Happy Halloween to one and all! It’s been awhile since I last sent out a proper A area update, and a lot has been going on in the meantime.
DA shirt order
I’m putting this at the top so everyone sees it. If you haven’t yet ordered your TPFB shirt that DA is making , you have until Friday, Nov. 3 to do so. Here is the link to put your order in: TPFB shirt order form.
Schedule negotiations
Damien and I sat down with management last Friday to discuss the 2024 A area schedule and associated area negotiations. At the conclusion of the meeting, management advised us that they would like to do one final review on their end before agreeing.
That being said, I feel very confident that our area negotiations are very close to being complete and that we will be able to formally agree once the facility-wide negotiations are done.
Whidbey ATC-zero CWG
We have been working with management to create a collobarative work group to review all of our policies, equipment, tools, and procedures for when Whidbey Approach goes ATC-0. We have obviously had a rash of outages recently, and I feel incredibly proud of all the work that our controllers put in while Whidbey was offline.
That being said, these recent outages have illuminated the fact that we need to make some changes to make the operation safer going forward.
Derek Adams and Matt Coughlin will represent us on this CWG. If you have suggestions for changes we can make to our ATC-zero procedures, please let me or them know.
Certification
Congrats to Mike Sampson for completing the training program and becoming our most recent CPC!!
New trainees
We recently added two new D-side trainees to the A area. Their names are Jared Davis and Jim Wang. Please go and say hi to them in the training department when you’re able.
I am waiting for it to become official — ie, I see it on the wall upstairs in the training department — but I anticipate another addition to our area in the very near future.
Check your paystubs
With Lori Olsen no longer doing all of our time-and-attendance, I’ve heard of multiple instances of people having issues with their paystubs. In particular, multiple OT assignments got inadvertently left off people’s pay.
Resultantly, I highly suggest checking your paystubs for accuracy when they come out.
Article 5s
We will need multiple Article 5 volunteers to help facilitate labs during the next year. The first one is scheduled to be between Feb. 1-March 29.
Obviously, since we haven’t bid yet, it’s difficult for anyone to know whether they’re interested in volunteering at this point.
However, since the first class is inching closer, I want to mention it now to give people a heads’ up. I will send out another message to remind everyone once we’ve bid and then sort something out based on who volunteers.
In solidarity,
Dan Rasmussen
801-860-3821