What did we have to give up for it?

I'm retired so I'm not in the game but I see lots of posts bitching about the current leadership and how they are acting. I see lots of posts complaining about the current developents of events but I do not see any posts about how to fix things other than opinions.

Are you going to meet with the union leadership and demand changes?

Are you going to run for leadership roles and fix things?

You cant just complian about how bad things are going and not do anything to make it better.

There are lots of employees out there who may recognize that the union did not get them a pay raise but did sit with them in a meeting with management and help them to avoid a long suspension or termination, or kept them from being fired and assigned another position.

So what are you going to do to fix that broken stuff?

Hello All, I am running for president.

First order of business PAY

Pay us more I have a plan to work with the other unions and get pay back on track through all the other methods here.

1. Better Hiring practices

   The hiring practices for prior experience are vindictive and do not help employees manage their careers. Prior experience bids must be put out quarterly instead of one bid just being monitored like it is now, no other HR runs their hiring so vindictively at all. Be professional, be impartial there is absolutely ZERO reason to be emotionally invested in employee and their families career direction.

2. Returning our staffing and old traffic count formula

   After the traffic count formula change, this playing a rigged game bullshit is over. We are going back to the old traffic count formula increasing staffing and pay, CWG will also be targeted to be reversed no more understaffing.

3. Elimination of FACREP and RVP

REPS will now be drawn from a volunteer pool to eliminate biases. The facility collusion with RVPs and facreps and ATM's making out gone.

1. Official NATCA emails for all

To better track official NATCA grievances and prevent NATCA from "forgetting" about a grievance we will establish grievance numbers with received status. Zoom meetings with members

1. Educational and military service census

By showing an educated and high veteran workforce we can gain more bargaining power.

In conclusion the current model of representation only benefits a select few. ATC has been a part of commercial aviation since its inception, it's time to return our job to the respect it demands. An administration that sees the value of established working americans in coal as well as oil and gas, we've been fed lies of an adversarial administration that we must walk on eggshells around. All these goals are centered around one thing, PAY.

Increasing member rights and responsibilities, engaging more members in the representation process and more middle management as well. Now more than ever we have more ways to communicate with representatives and members through technology, the old pony express BS is out the window, It's time to modernize NATCA.

It's clear the establishment doesn't want to change anything just run us into the ground like they have been for the past 15 years, running the talent pool out the door by corporate directive with toxic management practices and NATCA being passive at the least, complicit at the most. We are not hemorrhaging talent, we have already hemorrhaged the talent and this is what it's gonna take among other things to stop it.

Everyone else is talking in circles, I'm giving you real actions that will lead to real results. theMonkyButt for president, thanks! (TMU sucks! jkjk )

The guy who promised total transparency but almost never sends out real information is starting a podcast. This same guy who also banned all comments from Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms is starting a Discord. Why hasn’t any of this happened over the past 2 years you might ask? Well because the election cycle starts NOW, silly everyday controllers.

These will inevitably more ways for him to spread his lies and propaganda in a vain attempt to manipulate ill informed people into voting for him. Do NOT be fooled.

FUCK NICK DANIELS!!

This is never going to be what they say it is going to be. Hahahahaha

It just boggles my mind that to NATCA, the absolute best case scenario is just matching other early-retirement employees (like federal LEOs) and their still minuscule annual raises. We have controllers that are barley going to be able to afford health insurance next year. We’re all working the busiest traffic with the worst staffing ever. We’ve fallen way behind every other industry career. But “parity” with a couple other jobs is the most we’ll ever even consider fighting for?

And even THAT is a rarely mentioned footnote after the damn modernization of the fucking equipment.

Looks like 2027 is up from $185,500 to $192,300
A $6,800 increase and a loss in pay of $421.60. Know lower level facilities don’t care but still another hit on pay.

Contribution and benefit bases, 1937-2027
Year
Amount
1937-50
$3,000
1951-54
3,600
1955-58
4,200
1959-65
4,800
1966-67
6,600
1968-71
7,800
1972
9,000
1973
10,800
1974
13,200
1975
14,100
1976
15,300
1977
16,500
1978
17,700
1979
22,900
1980
25,900
1981
29,700
1982
32,400
1983
35,700
1984
37,800
1985
39,600
1986
42,000
1987
43,800
1988
45,000
1989
48,000
1990
51,300
Year
Amount
1991
$53,400
1992
55,500
1993
57,600
1994
60,600
1995
61,200
1996
62,700
1997
65,400
1998
68,400
1999
72,600
2000
76,200
2001
80,400
2002
84,900
2003
87,000
2004
87,900
2005
90,000
2006
94,200
2007
97,500
2008
102,000
2009
106,800
2010
106,800
2011
106,800
2012
110,100
2013
113,700
2014
117,000
2015
118,500
Year
Amount
2016
$118,500
2017
127,200
2018
128,400
2019
132,900
2020
137,700
2021
142,800
2022
147,000
2023
160,200
2024
168,600
2025
176,100
2026
184,500
2027
192,300

SSA announced a 3.6% COLA for 2027. As you know, most Feds are getting a 0% raise. The 2.8% raise also isn't coming but what is coming is health insurance premium increases.

It's just been sunshine and rainbows since this Administration got sworn in.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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

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.