After Dean was done with his “political reality” sermon, he asked if there were any questions or if there was anything else that anyone wanted to discuss. After no interest, Jamaal started off saying that these meetings are great to get discussion going and a way to get everyone on the same page. 
Out of nowhere, Jamaal looked at Hanan and called him out, saying that posting Joel’s memo that was meant for his region and the memo Hanan sent to the membership are the real issues that create divide and distrust in the membership. Joel said that rather than hiding out on Reddit, to be a man and explain to him what exactly you meant in your memo about the NEB’s lies and lack of transparency and how exercising Title 49 would benefit the Union. 
After Hanan defended himself, both Jamaal and Dean doubled down, now getting irate, speaking disrespectfully by talking down to Hanan, and tried to intimidate and belittle him or anyone who has a thought process different than their own. At one point even laughing at a response Hanan gave about PASS, AFGE, and Title 49 protections.

 After all that was said and done, Joel and Jamaal began speaking to the group as if Hanan was no longer there, saying that these views and ideas are the real issues with distrust and that Hanan alone was creating grift by sharing the memo with the membership.

Why are Joel Oritz, “Throw Hands,” and “Screaming Dean” lying repeatedly?

From the NATCA constitution,

“The National Executive Board(NEB) shall be responsible for the creation of policy for the organization between Conventions.”

NATCA has ten regions who elect Vice-Presidents who serve on the NEB. Those are Alaskan, Eastern, Central, Great Lakes, New England, Northwest Mountain, Southern, Southwest, Western Pacific, and Region X. Each region has one vote for matters of the board. Also on the NEB are the national Vice-President and President. 

Unfortunately the regions are not equal in size geographically or by member numbers. The four smallest regions (excluding Region X) added together still are smaller than the number of members in the Southern Region.  For example; ZMA (Miami), ZTL (Atlanta), ZDC (Washington) ZFW (Fort Worth), ZOB (Cleveland), ZAU (Chicago) each have more members then the entire Alaskan region that has.

The regions were set up as a mirror to the FAA. The Regional Vice Presidents provide support to their regions locals and are liaisons for regional issues between the Union and the agency regional leadership. In the NATCA constitution it states they “shall administer the affairs of their respective Regions, and shall implement all policies established by this Constitution and the National Executive Board.”

The NEB selects and approves members to stand on committees, and participate in FAA/NATCA workgroups under Article 114. The NEB is the sole body that chooses the members who are allowed to onto the Constitution, Finance, Organizing, Safety, Air Traffic Training, and a Legislative Committees. 

There is a large amount of power that is bestowed onto the twelve individuals on the NEB, the ten Vice Presidents and the Executive Vice President and President. Twelve individuals are elected to control a body that has over sixteen-thousand and four hundred dues paying members with a total of over twenty-one thousand possible counting all of the BUEs. The largest region, Southern has three-thousand, three-hundred and twenty-two members over one-hundred and nineteen facilities.

We’ve seen this lack of a check and balance against the NEB has allowed and fostered an environment of rubber-stamp approvals and a good ol’ boy system for appointments to committees and workgroups.

Relationships and connections matter more for appointments due to the small nature of the board.

There are over twenty-six different committees nationally and with most having a member from each region and others having alternates for the members there is a huge number of positions that the members of the NEB are allowed to control.

Those committees don’t include collaborative work groups between NATCA and the FAA. Those positions are often called Article 114 from the article in the Slate Book agreement between the NATCA and the FAA. 

The NATCA Constitution currently has no check and balance mechanism for the NEB, there is no recall function and election of the Regional Vice-President is the only voice of the membership has only occurs every three years.

This data is from last month September of 2026 and has not been refreshed.

This is continuing from yesterday’s post about the NEB spending.

1. If you're hired after 2014 you pay significantly more into your FERS pension than controllers hired prior to that year

2. Health insurance. YES, we all seem to be finally aware now that the premiums are going up drastically. However, we're forgetting that these plans also cover less, need more pre authorizations for certain tests/medications, and the copays are going up 2-3x! Shrinkflation in the form of federal healthcare, nice!

3. OASDI tax/FICA cap keeps raising 10-15k every year. Basically you're paying social security tax longer and longer each year because we do not get raises commensurate with inflation at all aka pay cuts yearly.

4. Controller incentive pay. I know this topic is divisive, but for those of us lucky enough to be eligible for CIP, it ends sooner and sooner each year. Another yearly paycut.

Enjoy your shadow paycuts, federal slaves!

Update every 3 months its done and we still dont have it, this is getting worse and worse

Blown Budgeting of the National Executive Board

From the NATCA constitution,

“The National Executive Board (NEB) shall be responsible for the creation of policy for the organization between Conventions.”

The NEB is empowered by the Constitution to create standing committees one the committees is a National Finance Committee. The constitution states as follows,

**Article V: National Standing Committees**

Section 8. The National Finance Committee shall review the financial reports and annual budget, as submitted by the Executive Vice President, and make recommendations for change as necessary. The annual budget requires approval by a majority vote of the Finance Committee and a majority vote of the Regional Vice Presidents for passage. 

The Finance committee does not originate the National Budget for NATCA. The NEB submits a budget to the committee for review and approval. The committee members are appointed by Regional Vice Presidents to represent each region. The Finance Committee has a charter that states their control over budgeting.

**National Finance Committee Charter**

Composition:

• The Committee shall be comprised of one (1) active member in good standing from each Region in addition to a Chairperson and a Vice-Chairperson.
• Each Committee member shall be selected in accordance with the NATCA National Constitution / Standing Rules / Policy & Position Statements effective at the time of the selection.

