A area update
2025 BWS schedule
Now that we have some concrete information about how the new fatigue rules will be implemented for 2025, Damien and I have been having many internal conversations about how we should go about building next year’s schedule.
There are obviously many different paths we could take. I feel strongly about not going down the path of straight days, straight swings, and straight mids unless we’re forced to do so in future years. That path would be really cool for our most-senior people who could get straight-day lines. But that would leave everyone else with straight swings or mids.
Based upon the conversations that Damien and I have had, as well as conversations we have had with many of you, we are looking at building a schedule that has the same basic structure as this year’s schedule but would incorporate AWS lines into everyone’s schedule and conforms with the new rules. If you had a mid, your line would be: 9-hour day, 9-hour day, 8-hour day, 6-hour day, 8-hour mid. For everyone else, it would be: 9-hour day, 9-hour day, 8-hour day, 7-hour day, 7-hour day.
Staying with the same basic structure ensures that we will have as much coverage as possible across the week.
Going the AWS route would actually give us more better coverage with the new fatigue rules than just doing regular 8-hour days, and I think that the vast majority of us would like to have shorter days near the end of our work weeks.
That being said, I want feedback from you all to verify that. We have created a draft schedule for your review. Please look at it and let me or Damien know what you think. And let me know if you have strong negative feelings about incorporating AWS schedules into our BWS.
I have been asking Barry every week about whether we can start negotiating our schedule. We need to get going. Thus far, management has been telling him that he’s not allowed to talk with us about schedules yet 🫠. I will keep you all updated when we finally get going.
NUW ATC-0 event
Dearest Matt Coughlin and I have been working for the past several months regarding the planned NUW ATC-0 event on Saturday, Aug. 17. Working in conjunction with Amy, as well as NATCA leadership outside the building, we tried and tried to get them to postpone this outage … since it is literally going to take place during the worst time of the year.
Unfortunately, we have been unable to stop this from happening. It feels very frustrating to type those words. They were able to move up the starting time of this outage to 0600, and they’re claiming that they will be doing some pre-work in order to finish several hours earlier.
Two SMEs from NUW will be at our facility to help lend their expertise while we work their airspace. Barry told me that they are controllers. I asked why they couldn’t work their airspace using our equipment, and was told that they can’t do it because they haven’t been trained on our equipment (which is an incredibly frustrating answer to hear considering this is a planned outage).
But them actually being there will be helpful. Additionally, Matt and I developed a list of TMIs to reduce the amount of traffic in 3/12:
No YVR arrivals from Sector 7.
Sector 12 won’t meter anyone to YVR.
Sector 3 won’t meter anyone to SEA.
There will be no NUW training ops
We should get 15 MIT for aircraft entering 3/12, including SEA and YVR departures.
All MARNR arrivals from YVR west will be routed over MARNR.
I will be there on OT that morning. If you have questions or concerns, let me know.
YVR handoffs
Late handoffs from our Canadian counterparts have become more and more of a problem. It has become clear that they have very different expectations than we do about making/taking handoffs. I expect them to initiate a handoff promptly and call us if we have not accepted the handoff before the airplane enters our airspace.
I have been working with Amy and Mike Sellman about what our best options are for dealing with this. I would strongly prefer to talk with our Canadian union counterparts and leave management completely out of it. I was told that may or may not be possible.
But I want to make sure this gets resolved.
BLI handoffs
We’ve been seeing another wave of double handoffs from BLI, associated with DATA and OLD messages. If you accept a handoff on a BLI departure, and then you see a second handoff or the other two messages, please turn that in to the desk so that they can track them.
In solidarity,
Dan Rasmussen
801-860-3821