Hello all,
Springtime is just around the corner. I know we are all in need of some nicer weather but, as you all know, with the change in seasons comes increased traffic volume. The SEA traffic count is expected to, yet again, increase significantly over the previous year. There are currently tools being utilized, or scheduled to be in place, by the peak traffic season in order to help mitigate the impact of increased volume. A few examples are the increased 3-mile area in all the sectors, the DOWNRIGGER MRU for the airspace in sector 3, and PDRs into sector 31 for aircraft filed over MLP (they will PDR to the Z routes). Additionally, there are ideas in the works to help improve the overall efficiency and safety of SEA departures and PAE arrivals, but those are going to take a bit longer to develop and implement.
I would like to take a moment to congratulate the following developmentals for some major accomplishments recently:
Mike Morrow, and Colin MacQuarrie for completing stage 4 class.
Gary Cozad, Jared Fenton, and Katrina Linder for completing stage 3 class.
Mike Draper for certifying on all d-sides.
To all the other developmentals, keep up the progress and continuing working hard. It benefits all of us to have you succeed.
Speaking of training, I know that having a high volume of d-side trainees can pose a burden on the resources of the area. There have been a few questions asked of me regarding the approval/denial of spot leave requests when our staffing is above guidelines, but we have 2 or more d-side trainees.
Article 24, section 14 states that “…leave requests shall be approved/disapproved subject to staffing and workload…”. It also states that the decision “shall not be subject to conditional circumstances.”
In other words, management may decide to deny a request if they can justify it with training as a workload requirement, but they are not allowed to deny leave because they fear they might take a sick leave request.
I would really like to see leave requests being addressed consistently by all supervisors in our area, and hopefully we can get there soon. For now, if you notice that leave requests are not being handled per the contract, please bring it to my attention.
Finally, I would like to remind you that there is going to be an all members meeting on Monday, March 30th, at the Rainbow Café in Auburn at 3:00. If you have questions that you would like to address to the local or concerns that you would like to voice, the membership meeting is a great place to do that.
In Solidarity,
Jared Zimmerman