Weekly Update June 20th

We’re now midway through another round of our 5/5 dynamic scheduling. We hope that everyone is staying safe and healthy while also enjoying a little extra time with your family. We still don’t have anything definitive on how long we can expect this schedule to last, but it sounds like the FAA is getting a little antsy to get us all back to work. We will continue to work locally to remain in a 5/5 posture for as long as we can. Although much of the country is beginning to open up, we need to stay vigilant in ensuring we keep ourselves, our crew mates and the flying public safe.

High Risk Personnel and Developmentals

You may have seen the email from National about trainees and high risk personnel and their respective currency requirements. Derek will be negotiating the specifics of how we will accomplish this with Don early next week but here’s what it boils down to:

High Risk: You have the option of coming in and getting a quick “over the shoulder” but will not have to get the whole eight hours of currency. We plan on getting high risk individuals into the building before the developmentals and first thing in the morning while all the positions are still combined up. We want to minimize the risk involved and get you in and out.

Developmentals: Developmentals will not have the option on whether or not to come in. You will be hearing from your area rep shortly to work out a time to come in. Developmentals will be required to get an “over the shoulder” and then 8 hours of proficiency prior to being placed back on EA.  

We understand that there is going to be discomfort from the workforce on how we continue to social distance while having the developmentals in the area and we are brainstorming ideas on how to make it work in the safest way possible. Work out a system with your crew. Maybe it’s masks, maybe it’s having someone in charge or cleaning, etc. If you are coming into the building for the first time, please be mindful of space, cleanliness and ask about the routine that the rest of the crew has in place. 

As always we appreciate all your hard work and your patience during the last several months. Your Eboard meets virtually quite frequently to ensure we are on the same page and strive to make these strange times as manageable as possible. Stay safe. Stay healthy. Maintain your sanity and one of these days we may all get to see each other again. 

In Solidarity,

Derek Adams and Amy Sizemore

Weekly Update June 12th

For those that made it to the virtual update, we thank you. It was very nice to get to chat with you all and hear some of your questions and concerns. For those that weren’t able to make it, this update will try to capture the highlights.

Use or Lose Leave

Our RVP, Alex Navarro, was able to join us for a few pressing questions on the National front. One of the biggest concerns is use or lose leave. At this time there are no negotiated terms for use or lose. There is an assumption that something will be worked out, but there are no guarantees. If you find yourself in a position of having use or lose leave, please feel free to use it as you deem necessary.

Dynamic Scheduling

We are now midway through the second rotation of 5/5 scheduling and so far things seem to be going quite well. We know the thoughts on most people’s minds is when we will return to normal. Based on the current traffic data and staffing levels, it doesn’t seem like it will be soon, but as with everything up to this point, it can change at a moment's notice. Our initial thought is when traffic picks up we may start eliminating some of the additional EA and as it picks up more we will start negotiating going back to our bid schedules. At this time management has not shown any intentions of engaging in these negotiations. As the summer goes on and we evaluate the traffic levels we will keep you posted. 

OT on the Dayshift

The Eboard engaged in a conversion about eliminating one of the two 10 minute OT shifts assigned to the 0600 shift. When the dynamic scheduling rolled out several months ago, we agreed to revisit the OT assignments to ensure they were what we needed. After discussion, we have agreed to reduce the number of OTs on the 0600 shift to one. The area reps, schedulers and/or scheduling supes will be working to adjust Webscheduler to reflect these changes. 

Charity

We closed up the fundraising drive last Saturday with a final total of $3027! Amazing job ZSE! Rainier Valley Food Bank was our last donation of $527 just to zero out our balance. Second, we will be going ahead with our backpack donation again this year, details and requests for volunteers will be coming out soon.

Training

Still no word on developmentals coming back into the building yet but the FAA is starting to develop virtual training. This of course will not take the place of OJTI but will be a way to re-engage students that have been out of the books for a while. The training department would like to start that in the next 6 weeks or so but there is no definite timeline or content yet. 

Father’s Day

The Northwest Mountain communications team wants to celebrate Father’s Day by featuring pictures of you and your kids! Please send them to the NNM Facebook, Instagram or NNMCOMM@NATCA.NET. If you have time, fill out this short survey too. Fathers Day Form

Local Synology Giveaway

While normally the Local uses its equipment until it breaks, occasionally, we have a piece of equipment that we long need and so we are able to offer it to the Membership. We have a Synology 2 Bay Disk Station (DS213j) that we longer need now that cloud storage is so robust. It includes 2 1GB Hard Drives that will be wiped. If you are interested in this unit please fill out this form by June 19th to be considered and we will randomly draw a winner on June 20th.

Weekly Update June 5th

Good evening all, we are well into the 5/5 schedules, we haven’t heard much so it sounds like it’s going well. Not much to update you on this week so we'll keep it short.

Developmentals/Non-essentials

No word yet on either of these. There is a collaborative work group working on that at the national level right now. They have not come to any agreements or decisions on how people should be safely introduced back to the building yet so any information out there is just rumor.

Backpack program

For the last two years, we have been donating backpacks full of school supplies to children in need. NATCA Charitable Foundation sends us empty backpacks and funds to purchase the supplies. We have the chance to do this again but need your help! We need some internet shoppers and people willing to stuff backpacks. Historically we’ve done this in late July/early August but we just need to know whether we’ve got the volunteers now. Please email/text Amy if you can help out (amatc20@gmail.com 2538806414).

Town Hall

Just to switch things up a little, we’re going to be doing next week’s update via Microsoft Teams. This will give us a chance to see/hear from you guys and give you the chance to ask any questions you might have. If you have anything you would like specifically addressed, shoot us an email and we’ll answer it then. We will send out the link to the Teams meeting next week. The virtual update will be on Friday, June 12th at 6pm. Hope to see you there!

