All Members Meeting This Friday

We are having an All Members meeting this Friday a1 10am. It will be held virtually via the link below and in person in the East / West Conference Room. Our RVP, Alex Navarro will be there. This is an excellent opportunity to voice your questions / concerns at a national level. We will also be talking about the finances and also going over the few new constitutional amendments that were sent in after the deadline extension.

Coffee and pastries will be available (only in person, I will not be delivering to your house :)

This is the email sent out by the NNM leadership team:

Please give us agenda items HERE

These are turbulent times; however, your regional leadership is continuing to work for everyone to get through these unprecedented times. We are committed to providing you the support you need and the answers you seek. In an attempt to further this goal, we would like to conduct virtual meetings with all of the Northwest Mountain facilities throughout the fall. These meetings will be an open forum and designed to allow you to speak directly to the regional leadership.

It is certainly recognized that there are many stressors directly impacting all of you right now including: shifting pandemic guidance, new and reinstituted mandates, short staffing, training delays, leave obligations, overtime, and increased operational oversight. All of these issues are at the forefront of our concerns as well. We would like the opportunity to ensure that your concerns are heard and voiced directly as well. We strive to deliver the most up to date and accurate messaging on these issues and you need to be able to respond to our decisions and positions.

The membership as a whole are likely reacting strongly to these pressures and we want to be able to help respond to these heightened emotions and opinions. It is imperative that all of the leaders in the region including local leadership remain steadfast in the commitment to the well-being of our workforce and our profession. It is imperative that we openly display this resolve to all the members in the Northwest Mountain region. It is imperative that we allow the membership to participate alongside us in this endeavor.

To achieve this, we ask for your attendance to your facility’s upcoming virtual meeting. These meetings are for any and all members. There will be ample time for discussion, debate, and if need be, displeasure. We understand that staffing challenges and employee morale may attempt to become roadblocks to member participation, but we will be there even if there is only one member on the call.

We appreciate your time and dedication to this profession, and your patience as we navigate these turbulent times.

TELCON INFO:

Friday, November 19th @1000 PST

Microsoft Teams meeting

Join on your computer or mobile app

Click here to join the meeting

Or call in (audio only)

+1 253-240-0613,,335054440# United States, Tacoma

Phone Conference ID: 335 054 440#

Alex Navarro III

NATCA Northwest Mountain RVP

M: 206.406.0194

anavarro@natca.net

Facility Update November 6th

The update is a little later and lighter than usual, I have been taking a much needed albeit very short break.

Booster Shots

We are still pinning down the actual process in house. It has been tricky dealing with the wording of the MOU but for the time being, please try to talk with your crew/supe to try and figure out a good set of days that work to get your EA. Please put in a request for WX leave to save your spot in line and put something in the remarks about it being a booster. If you are denied the 4 hours EA on the day of a shot, management is required to do so in writing with justification. If you feel comfortable with sharing, please send your rep a copy of the denial justification.

All Members Meeting

We will be having an all members meeting Friday, November 19th. Our RVP, Alex Navarro will be speaking as well. This is a good opportunity to hear directly from the national office and voice any questions or concerns you might have. This meeting will more than likely be held purely virtually but we are looking into whether we can do an in person/online hybrid again. Details to follow.

Agenda Items:

NNM RVP

Annual Budget Review

If you have any other agenda items you’d like to see added, please let us know.

Thank you,

Amy Sizemore

Weekly Update October 29th

We are coming up on the 8th of November which is the deadline to complete the attestation. Management will be handing out paper reminders to everyone that has not completed that yet. Please either bring in any approved form of proof if you have not already. Any physical or digital copy will suffice. If your intent is to request a Reasonable Accommodation (RA) then you need to annotate that in the attestation form AND complete the RA form the FAA sent out in your email. That is currently the only form available.

Covid Shot / Booster EA MOU

This MOU that was sent out last week basically updates the previous vaccination MOU to specifically include booster shots. After talking with the front office, I reiterated the importance of people’s ability to get these vaccines and be afforded time as stated in that MOU. You should be able to work this out with your supervisor to try and find a time to get your booster. 

**Since the time to be fully vaccinated is limited, please let someone know right away if you are having trouble getting off the schedule to get your vaccine (J&J is the only one left to take and still be in compliance). If you like, you can let them know that it is for the J&J or that it is for your initial shot and they should know to try and do whatever they can to make that work.

OT List Preference Sheet

Please take a moment and fill out the OT form. It is on the bidATC home page for your area. Here is the OT List link too. If you forgot whether you did it or if you changed your mind, it’s ok to do it again. While we’re on the subject, end of the year OT list changes may take a couple weeks to show correctly on scheduled OT. This is because the schedulers have already published many weeks of the new year before we even get there. Immediate changes are still allowed and will follow the hours reset accordingly as set forth in the OT MOU. 

Employee Express

The FAA and NATCA have signed an MOU setting up the Two Factor Authorization allowing access to Employee Express outside of the firewall or without a PIV. You will need to set up an account on Login.gov. I believe there is a part of the process that needs to be done either on a government computer or have the initial signup code mailed to your house still though. Then you should have no problem accessing employeeexpress.gov at your home. 

