'Poker table' fuels air traffic controller, FAA firestorm

They've argued over overtime. They've mixed it up over mold. They've marched into combat over contracts.

Now the National Association of Air Traffic Controllers Association and the Federal Aviation Administration have traded punches over what one side argues was a "$3,500 poker table" and the other said was a modest "$800 table and chairs" intended to bolster controllers' morale.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The latest skirmish between NATCA and the feds began when the FAA officials who run the Atlanta Center air-traffic control center near Hampton decided to spend some year-end funds to make minor "workplace improvements" at the facility. About 400 controllers and trainees at the center manage high-altitude flights for one of the nation's busiest air spaces.

Calvin Phillips, the NATCA chapter president for Atlanta Center, said he was asked several months ago to help the center's FAA manager pick out a table for a break room that employees refer to as the card room. Employees use the room during breaks to watch TV or play cards or backgammon, he said.

"They asked me to pick out this poker table for the card room," Phillips said. "At the time I thought it was way out of line, and I declined the invitation. I thought this was the kind of thing that would make them famous."

Phillips said the manager had looked at tables and chairs ranging from $1,500 to $3,500. The controller said was later told by a manager's assistant that the FAA had purchased the most expensive "poker table" of the ones they looked at.

Not so, says the FAA, and Phillips admits he did not see the receipts, although he has filed a formal request for information about the purchase.

Atlanta-based FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said the FAA did order a break room table for $335 and chairs for $460. The table had a reversible top, she said, that was plain on one side and had a "game-board" painted on the other side.

"It's not unusual for us to have some funding we try to earmark for items for our facilities to improve the workplace for employees," Bergen said. "There was a checkerboard painted on top for people who wanted to play checkers or chess."

There was nothing improper about the purchase, Bergen said. But faced with complaints by NATCA, the FAA has now decided to cancel the order for the double-sided table.

"We're just going to cancel the order and just a plain briefing table with no game boards painted on top," she said.

Victor Santore, vice president of the NATCA's southern region, said the table episode indicates the FAA went "on an end-of-year spending spree."

"I think what happened is they got caught with their hand in the cookie jar and they quickly returned it," Santore said.

The FAA and the controllers union have been locked in a long and contentious contract dispute littered with accusations and counter charges.

News Added: 25 October, 2007

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