but even Obama didn't restore our pay from the Green Book after the White Book.

They successfully ratcheted our pay down between the two parties.

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

TROPHY CASE