Weekly Update 1/20

All,

As of today, the shutdown has entered its 29th day. I wish I had some good news for you all about when it might be coming to an end, but I don’t. We are still waiting for the Senate to even bring a bill to the floor. Yesterday the President made another demand for border security funds before he would be open to paying federal employees. It is unclear if this new demand will have any impact on the process.

Need Someone to Work Credit

Denise Spencer is looking for some help getting off of the schedule next week to go to the hill and try to talk to some members of congress. She needs someone to work a credit hour day shift on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. This is an opportunity to really step up and do something positive to help out with the effort to end the shutdown. Having Denise in DC would be very helpful to our cause. Please let her know ASAP if you can help. If there is something I can do with my schedule to help someone else out and make it easier for them to cover one of those shifts, let me know and I’ll do it.

Shift Moves for Non-Prime Time Leave

I am going to back burner this potential change for awhile. I have received a great deal of feedback which I very much appreciate. This is, however, making it more difficult to decide what the best course of action is. Both sides of the argument have tremendous merit. I will say that one of the biggest sticking points is holidays. The people who oppose shift moves for NPTL are concerned that someone who is planning to work a day shift on Thanksgiving or the 4th of July could end up with a swing for NPTL. I share this concern. The majority side is still in favor of moving people to cover for NPTL though. Anyway, for now it is back burnered and no change will be made. I do want to clarify something that came up in the feedback I received from you all: we already move people from their 5th day to a mid to cover for NPTL. The mid is treated like a day shift as long as it is on your 5th day.

Shutdown Things You Can Be Doing

Do not do either of these on duty time or at work or on a Government Computer

Click here to go to the NATCA Homepage for more links and info regarding the Shutdown fight.

Ok so I know morale is low and this whole thing sucks but please keep strong and keep doing what you are doing. We will get through this. Let me know if I can do anything to help.

In Solidarity,

Drew

P.S. Attached to the bottom of this email is a picture we took on Friday with the US Congresswoman who represents Washington’s 8th District, Dr. Kim Schrier. She came by for a tour. We showed her the vacant training department and support wing as well as the operation where all of us are working without pay.

The 8th district includes the eastern portions of King and Pierce counties and crosses the Cascade mountains to include Chelan and Kittitas counties. The population centers on the west side of the mountains include the exurban communities of Sammamish, Issaquah, and Auburn. On the east side, the 8th's population centers are rural communities Wenatchee, Leavenworth, and Ellensburg. So there is a possibility she is your Congresswoman as well.

Need a Little Help

Would anyone be willing to work a credit hour day shift on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday of this coming week?  I am trying to get off the schedule to go to DC to meet with some targeted members of Congress.  I’ve been told they cannot approve going below guides at all for leave. Please let me know ASAP if you are able to help. Thank you! 


Denise

Hitting reply to this email will go directly to Denise.

Weekly Update 1/13

All,

Hopefully everyone is surviving the shutdown ok. I know it officially got real for everyone after seeing those paystubs last week. Let me know if I can help with anything. Here’s the rundown.

Shutdown News

As you may have heard, this is now the longest shutdown in history. It really doesn’t seem to have any end in sight either. Some are saying that it will likely go at least through the State of the Union address which is scheduled for January 29th. So if you haven’t already started making financial arrangements to make it through to the end of this thing, I would recommend doing so. Info on Sky One’s Crisis Co-Pilot can be found by clicking HERE.

The house has passed two bills to fund us so far. HR 21 and HR 267. These bills moved on to the Senate where Mitch McConnell is refusing to bring any bill to the floor that the President won’t sign. The President is still looking for money for a border wall. So the bills to reopen and fund at least the DOT are in existence and have passed the house. Mitch McConnell is preventing them from getting to the Senate floor.

You may have heard that NATCA is suing the United States Government regarding our pay. The suit claims the government is in violation of the Fifth Amendment because it “unlawfully deprived NATCA members of their earned wages without due process.” We are requesting a hearing on this motion for a temporary restraining order against the government. If this restraining order or injunction is granted, it is possible that payments could be made to us through Treasury. However, last I checked, Treasury was shut down as well so I am not sure how that would work. Either way, just know that NATCA is fighting this on every front imaginable in every way possible.

Alex’s email touched on all the congressional lobbying that has taken place and the message getting across to congress through our activists so I won’t go too far into detail on that. I will say that I was watching C-Span the other day (as one does) and literally every person that I heard speak mentioned air traffic controllers not being paid. That is a direct result of hard working activists (made possible through your PAC contributions) getting out there and doing their thing on our behalf. One uplifting thing through all of this is seeing the hard working folks that we have on our side getting out there and doing their thing.

