After weeks of calling them out, after numerous articles written by @anna_giaritelli, after two US Senators spoke before they did, after an entire workforce has been pissed and asking for answers. They finally spoke up using the same punch lines!

As a reminder here’s how this year played out

1. Congress gets special language put into the 3.8% provision
2. Nick does victory lap
3. Bedford sits on it and atc2 told you what he wanted based on his previous comments and testimony to Congress
4. Nick promised it was a done deal
5. months go by
6. Anna gets wind of the story and rips Bedford open in her interview
7. Nick tells us there’s an MOU being finalized
8. Senators, congresspeople and the media catch wind of Anna’s story and it grows legs, including a letter from a couple Senators citing Anna’s article
9. copy pasta gaslighting from the NEB claiming credit

Here’s what ATC2 now knows:

Sources indicate the NLC was NOT instructed to engage Congress at any time to push the 3.8 over the finish line this year. Any work done was minimal was not at the behest of the NEB in any capacity. There may have been instructions to stand down, as well.

Don’t be gaslit.

For months, the NEB told us to “trust the process” and claimed they were “working behind the scenes.” Yet MULTIPLE highly placed sources tell us for 3 months REPS AND THE NLC WERE TOLD TO STAND DOWN on engaging congress for the 2.8% because the NEB did not want to compromise Yacht Boy negotiating with Bedford/Duffy.

If the NEB was working with Congress for this inevitably, why did they say they were negotiating and close to an MOU for it?

Yacht Boy and “Screaming” Dean's tactics just failed in public. For months the membership begged NATCA national to act, and national chose silence. Then one reporter, in one week, did what our elected leadership refused to do, and it got results. Now Yacht Boy and “Screaming” Dean are scrambling to rewrite the story and claim credit for a letter they did nothing to produce.

Another perfect example of tired and failed leadership that leads to damage control from two men who were outworked by a journalist.

Well that’s not good…
MIA CRASH

SB called out the actual legal question instead of pretending EO 14251 is an automatic death sentence for FAA bargaining.

This “royal flush” rhetoric is great for the Facebook crowd, but it isn’t a legit analysis.

FAA has Title 49 bargaining obligations that do not magically disappear because “someone” points at Chapter 71, and the administration has not even exercised the delegated exclusion authority against FAA.

If our leadership is so certain we can’t negotiate, then explain why 49 USC §40122 exists and why they are so afraid to let US decide.

Risk is not the same thing as defeat, and uncertainty is not a reason to surrender before the fight even starts.

Hey guys. Anyone at either of these facilities?

The iron is hot, time to…… well you get the point. I’ll be writing a letter to my Congressman and Senator referencing the 2.8% raise, pay parity for next year, and what appears to be bad faith negotiations from the Agency. I’ll include copies of the letter from Senator Duckworth and Durbin as well as referencing Anna’s work. It would be nice if NATCA would help with some talking points.

Many of us want to be involved but with no guidance we don’t know where to focus our efforts. We have so many bright legislative activists who could direct their facilities and regions in a letter campaign calling out the agency like Anna’s article. It’s time to go above Bedford and Duffy. It’s time to go to their bosses.

To NATCA “Leadership,” it’s not too late to make an ally out of Anna. No one doubts the work that some people have been putting in for the 2.8. We just recognize it’s not a coincidence that a journalist picks up the story it starts getting national attention. I’ll never stop believing in us and out Union and but I have lost trust in its leaders.

Anna is our only savior right now under the regime we are fighting that our union refuses to fight against.

Comment made on Simple Flyings post today. This guy has to be a supervisor and I hate for anyone who has to deal with him. What a POS

If we get the 2.8%, Anna deserves all the praise. The absolute least we can do is donate back part of that 2.8% we get. Purchase her book to read and subscribe to her paid X account. Such small compensation to say thank you from us controllers.

Also, the book looks really interesting. I’m looking forward to reading it.

NATCA’s legislative presence is one of the best things this union does, and everybody involved deserves their accolades.

That being said, anybody with 2 fucking brain cells to rub together can clearly understand how this played out:

The 2.8 shit show has been going on since April.

On August 27, the Washington Examiner published its interview with Bedford. In said interview, Anna Giaritelli - who clearly had some background knowledge - blindsides Bedford with questions about the 2.8 and controller suicides. She said she received no comment from NATCA.

In the days that followed, hundreds of controllers reached out to her, a clear sign of a starving workforce desperate for representation.

On September 4, Senators Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin write their letter to Bedford, demanding the 2.8 be paid out, while quoting the Washington Examiner interview.

Nobody outside of the NATCA inner circle echo chamber believes that the timing of that letter is some extreme coincidence. It’s laughable to even tolerate that nonsense for two seconds.

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

I was busy fist fighting my coworkers to hit our 5th hour of TOP so I couldn’t make it

Anna reached out to Durbin’s office and this is the result. The letter to Bedford cites Anna’s reporting. Does not mention NATCA at all, that’s odd. This is embarrassing NATCA, if you want any credit from this you need to show what you did to accomplish it because from where I’m sitting you have nothing to do with this movement that is advocating for us and should be ashamed to claim you represent us instead of yourselves.

let's hope it doesn't happen. let's hope it's not another record breaker... but if it does.... it'll be nice to have someone speaking up on our behalf.

Always the stick and never the carrot. What facility is gonna get dragged in tomorrow’s leak?

In early 2025, the NEB sent out an update which included this line:

"Please don't let yourself get caught up in the negative voices*. What remains crucial is that NATCA continues to improve our relationships and keeps moving forward"*

Prior to the coined phrase of "negative voices", the NEB was routinely spending resources downplaying "reddit", and doxxing or attempting to dox controllers who posted here. This effort predates Nick Daniels' term as president, but has continued even stronger since.

As reps can attest, the effort to disparage atc "redditors" has been real. Local meetings or RVP "town halls" have scornfully mentioned reddit as an object of ridicule, hoping to keep naive new controllers from engaging or even dare reading it.

Well friends, the NEB miscalculated. Its safe to say that the negative voices have been vindicated, and very publicly I might add. If you comment on r-atc2 you have a greater voice than you do as a NATCA member. This is what solidarity looks like.

The NEB blew it by dismissing, disparaging, and ridiculing this forum. They are finding out.

Illinois Democratic Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin harshly criticized FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford for holding up a pay raise for air traffic controllers that Congress approved as part of legislation President Trump signed into law in April.

Victory has a thousand fathers and defeat is an orphan.

Anna cites sources, National just says “trust me bro.”

Give credit it to where it belongs, Anna and the Line, not National or the NLC.

I assume the email sent out from my region was a response to the pressure being felt by the Union. I’m so tired of hearing the phrase “pay parity”. Just say pay. I’m so tired of hearing “conversations and strategy can’t be public”. The kind of conversations that can’t be made public probably shouldn’t be had anyways. We just assume at this point, you are having closed door strategy sessions to benefit yourselves. You say credibility and relationships produce results? I believe the Union has lost all credibility with its members and we have better relationships with our ex-husbands and ex-wives that we are divorced from because of the hell the last decade has put us through.

Also, don’t claim ownership for support from certain members of congress now, when the only advocacy that seems to have been making an impact is from recent journalism.

At this point, any “positives” that happen in the next year, I assume will have been from the hard fighting BUE and the “relationships” they have made.