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January update

Hey friends, some quick notes for ya.

Training: Thank you Matt and Trae for volunteering to be the next Article 5s.   

Matt: Daniel and Dove's schedule: ILT​ (classroom)​ through 1/31, TTL (DYSIM) ​2/5-3/22. Daniel will be going to Fr/Sa, Dove will be going to Mo/Tu.

Trae: Andrew and Brandon’s schedule: ILT (classroom) 2/12-23, A side week 2/26-3/1, ILT 3/4-4/12, TTL (DYSIM) 4/15-6/13. Andrew will be going to Sa/Su, Brandon will be going to Su/Mo. 

If you're interested in being an OJTI for any of our new coworkers, please talk with your rep or OS asap.

​Karl and Ligaya will start their IST Cadre training the week of 1/28 to begin prepping for workforce delivery 4/2​1-​5/4​.

There’s a CIC class coming up soon. For those interested in becoming a CIC, please let your rep or OS know asap so we can get that process started.

Just a quick reminder, the Professional Standards program provides an opportunity for BUEs to address the performance and/or conduct of their peers, in a peer-to-peer setting, before such issues rise to a level requiring corrective action on part of the Agency. The program is also a great opportunity to recognize exceptional performance. 

Possible Pro Standards items:

  • Provide positive feedback and recognition. 

  • Identifying exceptional performance.

  • Recognizing actions that enhance the standing of the profession.

  • Individual conflicts that could benefit from informal dispute resolution.

  • Ineffective operating methods/techniques.

  • Problems of a professional/ethical nature.

  • ATSAP covered events forwarded by the ERC.

  • Hostile work environment.

  • Distractions in the workplace.

Please help us maintain a professional work environment. If you have an issue, or are unsure if it is for Pro Standards, KEEP IT CONFIDENTIAL!!! and talk to any Pro Standards rep listed below.

ZSE Pro Stand reps (you can contact any rep of your choosing):

  • Ligaya Corbitt: 312-952-3191, ligayacorbitt@gmail.com

  • M'lynda Jallinger: 206-930-2261, mlynda.jallinger@gmail.com

  • Jen Teshima: 415-535-9784, jenniferlarsonteshima@gmail.com

  • Pablo Pescador: 206-354-0619, pablo.pescador@gmail.com

  • Jessica Randall: 206-892-8513, jessica_randall@icloud.com

Additional information about the Professional Standards Committee can be found here.

​Schedule/leave requests

  • Employees are allowed to enter any schedule/shift requests they would like with the expectation of management addressing ​the requests based on the needs of the operation.

  • If your pending request is important to you​, please ask the OS/CIC to look at it for you. Don't wait until the last minute​ (e.g. sick leave for medical appts., detail reps requests, credit requests, etc.). 

  • ​Don't submit leave requests above the amount of leave you have on the books (i.e. you can't anticipate leave, such as a holiday/in lieu of day).

​Dream requests have just been finalized with management so look for those to start being published in PP06 (Feb. 25th). We tried to get as close to everyone's request as we could while keeping in line with our negotiated shift guides, the CBA (specifically Article 34, Sect. 5​) and fatigue mitigation requirements. Here are a few reminders about dream requests:

  • Dream requests are a ZSE specific thing not covered in the CBA. It is a courtesy provided by management to allow us this process​.

  • Employees can always submit their schedule requests in WMT on a daily/weekly basis.

  • Dream requests are intended to cover your bid line for the duration of the annual schedule.

  • ​Management generally only considers AWSs for employees with a mid line.

​Action items: Please respond to this email if interested in any of the following:

  • ​Being an OJTI for Daniel, Dove, Brandon or Andrew​.

  • ​B​ecoming a CIC​.

  • ​Questions, complaints, concerns, comments.

Peace!

Lindsay

lmw907@gmail.com

253.561.1574

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June update

I know it’s been a while since I’ve written update. We have a lot to go over so please read all the way to the end.

SECTOR 35/6 SLE corridor

The staff study has been sent back to OSG and will be going to Portland Tracon and cascade approach for comments. The Airspace Office is hoping to have the final package done by this Fall. Kevin Miller has indicated that once the final package is received/reviewed by the Region that it will get stamped for approval rather quickly. We have made great strides in our effort to get these issues resolved.

2024 SCHEDULE

Stan has given 2024 schedule negotiation responsibilities to Eric Chase. What that really means is still up for interpretation. However I think it’s a step in the right direction. With that I need your input and ideas for what you want next years schedule to look like. Send your ideas in an email to LG/CT and myself.