I want to reiterate our position on media requests. FORWARD THEM TO ME or and member of the eboard. Elected officials have protections regarding statements in the media. The general FAA employee does not. This has been a problem in other places across the country but not here yet so let’s keep it that way. When this is all said and done I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if some folks in other agencies are let go because of unsanctioned statements to the media. We were recently briefed on this by the agency as well. No excuse. Just don’t do it. Forward it up the chain.

Shift Changes for Non-Bid Leave

I wanna touch on this one more time to make sure I am being clear about it before we reach a consensus on how to handle it. Here is my blurb from Wednesday:

When our schedule is built we move people to cover for bid leave. Do you all think the same courtesy should be extended to non-bid leave? This of course would be leave requested prior to posting. Anything else would fall under spot leave requests.

My general stance is that we should do whatever we can do, in every situation, to approve as much leave as possible. This would mean moving people to cover for non bid leave.

One caveat is that I would like to keep these moves to what is considered normal. Third swings are normal. Fourth swings are not. Filling in for someone’s mid on your last day is normal. Double mids are not.

It really comes down to a question of what we see as more important. Do you want a better shot at leave or a better shot at not having a third swing or second day, etc?

Hitting reply to this email we go directly to me. Please let me know ASAP how you feel about this issue so I can make a decision that will best reflect what you all want.

I want to add to this, this is something that could happen to you any day of the year. Holidays and all. You could get put into a third swing on Halloween, 4th of July, any of those days to help cover for non bid leave (requested prior to posting).

So far the responses have been overwhelmingly in favor of making reasonable/normal moves to help accommodate more leave. Which was surprising to me. Only 3 people have said they do not want people to be moved to cover for non bid leave. About 15 have said that we should be moving people to cover for it.

Solidarity Event

On Monday, February 18th from 5-8pm we will be having a Solidarity Event at the Dave and Busters at the Auburn Supermall. It’ll be fun! Bring the family!

Sign up here:

http://www.natca-zse.com/eventsignup

That’s it for now. Let me know if you have any issues or questions.

In Solidarity,

Drew

Question about Shift Balancing for Non-Bid Leave

All,

I wanted to reach out and see where everyone stood on this issue. So here is the situation:

When our schedule is built we move people to cover for bid leave. Do you all think the same courtesy should be extended to non-bid leave? This of course would be leave requested prior to posting. Anything else would fall under spot leave requests.

My general stance is that we should do whatever we can do, in every situation, to approve as much leave as possible. This would mean moving people to cover for non bid leave.

One caveat is that I would like to keep these moves to what is considered normal. Third swings are normal. Fourth swings are not. Filling in for someone's mid on your last day is normal. Double mids are not.

It really comes down to a question of what we see as more important. Do you want a better shot at leave or a better shot at not having a third swing or second day, etc?

Hitting reply to this email we go directly to me. Please let me know ASAP how you feel about this issue so I can make a decision that will best reflect what you all want.

In Solidarity,

Drew

Weekly Update 1/6

All,

I hope everyone is surviving the shutdown ok. I just have a few quick things for you guys. Some of which Alex covered in his update as well. I hope you don’t mind the minor changes I made to the email structure to reflect recent events. 🤠

Denied Webscheduler Requests

Ok so here is the requirement for leave to be addresses per A24S14:

Leave requests for the shift being worked shall be approved/disapproved subject to staffing and workload within thirty (30) minutes of the request being made. Leave requests for future shifts shall be approved/disapproved subject to staffing and workload within two (2) hours of when the request was made, or prior to the end of the shift, whichever is less. 

And here is the requirement for shift change requests per A32S8:

When considering an individual request for a shift and/or days off change, the Agency will consider the staffing and workload of the losing and gaining shift as a precondition to approval. If it is determined that those needs are adequately met, the change shall be approved.

We are working hard to get the agency to comply with these two sections of the contract. This means that you will see more denials. You should see nothing left pending unless it fits under the timelines in A24S14. Denials are not necessarily final. Feel free to address them with your supervisor and keep me in the loop on anything that seems fishy.

The phrase in A32S8 “If it is determined that those needs are adequately met” reads to me that if we are 2 above guides on one shift and at guides on the other, you should easily be able to move from the over guides shift to the at guides shift. If you see a situation like this denied, let me know.

There are a million different possible scenarios that I don’t wanna get too deep into here but if you see one that looks off, or you think should have been approved, please let me know ASAP. I am happy to look into any of those.