Please continue to stay safe as everything starts to open up,

Amy Sizemore and Derek Adams

Weekly Update May 29th

Good evening all, hope this finds you well. In an effort not to inundate you with email blasts we took last Friday off, but we are back with some needed information. 

5/5 Schedules

We’ve officially transitioned to our 5/5 schedules with some additional EA. As with everything up to this point, I’m sure there will be many questions and “what if” scenarios. We will continue to address those as they come up. One major concern is getting recalled for a 0600 in the middle of the night. This was discussed with Don and he assured us that only OMs will be making that call. This means that a call must come prior to 2200 before the OM goes home or the OMIC will have to call the OM at home in the morning prior to their shift to make the recall for the dayshift prior to 0600. Apparently OMs are people too and don’t want to be called until they are awake for their shift, so we can expect this call from them sometime between 0430 and 0600. If at any time this becomes a problem please notify an Eboard member and we will put an end to it immediately. Many of the other questions we are hearing are regarding leave, turning in leave, converting EA to leave and other similar scenarios. We will admit that we do not have all the answers to every situation and are learning as we go just as many of you are. This pandemic has forced us into uncharted territory so please be patient with us as we continue to address these questions and negotiate with management on a reasonable solution. In the meantime, we urge you to work closely with your crew to look out for and take care of each other. Swap EA amongst yourselves (within your crew). Give each other a heads up if you think you need to call in sick and they may get recalled. The more we work together with our brothers and sisters, the more sustainable this situation will be. 

Charity

Some of you may have seen ZSE mentioned in the NATCA Insider email last week. You all should be very proud of your contribution to our community. We are close to hitting our next $500 milestone and donating our next check. Donations are starting to slow down so we may start to think about putting an end date on this soon. If you’d still like to help out, Venmo @Amanda-Sizemore1 

Masks

By now, you should have received a second, better quality NATCA mask. If you didn’t, please get a hold of your area rep. On May 18th, King County put out a mask recommendation for most public places. So far, masks are not required at any air traffic control facilities but it is a good way to keep our germs to ourselves. The whole system works better when everyone that is able to wear a mask does so.

If you choose to wear a mask, just some reminders:

• Your mask should cover your nose and mouth at all times.

• Always wash your hands with soap and water or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer before you put on a face covering and after removing it.

• Wash your face covering after each use (daily).

As the state begins to open up, please remember to take appropriate precautions for yourselves and your families. We feel it is going to be a very difficult summer with this pandemic looming over us, but we are confident that with all the precautions we are taking, ZSE can get through this together.

Thank you,

Derek Adams and Amy Sizemore

(For those that read down this far, good job! I miss you all very much and truly can’t wait to get back in there and see my people again! It’s so boring at my house! -Amy)

Weekly Update May 15th, Part Two

As you know, everything about this virus has put our world in a constant state of change. Last week, we announced a four hour recall period for your “on call” EA days. The reality is that just doesn’t work for the day and the swing so that has changed a little. Again, this does not apply to your full five days of EA when we transition to the five and five schedule.

• The recall time for the mid will remain at four hours prior to the shift start time.

• The recall time for the day and the swing will be up to the start time of what would have been your assigned shift. We also agreed that if someone is called just prior to their shift start they need to make reasonable effort to get there as soon as possible. If you find yourself with an obligation that prevents you from getting there within a reasonable time such as childcare, please let the OM or supervisor know and then make every effort to get there as soon as you can.

• The OMIC will have the ability to recall an employee, but a recall should not be the first course of action. Other mitigations should be considered prior to recall (shorter breaks, moving sups around, etc.)

• If at any time the recall procedures are not working out for either party, we will sit down and renegotiate to figure out something that will work.

We spoke about this in our last update, but we just want to reiterate that this is a very delicate situation. We cannot mess around with any of this. If you are on recall, please answer your phone. Remember that these are our co-workers and our brothers and sisters pulling the weight to make dynamic scheduling work. We are doing an unbelievable job in looking out for each other. Please keep it up and hopefully we make it through this pandemic in good health but also pride in knowing the sacrifices we made to keep ourselves and our NATCA family safe.

 During the negotiations for recall, we also discussed some contingencies for bid leave, NPTL and spot leave.

• If someone is choosing to take bid leave during their days on, they will have the option to take leave on what would have been their RDOs if we were on normal schedules.

• If someone is taking bid leave and normally you would have one person on EA, the bid leave will supersede someone being on EA.

• If employees cancel bid leave because of the 5/5 schedule, we agreed that upon negotiations to return to normal bid schedules, the leave books will immediately take effect again. We want to ensure that you feel comfortable giving your leave back due to 5/5 scheduling while still having assurances that you will still have your leave opportunity when life begins to normalize.

• If you know you have a particular day you need off, please try to get that request in prior to publication. The schedulers and area reps are continuing to work very hard to make this schedule function as painlessly as they can. As far as spot leave, once a schedule is published, the “on call” EA is going to be published as approved. If you have a spot leave request it will fall in line after the “on call” EA. Please work with your crew to accommodate spot leave requests. There is nothing preventing us from trading days of EA and furthermore, if it’s something you want guaranteed, there is nothing preventing us from changing EA to AL to avoid recall. As mentioned before, this thing is working because we are willing to make it work and take care of each other.

 Some of this might be a little confusing, if you have questions, please let us know. Thank you for your understanding while the Eboard works through these changes together.

Derek Adams and Amy Sizemore