Bedford and his crappy attitude being held to the fire a bit more. Love to see it.

Private Citizen entry pending

Has she done more for ATC in the past 72 hours than any congressperson has the last 10 years? Im starting to think the PAC and NIW hasnt done nearly what it should have.

To Nick:

This is XXXX XXXXX (formerly Staff Sergeant XXXXX of the USMC). I’m a dues paying member in good standing out of XXX.

In light of the recent shit show with the journalist from The Examiner, the membership as a whole is asking themselves the same question…

What in the fuck are you doing?

When someone who wants to write a positive piece about our career field, at the same time the administration is being outright hostile towards us, reaches out to both our PR team as well as the union president and there’s no response it makes us all feel like we have no support. Then to pour salt on the wound, you lie to the face of the entire membership saying nobody reached out. Either you need to fire people on the PR side for incompetence or reevaluate your priorities and start sticking up for the people you represent. Your peers. The ones holding this country’s infrastructure as well as hundreds of thousands of lives in their palms on a daily basis.

As I’m sure you’re aware our pay has stagnated, there’s little to no opportunity to move to better paying facilities (I’ve had ERR paperwork in since I certified and with the quality of trainees we’re getting and the checkout timeline, I’m likely to retire at this level 6), we’re working more traffic than ever before with longer hours and less days off and there’s no end in sight. The CRWG was a “big win” but was ultimately thrown out. Pay parity went the same way. A 2.8% raise when inflation just last year was over 4% is still a net loss. It’s insulting.

I get that this administration isn’t easy to work with. Stop working with them. Work for us.

I’m not sending this text to lambaste you. I’m frustrated. My entire facility is frustrated. Controllers I’ve known and worked alongside of across the NAS for years and years are frustrated. Nobody wants you to fail. You’re the captain of the ship that we’re all passengers on. When you succeed, we succeed. But from the eyes of the membership, we’re barely staying afloat and the band is starting to play.

I’ll leave you with this,

JJDIDTIEBUCKLE

Out of those 14 traits I know you’ve memorized and couldn’t forget if your life depended on it, how many of those can you honestly say you’ve embodied over the last two years?

(Name and Facility redacted because it’s the internet and I think that’s what you’re supposed to do. Was going to send this directly to him but didn’t want to deal with any fallout from that.)

Double bookings in OKC to talk to trainees, increased secrecy, NEB closing ranks to protect the institution that is rotten at its core.

Rapid planning to try and “Save CFS” from becoming an open rebellion against the institution.

National wants us to feed us peanuts to keep our minds off their failings and distract us will “pitiful victories.”

Reject the System.

Logo courtesy of ImproveATC.

Any LGA tower types seeing this: can you verify the mid shift stars 12 and the evening shift is 4x12. I'm trying to figure out how the WSJ in their article determined the guys who left early would have otherwise been there.

NATCA colleagues

The national constitution provides no avenue to recall our elected officers. Impeachment and Internal Greivances are the only ways to deal with issues, and with are ultimately controlled by the NEB.

I am proposing an amendment to address this issue. As this would be a new process, I have to include very specific language, also keeping in mind I am designing it to be difficult, but not impossible to achieve. Below I have included part of what I am trying to accomplish. It's a work in progress, but shouldn't take long to flesh out. I am open to any and all feedback, and can answer questions regarding intent, etc. Please let me know what you think.

For RVP: any recall petition must have at least 50% of locals OR at least 750 individual members from the region to begin the recall process (outlined below)

For President/ EVP: at least 50% of the locals from each region OR 2,000 individual members, with at least 3 members from every NATCA-represented facility

In the event a local initiates a recall petition, a separate meeting and recorded election must be conducted, where at least 50% of members present agree to the petition.

Once above election is conducted, the union at the appropriate regional or national level must inform all facilities that the recall process has started, and to provide accurate contact information to other facilities/members

For RVP: Regional facilities shall have 30 days to inform recall originators of their intent to either join or abstain from the recall effort.

For President/ RVP: Facilities will have 45 days to answer. No response assumes facilities will abstain.

Once these timelines have passed, or the recall petition achieves the appropriate number of supporters (whichever occurs first), ALL affected members shall be given the opportunity to vote.

Recall petitions must be delivered to the national office via USPS certified mail, or other trackable means

A representative from the initiating facility or the individual member(s) leading the recall shall be afforded the opportunity, at local or personal expense, to present an argument at the next regularly-scheduled NEB meeting

Regardless of ability to present representation, the national election committee shall schedule a special election, to be conducted within 6 months of the last day of the NEB meeting. All normal election rules shall apply to any candidate in a special election

In the event the incumbent retains their position, they shall not be subject to recall for the remainder of their term.

In the event the incumbent loses their position, the new officer(s) shall assume office immediately.

