Dearest A area controllers,
Our 2024 guides and basic-watch schedule have been agreed upon with management. We are still waiting for facility-wide negotiations to be completed before we’re able to bid.
We agreed with management to raise our 2024 guides for four weeks out of the year (we’ll extend our summer guides by two pay periods in the fall). The rest of our guides will remain the same. We expended a lot of effort and energy to keep what we have (and need) and add much-needed coverage in September, and I feel thankful to have those negotiations complete. I really, really appreciate all of the effort and expertise that both Damien and Derek Adams provided throughout this process.
As for our basic watch schedule, I’ve attached it for your review. A few notes:
• The 630 shift listed below will be a 630 during the summer months and a 7 during our off-peak months. Management was adamant about getting rid of it altogether when we began negotiations. The compromise was to let us have it during the summer when we’re likely to need to have three positions open between 5:30-6 a.m., and to move it back by 30 minutes over the rest of the year.
• We agreed to add a 9 shift each day. We did this because it does significantly help our coverage in the afternoon. Having said that, it’s likely that people who don’t actually want a 9 will bid a line that has a 9 in it. I have had sooo many conversations with management about AWS lines and dream sheets, including yesterday afternoon. While I am very concerned about us potentially losing them at some point in the future, management has told me that they’re open to going through the process for this year. I pointed out to management that, in agreeing to add a 9 shift, we need to continue to have our dream-sheet process so that the people who are actually interested in a 9 shift can get one (among all of the other shift changes that people are interested in).
• I am very interested in eventually adopting an idea that the D area has implemented for bidding our BWS. The idea is that you would choose a crew, then select your shifts based on what was available. For example, if you bid first, you could choose whether you get a 1530 or 15 on your first day. If you bid last on a crew, you get whatever shifts remain. At one point recently, I strongly leaned toward adopting this method for this year. However, in thinking it over, I have decided to wait because we’re already so far behind in bidding and this new method will take longer. Using it would slow us down — we’d basically have to bid the BWS first, and then do the first round of annual leave afterward. Because of how late we already are in bidding, I don’t want to slow us down any more than we have to. Because I’ve been told that we will be able to do dream sheets this year, I’m comfortable waiting until next year when we hopefully have more time to bid to make that change.
In solidarity,
Dan Rasmussen
801-8603-3821
p.s. Congrats to Derek Harris for getting certified on D1/31!
