Outside the courtroom with the NY11
The FAA has repeatedly asserted that air traffic professionals are overpaid, and that anyone off the street can do their jobs: by now, its unwarranted public reproach comes as no surprise to agency employees. But in July 2005, the agency went too far when, in another poorly-disguised attempt to intimidate the workforce, it fired 11 controllers at the New York TRACON (N90) for neglecting to check one box on its 8500-8 medical form.
Five months after their dismissal, the controllers endured a five-day hearing after which the FAA settled with the union, offering all 11 controllers their jobs back with full back pay. “The FAA went first and put on its best case,” said NATCA President John Carr. “And when it finished trying to justify its unjustifiable actions, we rested. We advised the arbitrator that we were very comfortably allowing the agency’s testimony and actions speak for themselves because when all of the facts were presented, we believed any clear thinking independent third party would conclude the action was unconscionable on its face, unjustifiable under the statute, and wrongful termination in the eyes of the law.”
“The removal of 11 hardworking men from N90, supposedly for not thinking it necessary to check a box on a form regarding a medical condition about which the agency had already known and approved treatment for, exposed the agency’s agenda of animus toward our union and its members,” said Eastern Regional Vice President Phil Barbarello.
On Dec. 12, 2005, Carr escorted the controllers who’ve come to be known as “the NY11” back to their facility. But what was a victory for the union was still only bittersweet for some of the controllers, who had been forced to live for months in uncertainty: not only about their careers, but about their livelihood and the well-being of their families.
“I couldn’t tell my wife for about a week,” recalls N90 Controller Peter Wong, a member of NATCA since 1991. “And then I didn’t tell my kids until they started wondering why I was home all the time. How do you tell them you got fired for no reason? All I’ve ever taught them is to tell the truth and do the right things, and you’ll get what you deserve. So if I got fired, I must have gotten what I deserve, right?”
The FAA’s willingness to disregard the effect this ordeal would have on the controllers’ entire lives was an especially sore point with Wong. “My family was just innocent bystanders,” he said. “They didn’t deserve this hardship. My wife wouldn’t go shopping; she would only buy the bare minimum to keep the household going. One day, I overheard my kids talking about it: they thought we had to move, which was a real possibility. My kids shouldn’t have to worry that we would uproot them at any time.”
“They were really supportive,” recalled N90 Controller John Kaplun about his own family. “My wife got a job, and my kids even offered me their own paychecks. But I had to use my retirement money to pay the bills. I became a stay-at-home dad, and it brought my family closer – but I think we were lucky. It could easily have been the opposite.”
“I knew the action wasn’t sustainable, and my wife read the letter and immediately said, ‘We’ll fight this thing,’” Kaplun continued. “It was a management failure: the form says that instructions must be given alongside the form, but I never got those instructions. None of us did.”
Despite the obvious legal indiscretion and NATCA’s support, however, some of the controllers found it difficult to remain optimistic. “I knew I was going to have NATCA’s help, but I also knew it could take up to a year to get my job back,” Wong recalled. “I thought about getting another job, but air traffic is the only thing I’ve known for the better part of my adult life, and I couldn’t have found another job to support my family that easily. So if I wasn’t going to get my job back in a couple of months, my plan was to sell the house and move to a cheaper state.”
With the assistance of the NATCA labor relations staff and Outside Counsel Bill Osborne, Wong and his 10 coworkers didn’t have to sell their houses or uproot their families. “I really understand the importance of the union now,” said Kaplun. “Without the contract, we’d have had nothing.”
After the FAA realized an arbitrator would rule against them and therefore settled with the union, the controllers went back to work. As Carr noted, “These members made a triumphant return to doing what they do best: working airplanes. I was incredibly proud to witness it, and to see a tremendous wrong righted.”
Unfortunately, even after the union’s legal victory, it appears the agency is determined to continue mistreating its employees, even at N90. “They’re still handing out suspensions, penalizations, and refusing overtime,” Kaplun noted. “They’re squandering and abusing their workforce, and burning us out. They’re trying to break us with a continued pattern of harassment. There’s no accountability for management, and it’s compromising safety.”
The work environment at N90 eventually forced one of the NY11 to resign from his position in early January. In his resignation letter, 15-year veteran Air Traffic Specialist Kevin Delaney praised his coworkers, the very same controllers whom the FAA deemed fit for dismissal: “The controllers at the New York TRACON are among the finest in the world. […] It has been an absolute honor to work these past 15 years with these fine controllers at my side, and I would have it no other way.”
Delaney followed this praise with a very clear reason for his resignation, stating, “This job has enough inherent worries and pressures to deal with without constant harassment from upper management. […] You chose to summarily fire myself along with 10 of my colleagues. This action was proven during arbitration to have been unwarranted, invalid, and malicious, and you did not follow any of the proper guidelines for disciplinary actions and used extremely poor judgment.” Delaney then addresses the effect that this dismissal had on his family: “The stress and upheaval that has been experienced by my family is completely unacceptable. My wife had to change her career, and my children were placed in fear of the uncertainty of our future. Upon my return to your workforce, I have been continually made to feel ill at ease. […] It is this continued lack of consideration for a workforce that you do not even know, or understand, that has brought me to the decision that I make today.”
Delaney’s fellow controllers see his resignation as the agency’s loss. “He was one of the best employees I’ve ever seen,” said Kaplun. “He worked well with everyone, was a professional every day, and everyone likes him. The agency just forced out one of their best.”
Now, only a month after the NY11’s reinstatement, it appears the agency’s attempt to break the union has backfired. If anything, the union membership is even more resolved to fight the intimidation and persecution that continues.
“Thank God for NATCA,” stated Wong. “If we didn’t have the contract to protect us, none of us would have a job now. This is why the current contract negotiations are so important. If we lose that, then it’s going to be open season on everyone, and we won’t even get a fair shake.”
Barbarello agrees, and vows to stand strong with NATCA to fight the agency’s current agenda. “Wanting to break the union since this administration took office, the FAA took their big shot on the backs of 11 innocent victims with excellent records,” he said. “Our employer badly miscalculated. Instead of bringing us to our knees, we are energized with the knowledge that our union brothers and sisters all over the country stand tall, resolved, and rock solid.”