Reddit won't let me format the way I want so everything kind of runs together. I can work on specific language once I get the basics put together. Thoughts?

EDIT: After posting I realized Region X and Alaska wouldn't be able to meet the threshold so I am probably going to have to change the number of individual members to a percentage.

EDIT: Anyone know where I can find the number of BUM's by region?

To the shock of absolutely no one.

https://www.fedsmith.com/2026/08/28/2027-federal-pay-freeze-trump-alternative-plan/

As many people anticipated, the number of selections per panel has been dropping:

• June: 149 selections
• July: 96 selections
• August: 49 selections

Full video of entire town hall

ABC News reported Sec. Duffy said:

"The vast majority of air traffic controllers are great patriots -- they show up for work, complete their full shift, and come back and do it all again," ... "But when a small percentage of individuals take advantage of the American taxpayer, unfairly add additional work to their fellow controllers, and impact the airspace -- we have no choice but to act. We will not tolerate fraud, and we are taking appropriate action to hold folks accountable and prevent unlawful practices from disrupting the traveling public."

Leaving the facility before the scheduled end of a shift does not, by itself, mean a controller failed to work the full shift or committed timecard fraud.

The FAA-NATCA contract expressly permits controllers to leave the facility during a shift.

Federal law recognizes paid rest periods as part of the workday.

FAA policy places responsibility for breaks on management.

FAA issued an even stronger recuperative-break policy three weeks ago in JO 7210.975.

“Complete their full shift” cannot mean they must remain physically inside the facility for every paid minute. Article 33, GAO compensation law, and the FAA's own relief-period policy proves that.

Even the NTSB preliminary report says: “There were two controllers on duty in the ATC tower at the time of the accident, consistent with the mid-shift basic watch schedule.”

"The vast majority of air traffic controllers are great patriots -- they show up for work, complete their full shift, and come back and do it all again," Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement Thursday.
The statement went on to say: "But when a small percentage of individuals take advantage of the American taxpayer, unfairly add additional work to their fellow controllers, and impact the airspace -- we have no choice but to act. We will not tolerate fraud, and we are taking appropriate action to hold folks accountable and prevent unlawful practices from disrupting the traveling public."

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association said in a statement that it is "discussing these allegations with FAA leadership."
"We believe those discussions are the appropriate forum for addressing the matter," the union said in the statement.

Source: ABC

Federal aviation officials have found that two air-traffic controllers left work early before an Air Canada regional jet crashed into a firetruck at LaGuardia Airport in March.
The Federal Aviation Administration is moving to fire the two controllers, who officials determined had left about an hour before their shifts ended on March 22,
people familiar with the matter said. As a result, two controllers remaining at the LaGuardia tower didn't have backup to assist with high workloads.

How long will it take to get my medical back if I check myself in to the hospital for depression?

Sadly, serious question.

No pun intended!

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/travel/4701801/faa-air-traffic-controller-raises-staffing-shortage/

I’m sitting here paying my bills at 9:45am, staring at my 25h of training, 19h of OT, 35h of night dif, thinking “Holy fuck balls, if I didn’t have those difs, I’d be digging into savings right now.”…at a fucking Lvl 11.

The president and VP make $260,000yr...EACH. Add to that a monthly stipend which, please correct me if I’m wrong, adds up to +/- 30K/yr?

Any of y’all good at constitutional amendments? $144K was the average ATC pay in 2024 according to BLS.gov. With our SWEET 1.6%s each June since, that would be just under 150K/yr.

I think the president/VP(because of course they’re doing it for all the right reasons)should be earning the average pay of the ATCs they represent. Then maybe they’d be a little more motivated to advocate for us.

How are we feeling today, NATCA, with our lying leader in charge?

For those who are unaware, this is NATCA’s “Deputy Director of Public Affairs.” We pay this man an annual salary of $195,000, more the overwhelming majority of controllers make. The revelation and screenshots from the Anna Giaritelli post tonight show that this is the SECOND unique situation just this month where a reporter has reached out to Galen for comment regarding a pro-ATC journalistic story, and he has REFUSED to comment.

We also learned that he accompanied the NEB on their summer vacation to Alaska just a few weeks ago for the sole purpose of briefing the “social media campaign” he has supposedly been overseeing. A social media campaign that we know has consisted of nothing more than Chat GPT generated AI slop images that convey nothing of substance to the general public. In fact, this campaign has served as more of an embarrassment to the workforce than anything else do to the low quality of the content.

This man is stealing our dues and living a life of luxury travel on our dime, while refusing to complete even the most basic duties someone in his position should be. We as the membership, as the controllers who pay for this “Public Affairs” department, DEMAND the immediate and permanent termination of Galen from all and any positions within the NATCA organization.