Another friendly reminder that the NATCA Solidarity event is happening this coming Monday, Jan 25. It will begin at 6 PM with our NATCA President Paul Rinaldi and EVP Trish Gilbert as well as a few (maybe not a few) words from former NATCA President John Carr. Bowling is slated to begin at 7 PM. ACME Bowl 100 Andover Park West, Tukwila, WA. No children, please. I hope to see you all there.
Good afternoon,
We are just one week from the big NATCA Solidarity event at ACME Bowl. Attendance is strongly encouraged as NATCA President and Vice President Paul Rinaldi and Trish Gilbert will be there with special guest Former NATCA President John Carr. If for no other reason, Mr. Carr should be enough to come out just to hear him speak about the history and strength of our union. Again, it’s in one week (Mon. Jan 25th) beginning at 6 PM with a word from our past and present leaders and then bowling at 7 PM. ACME Bowl, 100 Andover Park West, Tukwila, WA. Kids are not recommended, unfortunately.
I hope to see you all there.
Good evening,
I just wanted to clear the air on a couple of issues that have cropped up as bidding is underway.
1. Holidays DO NOT count against a BUE's accrued leave for 2016. This includes in lieu holidays.
2. You cannot reserve a guaranteed PT/NPT slot on your RDO. We sought outside interpretation on this on Jan 14 and the feedback is that it is not allowed. However, you can annotate the RDO(s) in question you would like protected and we’ll keep track in the event of an RDO change down the line. Remember, voluntary RDO changes have zero protection of PT/NPT leave.
3. For this MOU, “consecutive days” can only be interrupted by your RDO’s. For example:
· If you were on Sat/Sun, you can bid Mon-Fri, or Wed-Following Tues, etc.
· If you were on Sat/ Sun and Wed was maxed out, you COULD NOT bid M, T, TH, F, as the consecutive streak ends at Tuesday. You would have to use separate weeks.
Please keep asking us questions. We know that this is an accelerated process but it doesn’t have to be a confusing one. While this present situation isn’t ideal, the foundation that it set is amazing. It will get better.
For your convenience all Areas Bid Books are available online at natca-zse.com/bid. It is also linked on the Homepage.
Please note that these are updated by the Reps so depending on how quickly the bid progresses some information may not be completely up to date! However, we will do our best to keep it current.
The 2016 Basic Watch Schedule and leave bid will start on Wednesday (1/13) afternoon.
Below we have the the quick version or "cliff notes" on bidding leave, then after that we get a little more into the weeds.
We've (your Eboard) put a lot of thought and work into this MOU, since it differs from any previous MOU's that we've had, so we think we have everything covered.
Each area will have it's reps and designees to help answer any questions and expedite the bidding process, and they will be posted in each area's bid binder. The binder will be kept either at Joni's desk (across from the OM's desk), in the NATCA office (so it can be updated) or at the OM desk (after hours).
Cliff Notes for bidding
We are scheduled to begin the bidding process on Wednesday afternoon, we’re we will be bidding RDO's, then leave.
Here is how the leave bidding will look.
Round 1 - Prime Time, Up to two weeks of leave, consecutive or non-consecutive
Round 2 - Non Prime Time, Up to 5 consecutive days
Round 3 - NPT, Up to 5 consecutive days
Round 4 - NPT, Up to 5 consecutive days
Round 5 - NPT, Up to 5 consecutive days
This process will continue until:
1) all leave slots are gone or
2) all accrued leave has been bid.
Each employee gets to bid all leave that they accrue for this leave year. If you earn 4 hours a pay period, you get to bid 13 days.
If you elected to use NPT between January 10th and March 5th, then those days will be counted against your NPT balance for the year.
Bidding Leave Procedures
Each area controller in a duty status will be given official notification by a NATCA Rep or designee of their turn to bid their prime time and/or non-prime time annual leave. Once notified, each bid opportunity must be completed within a one-hour period. To the extent that staffing and workload permit, 30 minutes of the one-hour period will be away from the operational area.
Should an employee not complete their bid(s) within the allotted time or request to delay their turn; their opportunity to bid is passed and notification to the next senior employee will be made.
Employees scheduled to be away from the Area/Facility have the option of providing their bid requests via written proxy to the NATCA designated representative for submission. Employees are responsible to ensure that their request contains sufficient prime time options to complete their bid.
Delays to this process are undesirable; therefore employees that are away from the Facility/Area for more two days and that opted not to provide a written proxy will be passed in the process and notification to the next senior employee will be made. Employees that are passed in the process may bid after the person currently eligible to bid completes his/her turn.
Bidding rounds:
Round 1 - up to 2 weeks, consecutive or non-consecutive
Round 2 through 5 - up to 1 week
The bid book will remain open until one of the following:
1 All leave slots (3 slots per day) are filled.
2 All accrued leave has been exhausted.
Other notables:
Ø Employees may cancel and change their bid once it's their turn in the following round. They may only bid up to 5 consecutive days for that round.
Ø PT/NPT cannot be cancelled/re-bid once the schedule has been published.
Ø If a BUE elects to temporarily pass, they must wait until the completion of the next BUE’s bid prior to selecting their leave.
Ø BUE’s on the same crew are allowed to bid the same day(s).
Ø Any NPT used between 1/10 & 3/5 will be counted against their accrued leave for 2016.
Ø Any PT or NPT leave bid on a holiday, will not count towards your accrued leave for bidding.
Ø As the bidding rounds progress during the year, NPT slots will be available until 7 days prior to the schedule being published.