ZSE NATCA Holiday Party

2016 Schedule

There isn't anything new to report, however Tony Germann and myself will be in Portland tomorrow to go over the NW Mountain regional grievances at PAR (Pre Arbitration Review) where RVP Doug Pincock will give us an update where our leave MOU is at.

In the meantime, we will continue to stay on our current schedules going into 2016 until we get an agreement in place.  

Thanks for your support!

2015 ZSE NATCA Holiday Party

Saturday December 19th at the Iron Horse Casino in Auburn, we are hosting a NATCA holiday party for it's members (current and retired) and their families.  

Dinner will be served from 6:30 to 8:30

Live music begins around 9pm.

We realize that some of you will not be able to make it due to work or prior commitments, therefore we plan on hosting another NATCA event in the near future on a different night of the week.  

Schedule update

Back on November 13th (our last update), schedule negotiations came to a halt.  Management was limited to 710 leave slots per area, where we need around 1200 slots (includes 10 holidays per controller) to be in-compliance with our contract, or in other words, to use enough leave for what everyone would accrue.

Since then, we elevated this to the Regional level, where it was then kicked back to us to get essentially our "ducks in a row", therefore if or when it goes to arbitration, we'll have our case built for us.  As it stands now, we have formally exchanged our final proposals and will be sending them up to the Region ASAP.

From here my guess is that it will go beyond the Regional level up to National and that is where they may give in a tad bit, and give us a few more slots and hope that we settle.

I've been doing this for 10 years and seen the Agency do the "slow play" during the white book (FAA Imposed work rules where they cut new hire pay by up to 30%).  The Agency plays the stall game and hopes that we eventually crack and settle.  Anchorage and Oakland Center have settled and accepted less that what they are entitled too, but they are not us and maybe their staffing is better.

ZLC & ZDV are in the same boat as us, and we will ride this out until we get what is our contractual right (and that would be the same thing that all the Centers are getting in the Eastern and Central Service Areas).

If we were to accept the Agency's last offer, anyone after the number 12 senior person in each area would not get any opportunity for Summer leave.  Additionally in the A, B & C areas, you would not be able to secure any leave outside of the Non-Prime Time area (which means SF-71 or Web-schedule leave will be non-existent) next year because of our staffing shortage.

This staffing shortage is a direct result of the poor planning on the Agency.  ZSE did not bring in a new hire for about a 3 year period (with the exception of one).  That isn't our's or Chuck's fault, it is on the Government and now we are facing a staffing crisis that will be here for the next few years.

Thanks again for your support, and if you have any questions, ideas or concerns, please let me know.

Troy

Schedule update

What is the deal here, why aren't we bidding?

Up until this year, status quo has worked because we've had the staffing to support the Non Prime Time leave process.  We'd get 10 days guaranteed leave (Prime Time), then the Non Prime time leave would be approved/denied when the schedule gets published.  With that, we would get creative and use trainees to cover leave when we didn't have the CPC coverage. This year we missed a lot of opportunities, and a lot of that of course goes to our staffing losses such as medical disqualifications, retirements & promotions.  

Why are we doing this?

We cannot afford status quo anymore.

This past year we averaged about 33 CPC's per area when it came time to bid.  This year we have two areas at 29, one area at 31 and the other at 32.  Additionally we could have anywhere from 2 to 9 people that will retire prior to July. 

Article 24 section 2 states that all employees shall be authorized the use of the leave they are entitled to earn within a leave year at any time during the leave year.  The readers digest version of this means that the Agency must approve all leave accrued for each employee during the bidding process for each year.

What are other facilities doing?

13 of the 21 Centers approve all leave that each employee accrues during the bidding process with an excess of 25-30% additional leave slots to bid.

4 Centers are still in negotiations.

3 plus us are in the same boat.

So where are we at now?

The guidance that Chuck has been given is that he cannot spend overtime money on Non-Prime Time Leave, therefore the last offer was 2 slots per day for the whole year and  in November it bumps to 3.  This equates to about 710 days, however each area will accrue about 810. 

