SAG, NATCA and WGAE Elect Top Officers
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The Screen Actors (SAG) and National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) elected new leadership teams recently and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) re-elected their top officers.
Actor Ken Howard was elected as SAG’s president in a mail ballot, with results announced yesterday. Amy Aquino was elected secretary-treasurer. Howard and Aquino succeed Alan Rosenberg and Connie Stevens, respectively, and begin their two-year terms immediately.
Howard pledged to strengthen the union’s bargaining power:
“I campaigned on the promise that I’d do everything in my power to strengthen our position at the bargaining table by building a greater unity with [American Federation of Television and Radio Artists] AFTRA and the other entertainment unions, and that’s exactly what I intend to do. Despite the sharp differences that those of us active in Guild affairs sometimes have over strategy and tactics, we need to continually remind ourselves that we’re all on the same team, fighting for the same thing—and by pulling together, we’ll only grow stronger.”
NATCA chose Paul Rinaldi, an 18-year veteran air traffic controller from the control tower at Washington Dulles Airport, as president in a runoff election. Rinaldi, who has served as NATCA’s executive vice president since 2006, will take office on Oct. 17 to begin his three-year term. He will succeed Patrick Forrey.
The runoff election was held because no candidate won the required 50 percent-plus one majority in the first balloting, which was announced on July 31. NATCA Executive Vice President Patricia Gilbert won a clear majority and took office Sept. 1.
Rinaldi said he plans to make sure the nation’s air traffic controllers have a voice in the workplace:
Throughout my career, I’ve made it my mission to further the goals of this union and I’m not stopping now. We’ve had a difficult last three years, but we’ve persevered. I look forward to ensuring that our members always have a voice and, just as important, that the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] always listens.
Air Traffic Controllers Reach Tentative Agreement with FAA
Three months after the Obama administration opened the door for mediation in contract negotiations between the Air Traffic Controllers (NATCA) and the Federal Aviation Administration, the two sides reached a landmark tentative agreement late last week.
In May, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced the Obama administration was appointing mediators to settle the dispute.
In 2006, the Bush administration’s FAA rejected NATCA’s call for mediation to settle a contract and walked away from the bargaining table. The agency then imposed a set of work rules and wage cuts that have driven controllers out of the towers. Because of the deplorable work environment, more than 2,600 controllers have left the FAA, creating a shortage of experienced controllers and threatening aviation safety.
The FAA under Bush rejected all calls to resume negotiations and threatened to veto any legislation that required the agency to sit down and bargain with the union.
Heroic Controllers Talk Passenger Through Landing Troubled Plane
In what some are calling an Easter miracle, several members of the Air Traffic Controllers (NATCA) in Southern Florida guided a plane to a successful landing after its pilot fell unconscious and a passenger had to fly the aircraft in heavy traffic.
Around 1:30 p.m. yesterday, passengers aboard a Super King Air two-engine turboprop aircraft carrying four passengers from Marco Island, Fla., to Jackson, Miss., radioed controllers at the Miami traffic control center that the pilot was unconscious and they needed help immediately.
Two controllers, one with extensive experience as a pilot, helped one of the passengers bring the plane in. The passenger is a private pilot but is certified only in single-engine aircraft and had never flown a King Air.
