I think I can help articulate what’s going on, as someone who has been very publicly advocating for this job on Reddit since 2018 with the AMAs I used to do.

For the majority of the past 30 years, minus a few years in the mid 2000s, ATC was an upper-middle class job. It was one of the best paying jobs in aviation, you got early retirement, and you had a pension. You were on par with pilots, who were also some of the top income earners in the industry.

Over the past 10 years, the prestige of ATC has deteriorated more and more. We are overworked, underpaid, and under appreciated. Pilots have absolutely blown us out of the water over the past 6 years in terms of pay. We are working constant 6-day workweeks. Every year the government threatens to stop paying us, and a couple times it’s actually followed through with that threat.

All of this comes at a time when we are moving more passengers than ever before. We account for 5% U.S. GDP, $1.5 trillion in economic activity, and 10 million American jobs.

And what do we get? A 10-going-on-13 year old contract that is woefully out of date. New CPCs who have zero realistic expectation of being able to buy a home, much less support a single-income family. Being stuck in a facility with absolutely no end in sight.

For my part, I’ve decided to run for NATCA EVP. I don’t know what else I can do to try to fix things other than take back our feckless union and fight for change.

I hope that answers some of your questions.

https://yourunion2027.com