All,
I hope everyone is having a good week. Lots going on right now, so try to read through all of this.
Executive Orders
As I am sure you have heard by now, at the close of business last Friday, Trump released 3 executive orders that directly target the federal workforce. We have known since the day the reality TV star got elected president that we were one executive order away from returning to white book type conditions. This may not necessarily be that, but this is the biggest step towards crushing federal unions we have seen him take so far. As of right now, we don't expect any immediate impact but there is still much lawyering to be done on these orders before we know the actual impact. In the Executive Orders are things like limiting official time, taking away NATCA office space, and White House oversight on all contract negotiations. Personally I would think that some of it violates Title 5 & 49 but we will have to see what the courts decide on that. I am hesitant to speculate too much about this so for now, just be watching for any changes in mgmt behavior or attitudes toward the workforce and please let me know if you see anything. For those of you who joined the agency post white book, please know that this is not to be taken lightly. War has been declared from the White House on federal labor. Our strength and solidarity is more important now than it ever has been.
Click here for the text of the Executive Orders.
This is the most recent update from Paul and Trish:
We are reviewing and analyzing the 3 Executive Orders effecting federal employees issued yesterday. The expectation for now is there should be no change to any of NATCA's agreements or practices with the FAA, nor any changes in how they are applied.
We will continue to update the membership on the next steps as further details become available. As in the past, we will be strategic and deliberate in our response.
Together we will address these challenges by staying strong and staying united!
EUG LOA
We have had ongoing discussions with EUG on changes they would like to make to the LOA. Some of this we discussed on slack last week. EUG wants all aircraft to be at 10,000 feet 35 DME from EUG. I think that is excessive but I honestly don't know their perspective very well. So that being said, I would like to propose that we run a trial period of a week or so where EUG advises us when they are in a north flow and when they are, we will force all EUG landers down to 10,000 feet by 30 DME. If anyone has any objection to that or suggestions, either reply to this email which will go directly to me, or start a conversation on slack.
They also want a courtesy call when we clear aircraft into IR346. I have been pushing back on this for awhile but they are really dug in on wanting it. I am thinking that since the common entry point is in Sector 6's airspace and they are good with this that we should probably just get on board as well and agree to give an advisory call when we clear aircraft into IR346. Any objections to that, please let me know ASAP.
Schedule Policy
About a month ago, I sent out an email that contained procedures for how we would rotate shift assignments. This has been met with some resistance by the scheduling office and by our new OM Jason Alliston as well. He wasn't the OM at the time we came up with those ideas but he wants to have some sort of buy-in on the process. So for the time being those policies are on hold. Hopefully he and I can talk this Friday and sort that all out. I am interested to see what he has to say because what we decide about how to rotate shifts has no impact on mgmt in any way. Either way, in the interim, we will be returning to the policy that has been in place for years where we just kinda wing it and decide on a shift by shift basis who gets moved. Since we just published a schedule, Jason and I have time to discuss this before Angie starts working on the next schedule. Hopefully we can work something out quickly to return some structure to the process so there would be no impact.
NPTL vs Spot Leave
Article 24 Section 13 of the contract covers NPTL.
At the conclusion of the bidding process, employees may submit NPTL requests in excess of the designated leave opportunities. These requests shall be recorded and approved/disapproved subject to staffing and workload and as soon as practicable after the request is made. Approval/disapproval shall not be subject to conditional circumstances. If the request was disapproved and annual leave for that time period, or any portion of that time period, later becomes available, the leave shall be approved on a first requested basis. The Parties at the local level shall establish the method for tracking these leave requests. After implementation at the facility/area, OPAS will be used for tracking these leave requests.
Article 24 Section 14 of the contract covers spot leave
Spot leave is leave requested for any period during a posted watch schedule. Leave requests for the shift being worked shall be approved/disapproved subject to staffing and workload within thirty (30) minutes of the request being made. Leave requests for future shifts shall be approved/disapproved subject to staffing and workload within two (2) hours of when the request was made, or prior to the end of the shift, whichever is less. Approval/disapproval shall not be subject to conditional circumstances. Leave requests shall be approved in the order that they were requested. If the request was disapproved and annual leave for that time period later becomes available, the leave shall be approved in the order that the request was received.
Please notice the very important distinction between the two types of leave. NPTL is anything you request prior to the schedule being published. Spot leave is requested during the posted schedule. The bold section is what defines the difference in the approval process. For spot leave, the only requirement is to approve the entire shift, should it become available. For NPTL, there is a requirement to approve PART of the shift if it is available. This is important because if someone is requesting leave on a 0700 on a day that is at guides and someone else after them is requesting leave from a 1330 on a swing that is above guides then staffing wise, we can approve the 1330 person's request for leave. However, if the requests were both NPTL then there is a requirement for the 0700 person to be offered PART of their shift off. In this case it would be the last hour of the shift. But since it is first come first served we cannot skip the 0700 person and approve the 1330 because the 0700 person had their request in first. In the scenario I have described, the schedule should post with the partial approval of the 0700 shift person and the denial of the 1330 person. It would then be up to the 0700 person to decide if the partial approval is enough or if they want to turn it in. If they turn it in then the next person should get the leave. In this case the 1330 person.
I know that was quite the read but I wanted to make sure I clarified that process. If you see it being handled differently, please let me know.
Thanks for reading all the way through.
All MEMBERS MEETING THIS WEDNESDAY (5/30) AT 3PM @ THE RAINBOW CAFE.
In Solidarity,
Drew