NAATS FSS Air Traffic Controllers Compensation Inequity Alert

To be successful in adding corrective language, we must have the assistance and approval of the Chairman of the Transportation Subcommittee, House Appropriations Committee, Representative Frank Wolf.  Chairman Wolf has taken a leadership role on this issue by requesting that the Inspector General, Department of Transportation, conduct an audit and investigation into the pay parity within the air traffic line of business and the need for additional pay reform in this area.  As important as this action is, however, the requested investigation will take some time to complete and does not include Flight Service.  For immediate relief, we need to convince Chairman Wolf to take the lead again, by requesting that language be inserted into one of the remaining spending bills.  

Please email Chairman Wolf at va10legislators.com and thank him for his leadership in seeking to address this problem.  Ask Chairman Wolf to correct the pay inequity for Flight Service Station air traffic controllers before the Congress adjourns next week and ask that he include our amended NAATS language into an existing appropriations bill. 

Yesterday NAATS and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) sent a joint letter to the congressional authorizers and appropriators requesting congressional action to correct the ATC compensation inequities. This letter will be posted to our website. We will continue to do everything we can from here but we need your help. Congressional representatives respond to constituents; I ask that you contact your congressional representatives as soon as possible and emphasize the following: 

• Ask for their support in attaching the corrective language in one of the remaining appropriations bills,

• Describe the compensation inequities between FSS and NATCA controllers at comparable levels,

• NAATS has been negotiating with the FAA since August 1997 and currently is at impasse. The FAA position in no way compares with the NATCA/FAA agreement on comparable controller levels,

• The cost of adopting the corrective language will be almost entirely offset by cost savings that have been identified jointly by NAATS and the FAA,

• Ask them to contact me at NAATS Headquarters with any questions regarding the corrective language.

The effect of the corrective language will be to require the FAA to compensate all air traffic controllers in a comparable manner and will be finalized and distributed to congress Monday.