Shutdown Info

As this thing drags on and on with no end in sight the threat of not receiving a paycheck is very real. Alex covered a lot of the known things in his email Friday so I won’t rehash all of that. I will just leave links to all the documents related to the shutdown here:

As always, let me know if I can do anything for you guys.

In Solidarity,

Drew

Weekly Update 12/30

All,

2019 is coming in hot. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are gonna have a safe new year. Remember…no matter how much the prices surge, an Uber/Lyft are always cheaper than a DUI. If you get in a pinch, give me a call, I’ll order you an Uber or Lyft. I’ll be up until at least 10:30 on New Year’s Eve. Now, on to the business.

Shutdown.

As we enter day 7 of the shutdown, it doesn’t look like there is much end in sight. Best guesses have us going until at least Jan 9. That would give the new congress time to get their footing and make a move. There is a rolling lobby week scheduled for Jan 7. This is where our legislative activists take to the hill to raise awareness about the issues this shutdown is causing. There will be a rally in DC as well, time TBD.

Be cautious of what you post on social media regarding the shutdown. Also, if your social media is public, local news may want to contact you for an interview about the shutdown and its impact. PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS WITHOUT TALKING TO ME. I will pass this up the chain and make sure the right people know about it.

The National Office has sent a few emails recently regarding the shutdown, one of which included a congressional action campaign. Make sure you take part in that. Linked here. Do NOT participate in this campaign on a government device, while at the federal workplace, or while on duty time.

New Line Posted

ZD took our soon to be dearly departed BL’s line so now ZD’s line has been posted in the area. It is a Wed/Thurs mid line. Please remember to indicate on the sheet ASAP so we can let Jordan know his fate.

There really isn’t much else to say right now. I will share shutdown info as I have it. Make sure you contact me immediately if you hear anything fishy going on. It’s a lot easier to correct issues if I know about them.

In Solidarity,

Drew

"Leave" During Furlough

All,

The following is a slight change to what I have told some of you regarding leave during the shutdown. Hopefully this clears it up. Let me know if you have any questions.

Leave

The Agency has given guidance to their ATMs that all types of leave should be approved/disapproved in accordance with the various caveats contained within the CBA.

Just know that whatever type of leave that is taken will be coded as furlough. Congress and the President will determine whether employees who were in a furlough status during the shutdown will receive pay for the furlough period. That determination will not be made until an agreement is reached to fund the government. There is no guarantee that BUEs will be paid for time spent in a furlough status and because furloughed employees were made whole during previous shutdowns does not mean that they will be made whole this time around.

Regarding Pay

From the National Office update sent today:

Many of you are rightfully concerned about if and when you will receive a paycheck. All employees will receive a regular paycheck for the period covering Dec. 9, 2018 through Dec. 22, 2018, on Dec. 31, 2018. The FAA will continue to incur obligations to pay for services performed by excepted employees during this lapse in appropriations, and those employees will be paid after Congress passes, and the President signs, a new appropriation or continuing resolution. This includes all premium pay (e.g. night differential, CIC, OJTI, Sunday) and overtime. Congress and the President will determine whether employees who were in a furlough status during the shutdown will receive pay for the furlough period.

In Solidarity,

Drew

Weekly Update 12/23 🎅 🎄

All,

I hope everyone is enjoying some time with family over this very “shutdown” Christmas Holiday. Not much to discuss besides the shutdown so I’ll give you guys everything I know. The ATO supposed to shutdown tonight at 12:01am EST (12/24). You should be getting notified by the agency about the shut down soon. Please let me know if anything they tell you doesn’t make sense or seems fishy.

SHUTDOWN

The Agency has notified the Union that this shutdown will be slightly different than previous shutdowns.  They are calling it a “rolling” shutdown.  What that means is that each line of business will continue to operate until they have exhausted all available funds. The ATO, our line of business, is scheduled to run out of funding at the close of the December 9-22 pay period.  The processing of this pay period’s pay and associated benefits is considered part of the orderly shutdown of government and will not be delayed.  

If an employee is scheduled to work, and has not been advised that they are a non-excepted employee and are on furlough, then they are obligated to report to work. Agencies will incur obligations to pay for services performed by excepted employees during a lapse in appropriations, and those employees will be paid after Congress passes and the President signs a new appropriation or continuing resolution.

