Obviously pleased with
the efforts of Senators Barack Obama, D-Ill., Patty Murray,
D-Wash., and Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J.; the NATCA spin machine is
busy promoting a bill that NATCA says, "would force the Federal
Aviation Administration to engage in productive, good faith
contract negotiations with its unions, including the National Air
Traffic Controllers Association. The bill would deny the agency any
ability to unilaterally impose a contract without the consent of
Congress."
NATCA contends that the FAA believes that a loophole in the law
gives it such power.
According to NATCA, the law, section 40122 of title 49, U.S.
Code, currently says that in the event of a breakdown in
negotiations – an impasse – the FAA can send the
contract to Congress, providing it the opportunity to get involved.
If Congress chooses not to get involved, then the FAA believes it
can unilaterally impose its last, best contract offer on NATCA,
thereby removing any motivation for the FAA to negotiate in good
faith. In fact, says NATCA President John Carr, “It is
clearer than ever that the FAA is intent on claiming a breakdown in
negotiations in order to force an agreement on
us.”
“This bill proposes a small change in the law, but it
would mean a world of difference in our current contract
negotiations by ensuring that the FAA once again engages in
productive, good faith negotiations instead of relying on backdoor
tactics to enforce its will,” said Carr, who pointed out that
the FAA has already used the current law’s loophole once and
imposed a contract on non-controller FAA employees that NATCA
represents.
“Good faith negotiations are the first step towards
ensuring the continuing safety and efficiency of the U.S. air
traffic system.”
NATCA claims that "the FAA is rushing to declare an impasse by
creating artificial deadlines for completing talks and falsely
stating that negotiators are not making progress. In fact, both
sides have agreed on more than half of the proposed contract
articles – just six months into the talks – and are
making substantial progress on many others. Since the FAA declared
the negotiations 'stalled' last month, the sides have agreed on 31
contract articles (20 percent of the total). Yet this month, FAA
Administrator Marion Blakey continued to impose an unrealistic
timetable on negotiations, publicly stating that she expected the
process to take “weeks,” not months. However,
negotiations on the 1998 controller contract took well over a year
to complete."
Carr (pictured right)
says the FAA is trying to “beat the clock” by aiming to
send its contract offer to Capitol Hill before the US Court of
Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit, can deliver a key ruling on
this issue. The three-judge panel could order a federal trial court
to resolve the question of whether the Federal Service Impasses
Panel has jurisdiction to get involved in any FAA/NATCA contract
impasse, or it could rule outright that the FSIP does, in fact,
have such jurisdiction.
In a letter sent to Blakey today (Thursday), Carr called on the
FAA to renounce misleading rhetoric and recommit to good faith
negotiations. In a point-by-point rebuttal of the FAA’s
inaccurate public statements, Carr said: “You have
consistently maligned NATCA’s intentions and mischaracterized
the nature of our negotiations. While this approach does a service
to your political ambitions, it does not serve those you were
appointed to represent and protect: the flying public, taxpayers or
air traffic controllers.”
NATCA expects additional Senators to start signing on to this
bill as early as today.