Looks like this email thing is going to continue. I got word last night that management is starting to require people to send another five-bullet email. If a manager assigns you to reply to the email, you should be provided sufficient duty time to complete the assignment. If you like, HERE are the templates the national office put together. If this is causing a distraction or impacting the operation, please fill out an ATSAP. This is the best way for us to provide proof of the impact this is all causing to the safety of the NAS. There is a town hall today at 1pm HERE is the link to register. You will now need your membership number to register. If you don’t know it, just let me know and I can get it to you.
Legislative Info
On February 21st, I attended a labor roundtable that Representative Jayapal hosted for local union leaders in Seattle. It was a short event, but during it, we gained a lot of insight into some of the behind the scenes actions to thwart the efforts to dismantle unions. Many of the action items given could not apply to us because we work for the federal government and are in the public safety profession, but it was nice to know that there is still work being done on our behalf.
My biggest takeaway was this: Your phone calls to the elected officials matter. They care a great deal about those and tend to hold a lot of weight.
In the coming years, we will all have to use our voices to ensure we’re heard. We often send out “contact your representatives” phone and email campaigns, and it was nice to know that they work.
Center FacRep Meeting
Drew and I were in San Antonio on Monday and Tuesday for the Center FacRep meeting. While I hate being away from the facility during crisis mode, it ended up being the best place to be to get up to date information for you all. The first day was largely overshadowed by the chaos caused by the email mandate but here are my notes:
Briefing from Nick Daniels:
ATX ended up being $110,000 under budget
Reviewed all contracts and found more than a million dollars in savings by not renewing some to include certain advertising and consulting contracts.
This is not specific to NATCA business, but it is something that might interest you: Most people know that the Agency’s requested budget has been the same for at least the last eight years. This seems like a losing strategy, especially with the cost of everything rising exponentially. So, if you ask yourself why the Agency would do such a thing, it’s because the OMB instructs the FAA how much to ask Congress for and not a penny more.
Nick requested an official update on ABACUS, the traffic counting software. The first meeting for this was in 2016 and has been a victim of budget cuts and constraints, but Nick and his counterpart Tim Arel agree that this project needs to be a priority and will work to ensure it is completed this year. This is very important to those of us in enroute facilities as our traffic has not been appropriately counted in close to 15 years.
Because staffing and NCEPT are so closely aligned, they are working on combining the NCEPT and CRWG MOUs, which should be done shortly.
We also had briefings from the training, safety, and the national procedures reps, but I am still working on consolidating notes since I have to leave the room often to take and make phone calls back here.
I know this has been a challenging couple of months, and we still have a long way to go. Please ensure you’re taking care of yourself, and let us know if there’s anything we can help with.
Amy