And Everybody Is Yelling At John Mica

Which side is NATCA on? On one hand, Union President John Carr has blasted the FAA and House Aviation Subcommittee Chairman John Mica (R-FL) for plans to privatize 69 control towers nationwide. On the other hand, Carr blasted Mica for planning to pull 30 of the 69 airports off the list. On the third hand, he says "The day after you privatize them, I organize them."

"That statement is a little misleading." So says Ron Taylor, head of the PATCO union that was fired by Ronald Reagan in 1981. Far from flying west into the sunset, PATCO has been busy over the past 22 years, organizing controllers in privately-operated towers across the country. "Carr only has exclusive bargaining rights with the feds," Taylor told ANN. "NATCA has 28-29 percent of the private towers. We have 63 percent."

As far as organizing controllers the day after Washington orders new privatizations, Taylor said, "He might try, but he'll have some serious competition" from PATCO.

Carr and Taylor do agree on one thing. The debate over privatized towers has de-evolved from a discussion about safety to pure, unmitigated politics.

The FAA reauthorization bill is being held hostage to the issue. The House and Senate have passed their own versions of the bill. The House bill designates 69 towers for privatization. Democrats in the Senate, however, don't want any privatization at all. So Congressman Mica is trying to reach a conference committee compromise. He's now considering dropping 30 of the 69 towers from the list of those to be privatized under the new legislation. And all 30 are in Republican districts "since we're not getting any Democratic support" for the FAA reauthorization.

"We may have to take it tower by tower," he told a publication.

In an interview with CongressDaily, one Mica aide said, "The focus is on securing the few remaining votes we need in the Senate. We're focusing on Republicans, because the Democrats have taken an all-or-nothing approach."

"This plan is not about safety; it's not about efficiency; it's not about cost," said Carr. "It's about being lucky enough to live in a Republican district. While we're out trying to run the largest, most efficient air travel system in the world, there are congressmen trying to play Monty Hall."

Taylor doesn't agree with Carr. "Carr himself is playing politics. He started out with this rhetoric about air safety. Now, he's spinning it down to the politicians and is trying to separate Democrats from Republicans." Taylor says Carr has already made a lot of enemies in Congress "because he's backing them into a corner and won't give them a lot of wriggle room." If there's one thing Taylor says he learned in the strike and subsequent controller lock-out of 1981, "you don't back someone into a corner."

FMI: www.natca.org, www.patco81.com