CREW ART TRACKING

OM’s and the Front Office have a new tracking website that tracks everything we do on duty time. I know this isn’t a surprise but we need to be diligent in moving ourselves on CREW ART. When you come back from break please move yourself down to Pre/Post. If you are assigned ELMS please make sure you are moving yourself down. From what I’ve seen this new website tracks everything and the better job we do in showing exactly what our day to day looks like the better argument we have for more bodies.

APPLIANCES

If we as an area want to keep the appliances in the control room we need to leave the microwave on the other side of the room. The building’s OSHA person had a meltdown over the way we had our setup all on one outlet. Please do not use the extension cord and drape it over the refrigerator.

LOCAL ELECTIONS

It’s that time again. For new people that aren’t familiar with UNION elections we have these every 2 years and you will get the cast your vote for: FACILITY PRESIDENT, FACILITY VP, TREASURER, SECRETARY and AREA REP. Nominations are made by you and if excepted the persons name will be on the ballot. Yes you can nominate yourself. I would like to see this year’s ballot have as many names as possible. For past few we have had most elections go uncontested. I will be sure to let you all know when the nomination period opens so we can get as many people as possible on the ballot.

If you need anything please call or text me.

Pirate 🏴‍☠️

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December Update

B Area-

Mark Trott is going to be my alternate rep. Thank you to him for taking on the extra work. Starting in

2023 I will be on M/T mid and Mark is on S/S mid.

Congrats to Nick Meyer as the newest B Area CPC!

Also starting in 2023 I would like to get some volunteers to be a NATCA crew lead. PB has volunteered

to be the lead on T/F. This person would be their crew’s or crews first contact and be in direct

communication with Mark and I as the Area’s Reps. The reason I would like to move to this model is to

reduce the amount of time I spend having the same conversation with multiple members. This person

would have the ability to deal with the day to day stuff that is happening with management or just be

there to give you info about what we are working on as an area. This is a good opportunity if you are

looking to get involved or are ever interested in being the Area Rep but don’t have the time to fully

devote to it right now.

This month has been a busy one with the transition of B Area leadership. I also had an Article 8 meeting

with Joe this week about getting rid of the Sector 35 mandate. Joe and I were in agreement that the

mandate should be terminated. We are not saying that Sector 35 should always be combined. We don’t

think it is necessary to ask for the OM’s approval to do so. CIC/Supes are more than qualified to make

that decision.

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2023 Leave Year

We are opening the 2023 leave year on December 18th at Midnight. Do not be early as any request that is before 0000L will be removed. You can only submit SF71 request up to the amount of accumulated leave you have on the book. Check your ELS for this number. PP3 will be available starting at midnight as well. Eric Chase will approve what he can for PP3. Do to the amount of time it took the Area to get through the rounds we were not able to save these two weeks for NPL. If you have any questions contact me at: timbizeau@gmail.com or 253-394-2889

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Arrivederci

All,


I wanted to let everyone know that effective immediately I will be resigning as the B area rep. Thank you to the people who took the time out of their busy schedules volunteering in the local, regional & national capacity. I would also like to extend a heartfelt thank you to those who took even just an ounce of time from their daily workload and offered helpful and reasonable solutions or support. Attempting to work against the constant pervasive disinformation has been utterly exhausting, So thank you.

As Pirate is the alternate area rep. Amy and Drew, with the concurrence of the eboard, determined that he will be the Rep for the remainder of my term. I have no doubt Pirate will do a great job for the area, he’s motivated to get to work on your behalf, and I’m sure you’ll be hearing from him soon.


Regards,
LC

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ART 5 REQ

All,

There is a solicitation for an ART 5 for Alain & Kevin while they embark on their D-Side training. The dates are January 3rd - March 17th. I know it’s a little short notice, but if you could let me or your supervisor know by 11/23 that you are interested, so we can get it ready for the next schedule. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

LC

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Rd. 2 & DEV's

All,

Thank you for the patience and we are off on Rd. 2 as of last night! We only had 44 slots taken from the summer timeframe during the pare down. So, a lot less than we’ve had in prior years. Everyone who responded with requests, thank you, we were able to put those left-over spots where you requested for the most part. Some things to remember in round two. Everyone will have up to 5 opportunities nonconsecutive, if you run into any issues or questions don’t hesitate to reach out.

AWS requests are in the area for you to fill out. If you want to be considered for this, please put them in my mailbox outside of the control room NLT Monday November 7th at 0800L so I can get them to the scheduling team.