While we cannot negotiate the amount of leave slots, we can discuss what the Prime Time period looks like.   Our last proposal spelled that out so we can try to maximize the leave opportunities for each employee.

Bottom line (with managements last proposal) is that 2 slots per day isn't going to cut it as maybe the top 25% of the area will get summertime off.  There will be a very limited opportunity for NPTL (don't buy any plane tickets or non-refundable deposits) and certainly no spot leave this summer.

So what next?

We are waiting for the Agency's final proposal to see what it looks like.  If we don't get the leave slots that we are entitled to by contract, then we will have to go to an actual arbitrated impasse.  Until then we'll continue to stay on the same schedule, any leave that you need in January-March will need to go through web schedules. 

I am sorry that this could be causing some inconvenience or possible anxiety on a potential vacation plans for early next year, but if we didn't make a stand for this now, it would be waiving our contractual right for any leave we are entitled to other than the 10 days we already get.

Wifi Network Update

Due to popular demand we now have improved WiFi connectivity in the locker rooms and reading/pool table room as well as the west side of the OSW. Refer to the map below for all the APs locations. Enjoy!!

Election update

I had a new member come to me yesterday and asked me about the elections and what the duties entailed for each officer.  You know it's funny because I see this through out our agency, including NATCA where people have been in their roles for a while and just start rambling on about information they understand, yet their audience has no idea what it means.  For instance for me, if I'm getting briefed on either Nexgen or a Legislative item, I need to slow them down because I either don't know what certain acronyms mean or what does this HR bill mean for us?  LOL 

So here's a brief low down on what each positions responsibilities that are up for office.

Vice President 

Of course the obvious, if I go down the VP is here for you. In the past, our VP has handled a myriad of duties such as training and Pro Standards just to name a few.  I was fortunate enough to have Jeff McElvain as our VP for the past 5 years because not only we are friends, but we share the same vision yet we also challenged each other on so many local issues.

I do see this role as an eventual replacement for me at some point and I'm glad that we have two candidates in Alex Navarro and Drew Stewart that care about our Union.

Secretary

Rick Lund has been our secretary for the past 8 years and there isn't anyone that could do a better job.  Rick has been a bulldog when it comes to getting things organized such as seniority dates, Area seniority lists, processing membership applications, address changes and also taking care of Eboard and membership minutes.  Derek Adams and Brian Deren are running for this position.

Treasurer

Kip Karsh has been our treasurer for the past two years.  These duties include (the most important) filling our our LM forms (taxes) so I don't go to jail.  Additionally they stay on top of our budget, process vouchers and pay bills.  Devin Carlisto and Garret Wilkerson are running for this position.

Area Rep

I view the Area rep as the Facrep for the area.  You develop schedules, work with the area's Operations Manager on area issues, stay on top of training issues, work with airspace and the training departments.  The Area rep is a lot of work and they also get the brunt of the complaints from the workforce when management isn't doing their job.  I also designate reps on each shift incase a rep is needed, such as if the drug or alcohol testers show up or management wants to conduct a Weingarten meeting.

Derek, Rick, Devin and Chico have done an amazing job the past two years because there is a lot of work that's being done on their own time and have the area's needs first.  James Wolken just took over in TMU a few months ago and has hit the ground running and has brought some solid ideas to the Unit.  The only Area Rep race we have is between Brooke Dawson and Paul Skorniakoff.

Another important role for all the reps is that they get to vote on our local Eboard.  We vote on a lot of local issues such as, how we spend our money, select volunteers for positions that come up, direction for the local on certain issues plus a lot more.

For me it's been an honor to have been on this eboard as we have as a group have worked together and have been professional to our membership and our facility.  Yet I am sad to see some of our reps leave, I am looking forward to the opportunity to  work with next group reps.

Please vote, it's your voice and your right.

Thank you,

Troy