Yesterday Mike spoke to us all about a vision for a new NATCA. A NATCA, not riding the crest of our unprecedented gains, but a NATCA focused on even greater accomplishments. As we look into the future toward a new NATCA, we will find that the path is paved through legislative activism.

We are not alone on this path, organized labor has been paving the way for decades. Nearly every job protection and benefit that we currently enjoy were fought for, and won through the legislative process; a 40 hour work week, minimum wage, the right to organize, job protection, and anti discrimination, workman's comp, OSHA, vacation pay, holiday pay, Sunday and night differential, and meal breaks.

From these accomplishments, that most of us take for granted, we have moved on to more specific gains: retention of our 5%, increased staffing, inclusion on FAA technology work groups, and most recently, the right to negotiate our pay and staffing.

Organizationally, the National Legislative Committee continues to make great strides on the legislative front. Since our last convention, we have conducted 2 lobby weeks, 2 field training seminars, held 8 quarterly meetings, adopted a committee charter, elected a new chairman, and continued to build a national network of legislative activists.

Simply stating this information does not convey a sense of the true activities of the committee. In the 2 years since the last convention, we have implemented significant changes that will continue to ensure the legislative successes for our union.

We have built upon the experience and foundation that we established in the legislative arena, and in doing so we have grown. In our lobby weeks, we have changed from an issue-oriented focus to one that emphasizes building long-term relationships and ongoing legislative activism. With this philosophical change came a new name, Lobby Week was to limiting. What was once referred to as "Lobby Week" is now "NATCA in Washington". Refocusing our objectives has not only improved the quality of training, it has brought us greater long term influence on the political front.

Legislative activism is not new to the labor movement. The AFL-CIO was founded with a goal of influencing legislation. Today, the AFL-CIO defines labor's mission as an equilateral triangle that commits equal resources and importance to legislative, collective bargaining and organizing. While NATCA members value the importance of legislative activism, we still have a long way to go before we have achieved that balance within our own organization.

This is not to say that we haven't made a great deal of progress. The committee developed a seminar to educate our members and to promote NATCA campaign activism. In an effort to reach more members seminars were held this past summer in St. Louis and San Diego.

We have developed a training module that has been incorporated into the facility representative training. This ongoing training has helped to build our network of legislative activists across the country and is a step toward educating NATCA leaders on the importance of legislative action in a labor union. This strong base of NATCA members has used our highly visible position as champions of air safety. They have put us in an enviable position within organized labor by preventing legislative battles.

Organized labor has been under constant attack by the majority party in Congress since the last convention. Legislation has been offered that would compromise job security, de-fund unions and limit our ability to educate and inform our members. But NATCA members have not faced the constant threat of legislation that would privatize the agency, cut their pay or restrict their rights that had plagued us in past years. It almost seems that those battles are a thing of the past.

But now is not the time to rest on our laurels. The efforts to undermine our strength have continued, but they have not found the support in Congress that they once had. This is because NATCA members have taken time to educate their Congressional Representatives individually, and collectively we have made it very clear that our union will not take these attacks lying down. We will use the resources necessary to make information public, to let the people know when their safety may be jeopardized.

You probably remember the Cooper and Lybrand study of a couple of years ago. It was submitted to Congress. Unfortunately this study included the same anti-controller goals that the agency had previously defined in earlier proposals. Is this just a coincidence that the same issues that the FAA was unsuccessful in obtaining during negotiations showed up in this FAA paid for study? It is apparent that the agency used this report as a tool to achieve, through legislation, what it was unable to achieve through negotiations. This report identified many areas of potential cost savings at the expense of the controllers, including the elimination of our 5%. While this report had the support of nearly every user group, including the airlines and AOPA, no effort was made by Congress to implement the suggestions. This is not because we are lucky. It is because we are prepared. Prepared to respond and prepared to take action.

We have laid the groundwork and built strong political alliances that became, in essence, a preemptive strike. Rather than fighting these legislative battles, we have prevented them from coming to the forefront. This allows NATCA to avoid the legislative attacks that have besieged us in the past, and it allows us to move from a largely defensive position to one where we can use the support of our friends in Congress.

This is evident by strong congressional support to separate the negotiations over reclass from the contract negotiations. We encountered little to no resistance on the Hill when implementing a compensation system that ensures the controller differential in perpetuity but also increases controller payroll by $200 million dollars. While we were prepared for a legislative battle, the true measure of our success in the political arena is that it was one that we never had to fight.

Our legislative strength that we have built in the few years our relatively small union has existed is phenomenal. It is something every member should take great pride in. We have grown and matured in the way we handle our issues. This success and maturity have afforded us the opportunity to utilize our talents and resources to support our brothers and sisters in the labor community. This year, NATCA members helped to defeat Paycheck Protection legislation in the House of Representatives.

The Western Pacific Legislative Committee and Local NATCA legislative activist joined organized labor to defeat Proposition 226 a "paycheck protection" ballot initiative in California. This was a significant attack by right wing anti labor extremist that would have squashed labor's ability to use political activism in representing the interests of their members.

Three months before the election, polling information showed Proposition 226 favored by 72% of California voters. This issue was potentially the most destructive legislation that would face organized labor since "Right to Work". California was considered the "bell weather state", had this initiative passed anti-labor activist and anti union corporate money would have been invigorated to move on to all 50 states and Capitol Hill. Howie Rifas and other NATCA members helped stop it in its tracks. When the ballots were counted, Proposition 226 and its backers were crushed 54 to 46%!

This illustrates one of the greatest accomplishment of the last two years. NATCA has emerged from one that was so beleaguered by its own issues, that it simply did not have the resources to be part of the big picture. Today we are a part of the labor community. That we can reach out to our brothers and sisters to defeat legislation that would not have had any immediate effect on us, shows how far we have come.

We are no longer just NATCA. We are big labor!

Some of our greatest legislative successes are not the battles fought in Washington DC they are the successes that our educated and prepared activist achieve at the local level.

Equipment problems, staffing deficiencies, safety and health concerns have all been successfully resolved in the field by our members utilizing the established legislative relationships that we have made.

Since our last convention, the National Legislative Committee has worked very hard to support our PAC. In the last two years the NATCA PAC has grown by 32%. Every member in this room should take great pride in this accomplishment!

The NATCA PAC supports Members, Senators and candidates who support YOU! The financial support that the NATCA PAC provides helps our friends defeat our enemies. Our supporters on the Hill need and deserve NATCA's support.

Incumbents who have voted to reduce your pay, slash your benefits, and jeopardize your future deserve to be defeated, and defeated with our help!

Please stop by the PAC table and register for the NATCA PAC raffle. We will be giving away many great prizes including the grand prize, the award winning NATCA quilt created by Adell Humphreys. I want to take a moment to thank Adell for her contribution to this raffle. She has spent hundreds of hours creating a one of a kind work of art. It is truly spectacular!

Lastly, I have the privilege of chairing the National Legislative Committee. As such, I am representing the nine dedicated NATCA members on the Committee: John Fitzgerald New England, David Benedetto South West, Dustin Miller Central, Steve Fletcher Northwest Mountain, Randy Weiland Southern, David Caldwell Western Pacific, Chris Boughn Eastern, Richard Ulmes Great Lakes and Rob Stephenson Alaska.

All nine of these members contribute countless hours to our Union. It is their commitment and the commitment of literally hundreds of legislative activist throughout the country that enable us to achieve our legislative victories.

We have had many successes and we look forward to the tremendous progress yet to be made. The National Legislative Committee is strong and committed to working with the National Executive Board and the Legislative Affairs Department to achieve future legislative victories.