Lastly, for our DEV’s thank you for your patience. We’re just working through some moving parts and should have you guys bidding very soon.

LC

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Rd. 1 Complete

Hey Everyone!

With Round 1 complete. I’m looking for everyone’s wants for where we reallocate the pre-approved slots that will be paired down from between Memorial Day to Labor Day. In the interest on getting going on Rd.2 if anyone has thoughts on where they would like more leave slots, please get back to me before Monday 10/24 at 12 pm local so we can get that set and ready to roll. Thanks!

LC

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Bidding Season Coming Soon

All,

I hope this email finds you all well. As many have seen, the 2023 schedules have been posted in the area for about a while now. We will start bidding this weekend, if you run into any issues with BIDATC, please let me know ASAP. I also wanted to remind everyone that the leave will be the same as it has been for a few years. with the pair down of slots between Memorial and Labor Day after round 1. So, if you have any requests for where the additional slots will go, let me know so we can get those set up. And may the odds be ever in your favor.

Best,

LC

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VFR traffic on Sat 6/18

Hey Everyone,

I just wanted to reach out to let everyone know there will potentially be a large VFR exercise on Saturday June 18th I will attach the info I received for everyone below. with the amount of A/C we may potentially have, I also wanted to remind everyone that while they can be frustrating. There will be a film crew doing a documentary on it. So PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make sure you are all using proper phraseology and being professional throughout the day on the frequencies and landlines. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Also, before we get into the good stuff about the VFR flights, if you haven’t RSVP’d to the NATCA solidarity event on July 13th. Please do so prior to the sign up cut off of June 25th. Amy has sent out a few emails on this and there are posters and QR codes on the NATCA board right outside the control room.

“The event will be most of the day Saturday June 18th, across the entire state. Most aircraft will be VFR and may or may not ask for Flight Following.

I've attached a map of the planned flights between airports.  Several will be the airplanes "evacuating" to the hub of Walla Walla (ALW). Other airports in use for the exercise will be S50, AWO, BLI (hub), BFI, OS9, OLM, CLM, PAE, RNT (hub), SHN, EAT, and YKM.  One of the airports as a point from the hub will be Point Roberts (1RL) as their only land access is from Canada.

 

Other flights will cross the border from Canada (and clear Customs appropriately of course).

 

Several local, state, and federal agencies representatives have been involved, or at least included in the planning of this event. 

 

BLI Tower (Serco) and NavCanada have been advised of this event as well.

I would like to ask they get the best support from our members as they practice relief exercises for the "Big One" earthquake. If you have any questions, please feel free to email, text, or call me.

There will also be an LA based film documentary crew from start to finish, so transmissions may be recorded and used in that as well. Especially if they are not typically available on LiveATC.net”



Here are two articles describing the event:

https://www.knkx.org/transportation/2022-06-09/civilian-pilots-and-cyclists-rehearse-delivering-earthquake-relief-supplies-after-the-big-one

https://generalaviationnews.com/2022/05/19/general-aviation-preps-for-when-the-big-one-hits/

LC

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June Update

Hey Everyone!

I hope this email finds everyone well, I had a few things I wanted to send out so here we go. First, and again, if you are sick, don’t come into work. Again, the wellness check MOU is still in effect and it’s not worth potentially getting in trouble because you didn’t want to burn SL. There are multiple emails out now from Amy & Drew about the entire covid testing and COP/CA-1 processes. If you can’t find them or need me to resend them to you please let me know so I can do that.

We were able to sort out the tone that people were getting on the IA-103 & IA-131 line. in simple terms it was S46 attempting to call NUW, due to KNUW having a 360 area code, it would stop the keypad at “36” and dial the B area. When the B area controller would pick up the line, and then NUW would also pick up the line without making sure the line was clear, it would cause the tones to happen. There will be briefings going out to NUW & S46 as well to make sure this doesn’t continue to happen.

With more certifications in the area you will see some OT shifts Cancelled. We are about to start an article 8 process with someone who had their OT cancelled inside of 7 days. If this is happening to anyone else please let me know so I can also address those. There also seems to be some misinformation going around about a supervisor saying they got the OK to cancel OT’s within 7 days from Amy. this is in no way shape or form correct. If you want or need more of a play by play, I am more than happy to take the time to talk about it with you.