During a shutdown, employees cannot be in a paid leave status, this means no annual leave, sick leave, holiday leave, or credit hours used. BUEs that are on any form of paid leave during the shutdown period should be contacted and advised that their paid leave status is canceled. At that point, BUEs will have the option of returning to work. If a BUE chooses not to, he or she will be placed in furlough status, and there will be no charge to leave balances. Whether or not a BUE gets paid at a later date will be determined by Congress. 

After the shutdown ends, "Use or lose” annual leave may be restored as the shutdown and furlough constitutes an exigency of the public business.  Previously, restored annual leave cannot be restored because it cannot be restored two times.

We are waiting for answer on the question of what will happens to excepted BUEs who are excused from duty in accordance with Article 28, Section 8 during a shutdown. 

Here are the links for the Government Shutdown MOU and associated Q&A.  The Q&A covers many of the questions that you may have going forward.   

Please send any further questions that you may have to 2018DecFurlough@natca.net.

Update from Eugene Friedman (NATCA Special Counsel) as of 12/22:

NATCA has not been officially notified of when the shutdown begins, but it will be based upon each employees’ funding source. For the vast majority of NATCA represented BUEs, including air traffic controllers, it is the Operations budget. We expect the Operations budget shutdown to begin midnight between Sunday and Monday.

Until FAA declares shutdown/furlough status everything is treated as normal, including this weekend. Annual leave is administered in accordance with Article 24 of NATCA’s CBA.

During a shutdown, employees cannot be in a paid leave status. This means no annual leave, sick leave, holiday or credit hours used. "Non-excepted" employees will remain in a furlough status for the duration of the shutdown. However, if you are designated as an “excepted” employee and are on any form of paid leave, you should be contacted and advised that your paid leave status is canceled. At that point you will have the option of returning to work. If you choose not to, you will be placed in furlough status, and there will be no charge to leave balances. Whether or not you get paid at a later date will be determined by Congress.

Eugene R. Freedman, Esq.

SkyOne Can Help

SkyOne Federal Credit Union Offers financial relief to both excepted and non-excepted members during the Government Shutdown.
With the Federal government shutdown, SkyOne FCU has committed to be there for their members that have accounts with them.
If you are an excepted or non-excepted FAA employee and a member of NATCA this program is available to you if you have or open an account with SkyOne Federal Credit Union. 
If a member that has an account with SkyOne FCU suffers a loss of wages due to the government shutdown, SkyOne’s Crisis Co-Pilot program can provide financial relief to help with their everyday expenses.


How Crisis Co-Pilot can help:

• $5,000 signature loan with 0% APR for the first 90 days

• 48-month term keeps the repayment manageable

• No payments for the first 90 days helps free up the cash you need

Fee reversals and more

• Reversals on select fees for up to 90 days

• Extensions on loan payments

• Free credit counseling through BALANCE

SkyOne FCU understands the financial stress the furlough/Shutdown can cause, and they are there to help our members through this difficult time.

Call SkyOne FCU at 800.421.7111 or email them at memberservice@SkyOne.org to learn more about how Crisis Co-Pilot can help.  If you have any questions about this benefit please contact John Bratcher, Chairman of the National Benefits Committee at  john.bratcher@natca.net. 

Let me know if I can help. Merry Christmas.

Yippee-Ki-Yay my brothers (and sisters),

Drew

Important things, please read 🚨🚨🚨

All,

Lots happening right now. Midweek update.

Shutdown For What

Too clever of a title to not use for every shutdown. I just wanted to give everyone an update while I was thinking about it. It is starting to look like the shutdown will happen tonight. Follow the news to stay up to date on that. However, since the likelihood of a shutdown has risen in the last few days, I wanted to remind you all of the program offered by SkyOne. If this shutdown does happen, those in the know are guesstimating that it might last until the next congress is sworn in on January 3rd. That means you could miss a paycheck. SkyOne can help with that.

Click here to learn more about the SkyOne program that can help you with missed paychecks.

Cascade Trial Period

I have had to redraw the tick marks on the scopes several times now. The first issue I addressed was the color of them. They are now yellow by request. If you do not like yellow then change them. If you do not want to see them, then dim that color in the draw function of your settings. DO NOT DELETE THEM. This is something that was negotiated with between mgmt and myself and is agreed upon. You deleting them is akin to coming in and removing an ERIDs. So please stop. I don’t want to make a thing of this. It is very easy to figure out who did it but I really don’t wanna make that a thing. So please please stop.

Also, one thing that has come up repeatedly about this trial period is that MFR can be in a north flow and still be doing ILSs to 14 circle to 32. This routes the aircraft all the way up over SAMIE. It doesn’t seem like that is an aircraft that we should be forcing down. So continue to comply or APPREQ the descent but please make a note of these issues and let me know as they occur.

