NATCA Statement

DanielEtvs Trusted Member hank krakowskis

We need to start negociations from the green book, if not we are dealing from a position of weakness.

Nick Senior Member Down Yonderville, TX

My facrep just came back from facrep school in Boston. They were told to "tell your people to study up on the green book and expect to hear something in the next 30 days". Take it as you will...

Centerpuke Junior Member ZTL

Haha, and there it is again. Green book is not coming back, ever! Get used to it. Do you really think that, in this economy, with a president that has already limited our pay raises to 2% next year; we will get a $40,000 pay raise? Seriously? 30 days, seriously? I have never been on a turnip truck and I suggest you jump off of it. No person in Washington, Obama or otherwise, has even remotely eluded to the fact that the green book would be back. The official quote was "a contract we can live with." Again, no one that has any influence over this has even said anything that would give hope of the green book returning. I have been hearing 2 weeks and 30 days for several months now.

Nick Senior Member Down Yonderville, TX

Turnips are delicious and full of vitamins!

ATCinWI Senior Member Illinois

Actually, Obama made NATCA a campaign promise that we would be made whole (there's a video somewhere from 2006) . . . but that's a whole other story since it's obviously not going to happen. At least McCain didn't win.

Max Power Senior Member

i heard the 30 day thing 3 months ago

ColtsATC Trusted Contributor Indy

Unless they included it with all the other "pork" from the "stimulus aka put us trillions in debt plan cuz certain companies are supposively too large to fail" plan, it's not gonna happen, especially not anytime soon.

I've been hearing all about the green book since long before I was even picked up for the FAA...

noid Curtis E. Carr Jawja

Same here. It was the reason I took the job the first time around. I was told (a month after the Non-tract went into effect) the pay would get fixed soon and I thought I would be able to wait it out for a short period. A year later and on the verge of bankruptcy, it was painfully obvious it wasn't going to happen anytime soon, I had to quit. Now I know exactly what I'm getting into, so it's a different situation altogether.

It's fun to play the "what if" game, but be realistic. Until it's in your paycheck, don't count on it.

zabnut Senior Member Albuquerque

That is about the most sane advice I have heard.

I believe the green book WORK RULES will be back 100% before then end of the fiscal year (Oct). I think we will see some pay changes for the better, but that probably won't happen until after the start of the next fiscal cycle. If we where talking 100K or something real small they could have done that a long time ago, This is a large chunk of change and it would literally take an act of congress to appropriate this money and I seriously don't see that happening before summer recess. You know congress likes their summer off, i hope Air traffic comes to a crawl this summer and makes ATC a higher priority for those clowns when they get back in session.

The airlines are crying that they are not seeing any "Nextgen" benefits, I can't wait until they start taking in the shorts with the "NOWGEN" staffing problems!

Obama made campaign promises, they all do and many are not kept or quickly forgotten. We are a very low priority partly because of our own success. We know part of what is keeping us afloat is the lower traffic, but hardly anybody in the upper levels of the FAA on up are putting two and two together.
We will soon enough become front page news when the economy ramps up and we are not prepared. Others here have made good arguments on how it is hard to spend a lot of money on "those controllers" but I will argue that I find it an even harder sell to throw money at banks that won't loan yet they give out huge bonuses to execs.

While I see the hard sell problem with public opinion I also know nobody in the controller ranks will be getting rich and they do deserve the large salaries they make. I have told people I make well over $100K or even $150K and I have NEVER seen anyone shocked at what I make or upset that I get paid too much. (Albeit, that is to my face, I know many are jealous I tell them to grab a headset) I have recently told someone that new hires make $8 and change at the academy (Plus per de-um) and $35K while in training and $75K after they checked out and he WAS shocked.

Seriously this "Pay raise" as people continually call it is pay that was STOLEN from us from Bush/Blakey in the name of financing Nextgen. New hires pay was CUT and my pay frozen, so any pay adjustment would be what EVERY manager and every office worker got that was not already capped at the congressional limit. If you look at it in those terms (and I know that is how NATCA will play it) then it is justifiable and understandable. We are not asking for any more money then what we would have gotten if we had a fair contract negotiation. The fact that management continues to get raises is the nail in the coffin for the FAA.

SoCal_ATCer Senior Member So Cal

the quote would be too long so I wont quote it...but well said Zabnut.