NATCA Endorses Kamala Harris for President, TIM WALZ for VIce President
(WASHINGTON) – Today, the National Executive Board of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) voted to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for president and running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz for vice president.
In every elected office she has held, Vice President Harris has been a champion for middle class, working families, and union members. Whether it was fighting against corporate greed as California’s attorney general, as a U.S. senator working to expand her state’s labor protections for workers who were most at risk, or as vice president in her role as the chair of the White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment, she has served with distinction and unwavering dedication to working Americans.
“Vice President Harris understands the importance of unions in America and the critical role we play advocating for and protecting workers’ rights every day,” said NATCA President Rich Santa. “She, like President Biden, not only values unions, but stands in solidarity with labor. She has walked picket lines, acted against abusive employers, and worked together with labor to improve the lives of union members.”
Vice President Harris has taken a personal interest in the specific challenges faced by aviation safety professionals. In 2019, she invited NATCA member and air traffic controller Trisha Pesiri-Dybvik to be her guest at the State of the Union. Pesiri-Dybvik and her husband, who are both air traffic controllers at Santa Barbara Airport Air Traffic Control Tower, suffered significant financial hardship when their family went without both paychecks through the 35-day government shutdown earlier that year. To add to the financial challenges, Pesiri-Dybvik’s family also lost their home to the Thomas Fire wildfire, losing their family pets and all their possessions.
“Vice President Harris took the time to take a personal interest in the challenges that Trisha’s family faced as a result of an unnecessary and protracted government shutdown,” Santa said. “She used her platform as vice president to raise awareness of the real consequences that air traffic controllers and other federal employees face during government shutdowns. Our Union is grateful for her support, and we return our support with this endorsement.”
Vice President Harris’ running mate, Gov. Walz, was a strong supporter of NATCA’s legislative priorities when he was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for a dozen years. He also has a long history of supporting organized labor.
Santa, a Vice-President of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations’ (AFL-CIO), voted for the AFL-CIO to likewise endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for President. The AFL-CIO and its other 59 member unions represent 12.5 million working people.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Galen Munroe, Deputy Director of Public Affairs; 202-220-9802, [email protected].
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) is a labor union and aviation safety organization in the United States that represents nearly 20,000 highly skilled air traffic controllers, engineers, and other aviation safety-related professionals. NATCA was certified in 1987 by the Federal Labor Relations Authority to be the exclusive bargaining representative for air traffic controllers employed by the Federal Aviation Administration. Today, NATCA is one of the strongest labor unions in the federal sector and represents a range of aviation safety professionals in 15 FAA bargaining units, five Department of Defense air traffic facilities, and 123 federal contract towers. These air traffic controllers and other aviation safety professionals make vital contributions to the U.S. economy and make modern life possible by coordinating the safe, orderly, and expeditious movement of one billion aviation passengers and millions of tons of freight within the National Airspace System each year. NATCA is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and is affiliated with the AFL-CIO.