Reminder about Conversations at Work

A few weeks back I linked an article about an OSC (Office of Special Counsel) interpretation to the Hatch Act. You can read that again here. Especially as the possibility of a shutdown grows larger, please be mindful of what you say at work or on social media, especially as it relates to certain politicians.

Mele Kalikimaka,

Drew

Weekly Update 12/16 🎄

All,

Whoa what’s this?!? A Sunday update?? That’s right folks, the times they are a changing. I’m moving over to Sun/Mon so I am going to adjust my update schedule accordingly. You are still allowed to read it on Monday if that is what makes you feel safe. On that note, check your schedules for PP3 for the transition and let Angie or me know if there are any issues. Alright, lets get into it.

27 Pay Periods is a Challenge for the Agency

The Department of Interior has requested that all timecards for pay period 27 be submitted by 1600EST on Thursday, December 20. The reason for the early cutoff for submission is two-fold, primarily due to the Christmas holiday, but also to allow time to handle issues relating to twenty-seven pay periods in 2018.

This is an issue because it means that the cutoff for timecard submission is before the end of the pay period. Timekeepers have been instructed to enter anticipated leave and shifts worked through the end of the pay period, to ensure employee pay is as accurate as possible. So if you currently have approved leave on Saturday 12/22 and you turn it in on Friday 12/21, your LES will likely be incorrect. It will likely show that you took the leave you actually turned in. Any discrepancies will be reconciled when PP1 is submitted in January. Please make sure you are thoroughly checking your LES for PP27 and PP1 and let your supervisor know if there are any discrepancies.

Also, on the evening of Monday, December 10 the master CRU-ART server crashed, creating some issues for timekeepers attempting to submit timecards to CASTLE. The server was rebuilt late Monday evening and, as of Tuesday morning, was functional and accepting timecard submissions. There should be no noticeable impact to employees since the server was back up in time to allow for the transmission of PP26 but make sure you are checking your pay stubs to be sure.

Line Solicitation is Up!

Make sure you are checking by the bay headers when you sign in and please cross your name off if you do not have any interest in the line that has been posted.

Cascade Trial Period

The only thing that I have heard mentioned as an issue is if aircraft are coming over from ZOA with pilot’s discretion it can create a situation where the aircraft is unable to make the restriction at MFR. Every time this happens, please make a note and let me know so we can bring that up as an issue when we get together with Cascade at the end of the trial period.

The Trump Shutdown

These things are very unpredictable but by the President’s own admission, he will be claiming credit for the shutdown so it is starting to feel more and more likely that it will happen. Dec 21st is the new deadline to reach a deal. Based on the posturing that has already taken place, our national legislative experts believe the likelihood of shutting the government down is high. The most recent prediction is that it could even last until the new Congress takes their seats on 1/3/2019. SkyOne is available to you if you need assistance between paychecks for bills and such during the shutdown.

ProStan

I wanted to take a second and piggy back a bit on what Alex said earlier this week about ProStan. ProStan is an excellent tool that we can use to solve disputes without mgmt involvement. I would like to think that we all agree that going to mgmt with an issue is more likely to end in a broad stroke of discipline than actually correcting the issue. So for that reason, if you have an issue with someone or if you think there might be an issue, I would encourage you strongly to take that issue to one of your ProStan reps and see what they say. There is a flyer hanging in the back of the area if you interested in learning more. Those reps are:

  • M’Lynda Jallinger

  • Tony Germann

  • Andy Olsen

  • Pablo Pescador

  • Denise Spencer

Alright That’s it!

In Solidarity,

Drew

Weekly Update 12/10 🎄

All,

I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season and isn’t too stressed. Make sure you watch Christmas Vacation! 🎅 Anyway, here’s the update:

Cascade LOA Trial

Quick reminder that the trial period for the Cascade altitude restrictions started today. I have updated the TMI bay header that Amy made to indicate the flow at EUG and MFR. Make sure you are keeping those up to date. Garret has also placed feedback forms on each sector. Please feel free to share all thoughts about the restrictions there. I know y’all won’t be shy. The FLMs should be keeping the ESIS up to date with EUG/MFR runways as well so let me know if they are not doing that.

IST Cadre

The cadre class for IST is coming up next month. Two separate classes. 1/29-30 and 1/31-2/1. Cadre is the class where they teach you what to teach. The dates you would actually teach the classes to the workforce are 3/3-3/16. Let me know if you want to do this. I need those names by COB today.

