NAATS HEADQUARTERS EMAIL UPDATE

Volume 3, #70

April 1, 2003

The FAA Reauthorization Hearing went well last Thursday. The Administrator was on a panel by herself; NATCA President John Carr, PASS President Mike Fanfalone and I made up the second panel. NAATS� entire written testimony was made a part of the congressional record and I was asked a few questions regarding the FAA becoming a performance based organization, labor distribution reporting and our statements about assuming more duties. My thanks to those that helped with the testimony, especially Dave Hoover and Kurt Comisky, and the logistical support provided by our Office Manager Denise DeStefano. Next stop is the testimony for the House Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee, due by April 11.

We are continuing to work closely with NATCA and PASS again this week on legislation to address the FAA contracting out/privatization issues. S338 has 14 co-sponsors but we�re still waiting on the first Republican. House legislation is still being discussed and we expect it will be offered next week. Any differences between S.338 and the House legislation will then have to be reconciled.

NE Regional Director Kurt Comisky and Regional Coordinator Tom Halligan conducted an arbitration hearing last Friday at the Regional Office in Burlington, Massachusetts. I participated as their witness and they did a good job of getting the issues before the arbitrator. We would always prefer to resolve issues satisfactorily before having to go to hearings but, obviously, that�s not always the case. I think it�s extremely important to send the FAA a message about our determination to enforce the provisions of our contract and I congratulate Kurt and Tom for doing this. My hope is that we�ll see more regional arbitrations for those issues where FAA management stubbornly refuses to honor its commitments.

The NAATS National Meeting in San Antonio is now less than three weeks away. Hopefully we�ll have a good turnout by our membership and I expect an excellent exchange of information and views. Unfortunately Chairman Don Young was unable to accept our invitation to speak, as he will be in Alaska that week; he sends his regrets.
 

Wally Pike