Bidding

With round one completed, there are a lot of questions about dream sheets and permanent swaps. Dream sheets are for permanent schedule change requests that don’t involve trading with anyone else and just involve filling out a request. Depending on how your whole area’s schedule was designed, it may or may not get approved. Permanent swap requests are a little different. Obviously that requires the approval of both parties involved but there is an additional step. You also need to get the approval of everyone that is between the highest and lowest person in seniority involved. Nothing too crazy, usually it just looks like a paper with the intended swap and an area for signatures next to the name of the person.

Amy Sizemore and Drew Stewart

Facility Update October 22nd

Attestation

Just a reminder, you must log on to attest.faa.gov from a government computer or with the appendix attached to the attestation MOU no later than November 8th. You are afforded duty time to do this. Some people are just taking a picture of their card and sending it to their FAA email then saving it to that computer so you can upload it but please ensure you delete that off the computer before you log off. The process is a little confusing but there’s a cheat sheet in each area that has the info too but just in case it’s: 

LOB: ATO 

Service Unit: AJT 

ORG: TWSE1ZSE  

Work Site: Des Moines, WA

It’s also at the very top of CEDAR (there’s a little carrot used to expand the window that you might need to click on). 

Vaccination Incentive

The front office has finally come up with a process to request your TOA for your getting your vaccine. Just show one of the approved proof documents listed in the MOU and they will forward that info to the OM. They will put your name on a spreadsheet that is kept out of public view and is only used as a list for the time and attendance person to input your award. No supervisors should be asking for copies of your proof, seeing it meets the requirements. 

Covid Booster MOU

Today a new MOU dropped to provide guidance for the EA available for Covid boosters and also retroactive EA if you used leave to get a family member a vaccine. The full MOU is HERE but some of the highlights are:

• Up to four (4) hours of duty time to obtain the initial dose of a COVID-19 vaccination and second dose, if part of a two-dose series.

• Up to four (4) hours of excused absence to obtain a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccination.

• Up to four (4) hours of excused absence to accompany a family member to obtain each dose of a COVID-19 vaccination, not to exceed twelve (12) hours per family member.

The following are additional highlights of the MOU:

• BUEs who used leave to obtain a vaccination dose or booster prior to September 9, 2021, may submit a retroactive request for up to four (4) hours excused absence for each dose.

• BUEs who used leave to accompany a family member to obtain a booster on or after July 29, 2021, and prior to the date of this agreement, may submit a retroactive request for up to four (4) hours of excused absence for each dose.

• For a BUE who accompanies a family member to their vaccination, proof includes an email or text verifying the appointment or any other documentation showing that the family member received a vaccination.

• BUEs will be reimbursed for reasonable transportation costs for getting to and from the pre-approved vaccination site to obtain an initial or second dose vaccine.

• BUEs with a medical certificate or medical clearance who are required to observe a 48-hour “Do Not Fly”/do not perform safety-sensitive duties interval after each dose of the vaccine will be afforded two (2) workdays of excused absence after receiving each dose of a COVID-19 vaccination/booster, if otherwise scheduled to work. No adverse reaction is necessary.

If anyone has any questions about this, please let us know and we’ll get the answers to you as quickly as possible.

Amy Sizemore and Drew Stewart

Facility Update October 21st

Collaborative Work Group (CWG)

During the past year and a half, most CWGs have been paused or shelved. We have one that needs to start soon and we are looking for people to help out with it. For many years now, we have used a piece of software that has allowed Flight Data and TMU to automatically forward PIREP GIs to the appropriate sectors without having to forward the data to each sector manually. Long story short but that program is no longer allowed and we need to move to the approved system of PIREP dissemination via ERIDS. The workgroup will be working together to determine the specifics of who is responsible for what data input, etc. This is an excellent way to help shape the way our facility utilizes our equipment that works best for us. Please let us know as soon as possible if you are interested or if you have any questions, we need to get this going right away.

Reasonable Accommodations

On Tuesday, the national office sent out an email about reasonable accommodations. Just to be clear, this form is not the exemption request, it is just announcing to the FAA of your intent to file an exception as soon as the agreed upon form is released. Here is an excerpt from the national office:

“We have received a number of questions from bargaining unit employees (BUEs) regarding the process to request a legal exception to Executive Order (EO) 14043, which mandates COVID-19 vaccinations for all Federal employees. We are continuing to work through this issue with the FAA. In the interim, we are providing the following guidance:

• BUEs who wish to request a reasonable accommodation (RA) as an exception to the vaccination requirement because of a disability or a sincerely held religious belief, practice, or observance may do so by submitting the COVID-19 Vaccination Exception for Medical or Religious Reasons Form to their immediate supervisor. The FAA may request supporting documentation.

• If the RA request is approved, the BUE will receive written approval of the accommodation request. The written decision will include the accommodation the Agency has granted and what protocols the BUE must follow.

• If the RA request is denied, the BUE may request reconsideration in writing. The Agency will outline the process to request reconsideration and other available avenues of appeal in its denial letter.”

Amy Sizemore and Drew Stewart