Line Solicitation

Brett Lewis is leaving us. 😢 So we need to begin the process of soliciting out his line. I don’t think this will be more that 2-3 moves at most so it should go quickly. I know it seems weird to be soliciting a line before we even transition to the new schedule so I wanted to touch on that a little. When we were bidding, we didn’t know for sure that Brett was going to be picked up so we had to plan for him being on the schedule. We thought he might get picked up so to protect for that, we bid Jordan as a trainee. Now we should be able to fill Brett’s spot with Jordan. Just so you all know how that went down.

9 hours between shifts

Fatigue mitigation MOU requires 9 hours between a swing and a day shift. Someone at the region is trying to justify their existence by auditing all of our timecards and sending emails to our ATM if we violate this 9 hour rule. Please be hyper vigilant of this. I have been told by a few people that the cru art might not be properly warning you if you have less than 9 so make sure you are keeping track of that yourself as well. Ultimately all responsibility for following that rule falls on us as it is in a mutually agreed upon MOU.

Thats it for this week. As always, hit me up with any questions.

In Solidarity,


Drew

Weekly Update 12/3

  

All,

Hopefully everyone is having a good week and getting into the holiday spirit!  Just a couple of quick things for you.

Cascade LOA Trial Period

By now many of you have probably seen the hot sheet or read the briefing item in CEDAR.  We did decide to go ahead and do this trial for 60 days so that we could gather the most data possible on it.  The restrictions I mentioned last time will remain the same.  These only apply in a north flow.

  • Cascade will notify us of their flow

  • Aircraft between the EUG 125R - 180R will have to cross 30 out at 10,000ft

  • Aircraft between the OED 120R - 180R will have to cross 35 out at 12,000ft

It will be important for us to be keeping track of the flow at EUG and MFR.  I am expecting the FLMs to be updating the ESIS to reflect the correct flow at both airports.  The TMI strip that Amy made would also be a good spot to indicate this as well.  Hopefully we can get that strip updated to have a spot to indicate their flow as well.  There will be green tick marks drawn on the scope to indicate where the radials are as well so please don’t delete those.

To read the official noticed (with pictures!) that was put in CEDAR, click here.

Reminder about Leave Requests

Webscheduler will be open for leave requests on Wednesday, 12/5 at 12:00am.  You may request leave for any day in the 2019 leave year.  The days that have extra slots are as follows:

6/14 – 1 Slot

6/15 – 1 Slot

6/16 – 1 Slot

6/17 – 3 Slots

6/18 – 2 Slots

6/19 – 1 Slot

10/31 – 1 Slot

In accordance with Article 24 Section 3 of the 2016 CBA, these will remain available as pre approved slots until 30 days prior to the posting of the pay period they are in.

OSC Hatch Act Guidance

I would expect that we will be getting more information on this in the coming days but for now I just wanted to make sure all of you saw this article from The Washington Post.  I would just add to this, be very careful with social media as it relates to hatch act items.  This stuff can be very complicated and easier to explain in person so feel free to ask me any questions about it when you see me.  If I don’t know the answer, I’ll get you one.

In Solidarity,

Drew

 

Quick Note Regarding Leave Requests

Yesterday I sent out an email regarding webscheduler opening up to take requests. I also included the days that have pre approved slots remaining on them. Just so there is no confusion, beginning on 12/5 at 12:00am you will be able to put in requests for ANY DAY of the 2019 leave year. The days that I listed just have remaining preapproved slots.

 

As always, hit me up if you have any questions.

Drew

🎉 Leave Bidding is Complete 🎉

All,

It’s finally over. The 2019 leave bid is complete. Thank you for everyone who worked hard to make sure we got in done in a timely manner. Despite our hiccups, we still beat the B and C areas.

Webscheduler will open for leave requests on Wednesday, 12/5 at 12:00AM. So midnight on Tuesday going into Wednesday morning.  Any leave requests submitted in webscheduler prior to this time will not be honored.

 

There are 10 remaining pre approved slots and they have been placed as follows:

 

6/14 – 1 Slot

6/15 – 1 Slot

6/16 – 1 Slot

6/17 – 3 Slots

6/18 – 2 Slots

6/19 – 1 Slot

10/31 – 1 Slot

 

In accordance with Article 24 Section 3 of the 2016 CBA, these will remain available as pre approved slots until 30 days prior to the posting of the pay period they are in.

Hit me up if you have any questions.

Drew

Weekly Update 11/26 🤠

All,

I hope everyone had as good of a Thanksgiving as the Cowboys did. 🤠 🤠

 

Webscheduler

The issue I mentioned last week about it not properly taking requests has been fixed.

