By Doug Cunningham

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association is still talking with the FAA to reach agreement on a new contract for 16,000 controllers. But the FAA can impose significant wage and benefit cuts if talks reach an impasse.

Ruth Marlin, Executive Vice-President of the union, says this isn't 1981 all over again, when air traffic controllers went on strike and were fired en masse.

[Ruth Marlin 1] : "The FAA has a different type of hammer hanging over our head, which is this issue where they can force an impasse and then wait out Congress and impose their offer on us."

Marlin says the union supports a bill introduced by Senator Barak Obama and supported by other Democratic senators that would level the bargaining playing field.

[Marlin 2] : "What we're trying to do is normalize the process so that there isn't this gun to our head at the bargaining table."