All,
As of today, the shutdown has entered its 29th day. I wish I had some good news for you all about when it might be coming to an end, but I don’t. We are still waiting for the Senate to even bring a bill to the floor. Yesterday the President made another demand for border security funds before he would be open to paying federal employees. It is unclear if this new demand will have any impact on the process.
Need Someone to Work Credit
Denise Spencer is looking for some help getting off of the schedule next week to go to the hill and try to talk to some members of congress. She needs someone to work a credit hour day shift on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. This is an opportunity to really step up and do something positive to help out with the effort to end the shutdown. Having Denise in DC would be very helpful to our cause. Please let her know ASAP if you can help. If there is something I can do with my schedule to help someone else out and make it easier for them to cover one of those shifts, let me know and I’ll do it.
Shift Moves for Non-Prime Time Leave
I am going to back burner this potential change for awhile. I have received a great deal of feedback which I very much appreciate. This is, however, making it more difficult to decide what the best course of action is. Both sides of the argument have tremendous merit. I will say that one of the biggest sticking points is holidays. The people who oppose shift moves for NPTL are concerned that someone who is planning to work a day shift on Thanksgiving or the 4th of July could end up with a swing for NPTL. I share this concern. The majority side is still in favor of moving people to cover for NPTL though. Anyway, for now it is back burnered and no change will be made. I do want to clarify something that came up in the feedback I received from you all: we already move people from their 5th day to a mid to cover for NPTL. The mid is treated like a day shift as long as it is on your 5th day.
Shutdown Things You Can Be Doing
Do not do either of these on duty time or at work or on a Government Computer
Click here to go to the NATCA Homepage for more links and info regarding the Shutdown fight.
Ok so I know morale is low and this whole thing sucks but please keep strong and keep doing what you are doing. We will get through this. Let me know if I can do anything to help.
In Solidarity,
Drew
P.S. Attached to the bottom of this email is a picture we took on Friday with the US Congresswoman who represents Washington’s 8th District, Dr. Kim Schrier. She came by for a tour. We showed her the vacant training department and support wing as well as the operation where all of us are working without pay.
The 8th district includes the eastern portions of King and Pierce counties and crosses the Cascade mountains to include Chelan and Kittitas counties. The population centers on the west side of the mountains include the exurban communities of Sammamish, Issaquah, and Auburn. On the east side, the 8th's population centers are rural communities Wenatchee, Leavenworth, and Ellensburg. So there is a possibility she is your Congresswoman as well.