Schedule SOP

There is now a facility level agreement on how we should be scheduling shifts outside of your bid line. That document can be found by clicking here.   If you have any questions about it, please let me know.  The SOP only requires tracking of shift changes of 5 hours or more.  The intent of that was to encompass all day to swing and swing to day moves.  Lucky for us, Angie has agreed to track all moves no matter how small so that we can more equitably distribute them.

Cascade LOA

Garret and I were on a roughly 2 hour telcon with Cascade approach last Tuesday regarding proposed changes to our LOA.  Brian Kayner, Kevin Miller, and Paul Skorniakoff were also on the call.  There will eventually be some small changes to how we handle IR-346 participants and that is something we will all be briefed on when the time comes.  We talked quite a bit about possible changes to our LOA and we have agreed to move forward on a trial basis with a few of the changes.  The trial period will look something like this:

MFR:

  • MFR sector to notify Sector 36 of all flow changes.

  • During north flow only, arrivals filed/routed via the OED 120R-180R to cross 35 nm from OED at 12,000 ft.

EUG:

  • EUG sector to notify Sector 36 of all flow changes.

  • During north flow only, arrivals filed/routed via the EUG 125R-180R to cross 30 nm from EUG at 10,000 ft.

We will also be looking to amend the LOA to where EUG/MFR sectors have control for turns from ZSE as a facility, not just from the transferring sector.  All of this is still in the airspace office and you can expect a briefing on the trial period and what is required of us before it begins.  We will be looking for any feedback as well so we can get these changes working the way we want them before codifying them in the LOA.

LMT RAPCON?!?!

Rumor has it they are gonna make a comeback.  More to follow when I know it.

The Bid is Finally Back On!

The 6th and final round of the bid has begun.  In this round you may bid all leave that you have.  You can take 10 Saturdays if you want.  You are only limited by the amount of leave you have on the books.  Once we hit our maximum allowable slots the bid will be over.  That means it is technically possible for the bid to not even get to you in round 6 depending on what the senior people do.  Once this round is done, we will double check the books and I will give you all about a 3 day heads up on when webschduler will be open for 2019 leave year requests.

That’s it for this week.

In Solidarity,

Drew

Weekly Update 11/19

All,

I hope everyone’s week is going well. Just a couple of things for you guys this week.

The Bid

We are SO close to finishing round 5. Once that happens I will need to get Lee on the same page about how we are doing round 6 and as soon as I do that I will let everyone know that we are up and running. Round 6 will be the final round. It is the only round that you can bid accumulated leave in. That is leave that you have saved up. The only limit to the number of days you can bid is the total slot limitation of 700. Once we hit slot number 700, the bid is over. Once that happens, I will pick a time and open up the webscheduler for non prime time leave requests outside of the bid process.

I also want to give a quick reminder to be courteous with the bid. Consider your brothers and sisters when it is your turn to bid and get it done ASAP. We have had several instances during this bid where people waited a full day or in some cases multiple days to bid. Technically I can’t make you bid on your RDO, but try to be a good neighbor. If Denise can bid from Cozumel or wherever, you can bid from your kitchen.

Publishing Under Guides

For the next Pay Period coming up on the schedule (PP1) you will see some days where we elected to publish the schedule under guides to accommodate leave. If you don’t agree with this decision or you run into any issues on the shifts that were published short, please reach out to me and let me know.

WMT Issues

Last I heard the webscheduler is having some issues. It was preventing all shift change requests to be entered for PP1. This means that the schedulers would not be able to input any return to shift requests and all of those, plus any other requests, would have to be kept track of on pen and paper. This is obviously undesirable and FAA IT is working around the clock to fix it 🙄. But seriously, we do hope it is fixed in time, but if not, I wanted you all to be prepared for that possibility.

Break Policy

I still have yet to see anything implemented here despite all the hubbub. However, yesterday there were rumors that the OM was mandating a certain TOP. Management does have the right to assign work even if you disagree with it (opening a slow sector or whatever). But if they start shortening breaks for no reason or they are not equitably distributing the work then that is something I can address with them. Please let me know if you see any of this.

All Members Business Meeting

We have schedule the next all members business meeting for Monday, December 10th at 3pm. As usual, we will be meeting at the ever eloquent Rainbow Cafe in Auburn (112 E Main Street). The agenda items that we have so far for the meeting are as follows:

Financial Policy/Budget Briefing

Break Room Rearranging and Upgrades

Local Solidarity Meeting (Possibly as a Holiday Party)

Use of local funds for the purchase of alcohol

If you have any other items that you would like added to this agenda, please let any rep know ASAP.

