Sen. Barack Obama's Speech to NATCA in Washington 2006 Attendees

 
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Thanks to all of you for giving me an opportunity to speak here today.  I’m going to be brief because some of you know we’ve got this little matter of a Supreme Court justice that we have to vote on in a few minutes, but I wanted to come here and express a special thanks to all of you. 

On most days you do a job and perform a service for our country that can be thankless and underappreciated.  Everyday you’re responsible for the successful flights and safe landings all over America – the success that the rest of us generally take for granted, the one that this nation was particularly grateful for during our time of greatest need.  I still marvel when I think about the hours after the terrorist attacks on 9/11 and how America’s air traffic controllers rose to meet the tremendous challenges that day.  You halted takeoffs. You began clearing the skies under unprecedented conditions. You guided 4500 planes carrying 350 thousand passengers to safe landings.  You rerouted more than 1100 of the 4500 flights within the first 15 minutes of the landing order – that’s about one every second – and completely cleared the skies within two and a half hours.  That was an amazing feat.  It’s one you had day in and day out on a smaller scale and under calmer conditions, it’s one you’ve completed many times since – and for that you deserve our gratitude, and for that you deserve our respect. 

But I know that right now many of you feel that you might not be getting the gratitude and respect you deserve from your employer.  I know that you’re all having a tough time in your contract negotiations with the FAA. As you know, the lower courts have determined that the FAA administrator currently has the extraordinary authority to impose wages and working conditions on you without agreement and without arbitration.  In order to do that, she merely has to declare an impasse in negotiations and if congress doesn’t set everything else aside and stop her from imposing her terms, the administrator can go ahead and act on her own.  That authority denies you and all other FAA employees the right to engage in good faith negotiations.  I think this is wrong.

The right of working men and women to collectively bargain in this country is fundamental. For ages it’s been the most democratic way to secure the wages and benefits you need to raise a family and get ahead.  No government, no employer should stand in the way of that right, and it’s our job to defend it.  And that’s why I’ve introduced the FAA fair labor management dispute resolution act of 2006.  I’m proud to say that senators Inouye, Murray, Lautenberg, Durbin, and our Democratic leader Harry Reid have joined me in this effort.  All this bill asks for is that any impasse in negotiations goes to a neutral binding arbitration, where a third party with the time and resources to evaluate both your position and the administrator’s position, to reach a fair solution.  Right now you’re negotiating with a partner who holds all the power and makes all the calls. This bill would restore fairness to this process by putting these negotiations back on an equal playing ground. 

But this won’t happen on it’s own.  I’m going to need your help so that we can reach senators on the other side of the isle and gain their support.  That’s how we can get this done. 

Now the administrator says the FAA needs to operate like a business, that you’re paid too much given the current state of the airline industry, and that binding arbitration is changing the rules in the middle of the game.  That’s what she says.  My message to the administrator is this: the FAA is not a business driven to cut costs and conserve profits.  It’s a public agency charged with protecting the lives of millions of Americans, and the men and women who do this successfully should be respected accordingly.  The nation’s air safety should not depend on how well or poorly the airlines are doing financially.  And if we had to change the rules in the middle of the game to make sure that that’s the case, so be it.  It is in all our best interests – the air traffic controllers, the FAA Administrator, the federal government, and especially the American people – for these negotiations to be cooperative and fair.  Our public safety depends on it.  So I hope that this bill will help you resolve this contract, and I hope that it helps you reach a fair agreement through a fair process.

I want to thank you all again for your hard work. I want to thank you for the outstanding job that you do each and every day. Every time you get on a plane from Chicago to Washington to help me to do my job, but more importantly, every time I get a plane from Washington to Chicago to take me to my wife and two little daughters, I’m depending on you.  And because I’m depending on you as other Americans are depending on you, I think it makes sense that you can count on us when you need us. 

Thank you very much everybody, I appreciate it.