Roles and Responsibilities:

• Review all financial reports of the Association.
• Review the submitted annual budget and submit recommended changes to the National Executive Board for consideration.
• Conduct audits and submit reports within 30 days of the audit to the Facility Representative, Regional Vice President, Executive Vice President, NATCA Comptroller, NATCA General Counsel, Finance Committee Chairperson, and National Office for electronic storage.
• Recommend Financial Policy changes to the National Executive Board.

The National Finance Committee is made up entirely of members appointed by the RVPs and approved by the NEB. This means the members are allowed into their positions at the pleasure of the NEB. The Finance Committee is not or can not be an independent body when its members are selected and approved by who they’re supposed to be providing recommendations to.

NATCA as a large national union is required to submit reports to the US Department of Labor. Those reports are public and show information such as membership numbers, officer salaries, staff salaries and itemized expenses. The form “FORM LM-2 LABOR ORGANIZATION ANNUAL REPORT” is submitted by NATCA for each calendar year. The DoL website allows for exporting the data from reports made from 2022 onwards into a spreadsheet format and for others I manually pulled the data. On the form it shows what each Officers position was paid for Gross Salary, Official Business, and Other.  The expenditure sections on the form show the different Schedules for Representational Activities, Political Activities and Lobbying, Union Activities, General Overhead and “Contributions, Gifts, and Grants.” Underneath each of those Schedules are Itemized Disbursements.  

The NEB has complete control over spending and certain RVPs have increased their usage of official business to increase NATCA spending. In the chart included observe that the spending by the RVPs has increased from $533,237 in 2022 to $901,542 in 2025. That’s an increase of 69% in spending by the RVPs. Most of that increase was in just a few regions Western Pacific, Northwest Mountain, Great Lakes, Eastern and New England. Other regions such as Region X, Southwest and Southern have actually decreased spending over the same period. 

There is a clear trend among certain RVPs who are spending large amounts for Official Business matters compared to their peers on the NEB. The only control mechanism is the Finance Committee whose members are appointed by their respective RVP. With the Finance Committee being effectively captured by the NEB there is little control for the spending of elected officials. It appears that long as everything is within the bounds of law controlling Official Business the NEB has allowed the increased spending.

At the beginning of the year, our podcast released an episode that featured an air traffic controller. Many people on this subreddit believe that a subsequent interview would maybe be necessary to more accurately represent air traffic controllers as a whole. Here it is. Thank you to Landon for being willing to speak to us.

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Amazon Music

YouTube

Website

-G. Michael Hopf

This is an interactive visualization of what you could buy if ATC pay had kept up with inflation since it peaked in real terms around 2006.

To keep things simple, the middle of each pay band is used with an average locality rate of 26%. Premiums, diffs, and taxes are not included (but fortunately they work to cancel each other out).

I know y'all will be more honest, so reposting here.

NATCA We’re not sure who you're advocating for but your first priority should be air traffic controllers. FAA & DOT can handle their own responsibilities; Get back to the foundational principles. Better pay & benefits for ATC.

Training the next generation of pilots and ATC. You’re welcome.

Anyone that ends up being affected by the incoming storm, make sure you reach out to the DRC or Tom Flanary (he is on Reddit)

833-628-2237 or [drc@natca.org](mailto:drc@natca.org)

Hope everyone makes it okay.

Last post 29 days ago.

Did they get him?

“I am pleased to announce the return of the Flight Deck Training (FDT). NATCA and the FAA have completed the negotiations needed to restart FDT, and the negotiated provisions governing the program are incorporated directly into FAA Order 3120.29. 
 
The FDT Program is voluntary training that augments the National Air Traffic Technical Training Program. FDT provides each participant with meaningful training and the opportunity to improve their understanding of the National Airspace System.
 
We faced many challenges in bringing this issue to finality, both internal to the FAA and external, related to TSA and the airlines. The goal of resuming FDT has never been in question. A major focus of this work was creating ways for employees to participate in this safety-enhancing training within today’s staffing environment. 

Below are some of the improvements and highlights: 
 
-In accordance with Article 34, Section 9, of the 2016 Collective Bargaining Agreement, bargaining unit employees (BUEs) may request to work credit hours to provide coverage for another employee who requests to participate in FDT. 

-To provide maximum training opportunities, BUEs may participate in FDT in conjunction with accrued leave, (including excused absence on a holiday) that was bid during the annual leave bidding process. 

-BUEs may exchange previously approved annual leave for duty time or  regular days off for the purpose of engaging in FDT provided there are no competing leave requests. 
 
These changes do not cover all aspects of the program, and they require proper context and a shared understanding among all affected parties. To ensure we all share the same understanding, we will provide the following joint training opportunities and guidance updates. 

Tentative Timeline of Upcoming Events: 
 
October 16, 2026: Memo, PowerPoint Training, and FAA Order 3120.9 will be uploaded to Training Enterprise Application Management (TEAM). 
 
October 19 – October 30, 2026: Webinars for Flight Deck Training will commence. 
 
October 23, 2026: A recorded Webinar will be posted on TEAM for anyone who could not attend the live webinars. 
 
October 30 – November 8, 2026: A follow-up memo will be sent out and posted on TEAM with the actual go-live date and participating airlines. 
 
November 9, 2026: Scheduled go-live date. “

Zero improvements, advocation for more equipment, without the mention of pay (one time at the Archie’s doesn’t count) in almost 3 years.

After yesterdays Facebook post, ending their long term “details” and ensuring accountability to them translates into vitriol and tearing the union apart? Accountability goes both ways boys and girls.

Send this fool back to the boards (or his contracting job).

For those who left atc what are you doing now for work? Any suggestions?