Prior to that all members meeting, we will be having an eboard meeting some time around 11/26. If you have anything you would like me to bring up with the other reps at the meeting, let me know.

In Solidarity,

Drew

Weekly Update 11/12

All,

I hope everyone is having a good week. The bid is moving along nicely but we gotta keep the pace up or we will run into issues with publishing.

El Bid

The bid is still ongoing, we are almost done with round 3. Anyone who earns 20 days per year or less will not be included in rounds 4 and 5. Those rounds will only be the 26 day earners. They can bid 5 days wherever they want in round 4 and 1 day in round 5. Then round 6 will allow people to bid any remaining accrued or accumulated leave in the remaining slots. Keep in mind that after round 5 we will be reducing down to only the 700 total slots that we are entitled to.

AWS Requests (Dream Lines)

If you have not received an email from me regarding your AWS or “Dream Line” then it was not approved. I have kept all the sheets and am happy to sit down and explain to you why it didn’t work but I’ll give a couple of general explanations in this email.  

There were some that were smaller moves (0800 to a 0700 or 1400 to 1300) that seem on the surface like they would be fine to do but we have a minimum number of each shift that we have to publish the schedule with.  For example we have to have 3 0600 shifts.  So going under that number will usually be fine after the schedule posts (assuming no one is on leave) but we couldn’t change the agreed upon schedule to go under those numbers at publishing.  So some that seem like “easy” ones were denied for that reason.

Bigger moves like full RDO changes or swing to day shifts we were also not able to accommodate because of how tight we built the schedule.  We have exactly what we need to make it all work and any changes to that collapses our house of cards.  If we had had 33 lines, this would be a different story. However, 32 is pretty much the exact number we need to make the D area run, anything on top of that and we get to start being more creative.

In Solidarity,

Drew

Round 3 Has Begun

All,

Round 3 of leave bidding has begun.  This is the last round that will for sure have all of you participating.  If you earn 20 days in a year (6 hours per pay period) then this will be your last opportunity until all people who earn 26 days per year (8 in a pay period) have been given the opportunity to bid those days.

In round 3 you are allowed to bid 5 days consecutive OR non-consecutive.  You are NOT guaranteed to be able to bid 5 consecutive days anymore.  This means you can bid 5 Saturdays if you want.  You can bid 2 days in one spot, 1 in one spot and 2 in another spot.  There are lots of configurations to this, I think you get the idea.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

Wonbae, you are up!

NATCAZSE.com/bid.  Password 2152.

 

Also, one more thing, it has been asked a few times why we picked the dates we did for IST and refresher and I wanted to make sure everyone knows that we did not pick those. Those were given to us by the training department. I’ve been complaining about the times they pick for years now. One of them is always around my birthday which is annoying.  Plus this year, they got us really close to Thanksgiving🙄. So trust me, I would put those all in mid January if I could.

 

In Solidarity,

Drew

Weekly Update 11/5

All,

I hope everyone is having a good week.  Not a whole lot to say just a few quick items.

Bidding

Bid is moving right along but don’t get complacent. We got a lot of ground to cover in a short time so if be prepared to bid when it gets to you. Go to NATCAZSE.com/bid for all the bid info.  Password is 2152.

AARON..MOXEE

Last week I saw the B area put the AARON..MOXEE restriction on way too late and it created an undue burden on 14.  I think we all agree that routing aircraft over AARON is not a challenge, but we would much rather have the B area put the restriction on before 14 is red.  So, I have spoken to the B area rep about this a little and it is something we are going to be keeping an eye on.  If you see this happening, make sure you write down the time and shoot me a message so I can work on this.

VOTE.

Please go vote if you didn’t already send in your ballots.  Shit is important.

In Solidarity,

Drew

Bidding has RESUMED!!

All,

After 3 grueling weeks we have finally reached a decision on our bid. We are continuing on with all 3 slots available year round (minus what we had to remove for IST/Refresher). Not all areas are going to be able to do exactly the same as us so be gracious/grateful for what we have here. Also big thanks to Angie for all of the work she put in to illustrating our staffing situation to all parties involved. She was crucial in getting this done. This can’t be overstated.

Please please please get this done as fast as possible. If we aren’t careful we will drift into next year’s schedule. Expect to be bidding on your days off.

Click here for the docs.

Please ask if you have any questions and let’s get this thing done.

In Solidarity,

Drew