Lastly, I will be out of town at the end of this month through mid July. Pirate will be available to help with anything in that timeframe should the need arise. Again, you can reach him at (253) 394-2889 or timbizeau@gmail.com

As always, if you have any questions feel free to reach out

LC

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IA 103 Landline tones

All,

Just for everyone’s awareness we have had some pretty jarring loud tones coming through the headsets on sectors 42/16 & D06. It seems to be when the IA-103 line is used. If you run into anything like this on any sector, please let me know of the time/date sector number and line it came through on. Lastly, if this impacts your hearing in any way, regardless of how small it seems please fill out a CA-1 on the incident. Patrick Long in the A Area is the regional OSHA NATCA rep. If you need any help on how to navigate the OSHA/CA-1 process please reach out to him. If you need his information please let me know so I can get you that info.

Thanks!

LC

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RTS Requests

All,

I hope everyone is doing well. I wanted to send an email to let you all know to check PP13 and make sure all of your RTS’s look correct. I also want to stress what we all already know. Which is, if you’re sick do not come to work. We are still in a pandemic and as Drew mentioned in his last email. The wellness checklist still applies to everyone. If you are concerned because you don’t have SL then let myself or Pirate know so we can help you with other options that may be used.

I want to say a huge CONGRATULATIONS to Tyler Loyd, who fully certified and is living the good life as a CPC.

Another congratulations to Nick Meyer who completed his 6&4 R-sides.

And lastly, welcome Karl Johnston is in the building in the training department. We’re all glad you’re here!

As always if anyone has any issues or concerns don’t hesitate to reach out to either Pirate or Myself.

LC

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April update

Hey Everyone,

Not a lot to talk about this month, which is nice. For everyone’s info, I will be on leave until May 2nd. If anyone has any questions or needs help with anything Pirate will have the area during that time. You can reach him at 253 394-2889 or by email at Timbizeau@gmail.com.

I also wanted to get started on ideas for what people are wanting from next years schedule. We’ll see what our total numbers are for amount of bodies we are able to bid. But getting started on it soon will be helpful for everyone.

LC

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Alternate Area Rep Info

All,

I wanted to let everyone know that Pirate will be coming on as the B Area alternate rep. Pirate and I have had a good amount of discussions on what he thinks could make the area better for everyone. Our hope is by having someone on the other side of the schedule, members feel like they have an active voice for the issues that may be encountered by crews I don’t or very rarely see . This will also benefit the area as a whole by having a rep available pretty much every day of the week, with my availability being Saturday Afternoon Through Wednesday Morning, and Pirates availability being Monday Afternoon through Friday Morning. Obviously, If you need to reach either one of us on Fridays, one of us will undoubtedly be available for any issues that may arise. For those of you who don’t have Pirates info, you can reach him at Timbizeau@gmail.com or by phone at (253) 394-2889. As always if you have any questions or concerns please don’t hesitate to reach out to either one of us.

LC

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March Update

All,

I hope this email finds everyone well. There’s not a lot to report on right now, but wanted to remind everyone that there will be an all members meeting on Wednesday March 16th @ 11am. It will be in the Shasta room and lunch will be provided.

We’re also looking for volunteers again for IST cadre training May 3-4th or May 5th-6th. The IST class itself will be on October 16th-29th. If you are interested in this please let me know ASAP.

For everyone’s information, Patrick Beerman has taken over for Airspace & Procedures for the area. If you have any questions or concerns feel free to reach him via email at patrick.beerman@gmail.com. Things to keep on the horizon, the 142nd FW will be conducting another round of training with the Taiwanese Air Force beginning on March 28th-April 11th. The daily schedule will be for 2 training exercises M-F at 0845 & 1245L with up to 12 aircraft. Everyone can expect to likely have sector 4 split and probably a D-Side in there as well. Additionally, later on in the summer there will be runway constriction at RDM with closures on both runways. I would expect some sort of briefing about this when more info is known on the impact to us specifically.

As always, if anyone has any questions or concerns, you can reach me via email or text.

LC

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Feb Update

I hope this email find everyone well. This is the first email on the new server if for some reason it looks different, that’s why. I’m sure many have noticed already, but in the event you haven’t, all of the shifts available for request are back in webscheduler as of a couple weeks ago. We’re all still waiting to hear on resumption of D-Side training, but hopefully we will get some good news on that soon.

There will be a new CWG starting soon regarding the reduction or elimination of flight strips. We need a representative from the B area that can explain our wants and needs or concerns. If you’re interested please let me know ASAP so I can get your name forwarded.

Lastly, there is some thought to eventually move to named sectors due to some similarities of sector names out of the shout lines from approach controls. If you have any ideas for what you think they should be named. Let me or Patrick Beerman know so we can get a list together for potential ideas.

Thanks!

LC

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