BWS negotiations
Our ZSE bid MOUs for 2023 have been signed, and bidding time is nearly here.
The 2023 A area basic-watch schedule mirrors the proposed schedule that has been floating around the area for the past couple of weeks.
The only addition to that proposed schedule is that if you bid a mid line on Monday-Tuesday RDOs, you will have the option of selecting a 00NF mid or a 2230 mid. Everything else in our previously proposed schedule is the schedule we’ll be bidding on.
The plan is to brief the workforce over the next week and begin bidding next weekend.
With that in mind, now is the time to log into bidATC.com and verify your log-in information. I already received a report of a controller trying to sign in and having to reset their password. Please check now so as to make our bidding as seamless as possible. Once you’ve logged in, please check that you have your desired communications method selected.
Survey time
With bidding around the corner, I’m soliciting feedback for how we collaboratively determine requests for alternate work schedules (the so-called dream lines).
We – the union and management – currently adjudicate these requests by seniority (i.e., we look at a request, and if more than one person wants the same thing, the person with the higher seniority gets it). A year ago we were able to approve at least something for every single controller that submitted a sheet in the A area except one person (sorry Chatty).
I received a suggestion from one of our controllers that we change how we adjudicate dream-line requests to make it based on crews first and seniority second. As an example: If there are multiple requests, the person whose crew is closer to their weekend would get the request. Were there to still be a tie, the person on the crew with the most seniority would get it.
My two cents on this issue: Having worked a mid for a few years, the last day of the week is irrelevant to me and about half of our controllers that also have a mid. Therefore, I would prefer to stick with the way we currently determine these, as the requests that I would potentially have wouldn’t happen on the last day of my work week. While I am in the bottom-quarter of seniority for our CPCs, it makes sense to me that people with higher seniority should be able to get what they want if the request can be approved to cover what their previous shift was. However, I am curious how you all feel, and I’m open to advocating that we change the process if there is interest in changing it.
In addition to the dream-line question, I would like feedback on two airspace-related matters:
1, How would the area feel about changing our transfer-of-control procedures intra-area? I am strongly interested in updating them so that we have control between A area sectors for turns of up to 30 degrees, altitude changes, and speed changes with respect to the transferring controller’s airspace. We already do this with all of the surrounding high-altitude sectors in ZSE airspace, as well as all of Vancouver. I believe that not shipping an airplane until you’ve resolved all conflicts in your sector is ATC 101, and so why not release control once we’re done?
This would be a big change — it would alter how we control the northbound airplanes from Sector 32 to Sector 12, for example — and therefore I want to start by finding out whether people would support that change.
2, Would you support moving the boundary between Sector 1 and 32 to give Sector 1 more airspace? In effect, we would move the 1/32 boundary south to make it parallel with the 47 boundary. The purpose of the change would be to give Sector 1 the ability to turn airplanes left during periods of metering or when other traffic situations warrant. (As Eric Hartley wisely once said, “When you’re boxed in, you’ve got to think outside the box.”)
Please click on the survey here to complete it. You’ll need to sign in on a Google account to do so.
In solidarity,
Dan Rasmussen
801-860-3821