Air traffic controllers approve new contract

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association has ratified a new contract with the Federal Aviation Administration, ending a three-year conflict between the union and the agency.

"It is a testament to our membership that they have endured the worst time in our union's history, working toward and holding out for a contract that was negotiated in a fair process and agreed to by the parties," outgoing NATCA President Patrick Forrey said in a statement. "Now is the time to move forward and forge a working relationship that will stabilize the workforce, effectively train the large number of new hires, and keep the current system safe and efficient while we transition to the Next Generation Air Transportation System."

NATCA spokesman Doug Church said 97 percent of the union's membership voted in favor of the contract.

"The union's ratification vote is great news and marks a new day between the controllers and the FAA," said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

The union and NATCA have been at odds since 2006 when then-FAA Administrator Marion Blakey declared that negotiations over a new contract had deadlocked and imposed pay and work rules on controllers. In August, a mediation panel assigned to arbitrate a few remaining issues that the union and agency could not resolve in a renewed round of bargaining, criticized Blakey's pay rules as "draconian reductions in compensation, bordering on the unconscionable."

The mediators, in their August decision, set a new pay system for trainee controllers and ruled that by Jan. 1, 2010, the FAA must establish paybands for air traffic controllers. Under that system, the lowest annual salary for a fully qualified controller will be $40,869, and the maximum will be $114,106. In January 2010, 2011 and 2012, controllers' base pay will rise 3 percent.

The mediators also ruled on issues including annual leave and a new grievance procedure to help clear a backlog of complaints filed by controllers protesting the work rules imposed by Blakey. The contract includes 120 other provisions that largely deal with working conditions. The mediators' decision did not need to be ratified by the air traffic controllers. The contract is effective Oct. 1.

Forrey, who was elected as NATCA's president in the wake of failed contract negotiations in 2006, will not be in office to implement the new labor agreement. He lost a three-way re-election campaign earlier in the summer, and his vice president, Paul Rinaldi, won a runoff election to replace him. Rinaldi will assume office on Oct. 17.