VP Update

Sup everbody,

Traffic seems to be pretty wild today/recently getting into the facility on Auburn Way. As a part of our ongoing battle to get the agency to properly approve EA, I would like to remind everyone that Article 29 Section 3 of the CBA states ”Employees may be granted excused absence for brief tardiness up to one (1) hour when the employee provides acceptable justification.” This is obviously not a mandate that they approve EA if you hit traffic, but it is clearly what it is intended for. Please let me know if you attempt to use this and get denied.

I will be available if something comes up, but just a reminder that I will be out of the building at PAR (Pre Arbitration Review) in LA Tuesday-Thursday. That’s the meeting I have been telling you about where we take one more crack at arguing our grievances (in front of a neutral third party) before deciding whether or not to take them to full arbitration. I will update you on the outcome of that meeting as soon as I can.

Thank you to everyone who participated in NATCA shirt day. The winners of the drawing for this month are J-Rod and Jade Yusi. Reply to this email or shoot me a text letting me know your preference in $25 gift card to either Bigfoot Java, The Rock, or McLendon’s.

That’s it for now.

Drew

503.593.8178

VP Update

Sup everybody,

No major updates to share, I just wanted to remind everyone that tomorrow is NATCA tshirt day and let you know about a little shin dig Kevin Thomson is having. He has cleverly titled it “Wine in the Garden” with Pickleball.

From Kevin:
Monday August 25th 4pm - 8pm. Families welcome, and the lake is great for swimming if anyone would rather do that.

There's a sheet on the bulletin board next to the cafeteria. People can sign up there or text/call me (Kevin) - (206) 354-8855.

Also - we are expecting the results of the NCEPT panel to be released TOMORROW (8/15).

Drew

VP Update

Sup everybody,

I am still acting FACREP (through 9/6), so that’s why you are getting all of these updates from me and not Amy. Just a few things to update you on.

EA

As I mentioned in my last update, the A Area had an issue where two employees were held over, which led to a shift change the following day. We have been working on getting those employees EA for the hour their shift was changed, since they weren’t going to be here anyway. After quite a bit of back and forth between myself and Cristalle, we were able to secure that hour of EA. As you know, this is not something she wanted to do but we got there anyway. Thanks to everyone who helped push this across the finish line. This is a small step though, not mission accomplished. We are going to have to keep our foot on the gas in pushing issues like this when they come up again in the future. Please let me or your reps know if you encounter this issue.

No update yet on the voting EA denial.

Sec. Duffy Visit

Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy will be in the area tomorrow 8/13. The only confirmed places he will be visiting are Seattle tower on 8/13 and BFI on 8/15. If we get word he is headed this way, I will make sure to give you all a heads up.

That’s it for now!

Drew

VP Update

Sup everyone,

Another quick update from your acting FacRep. No updates on the EA issues we are having. Planning to update on that by end of day Friday.

As is always the case for a government agency without a stable funding stream, we are facing another potential government shutdown on Oct. 1. So if the government stays shut down, you would get a $0 paycheck on 10/28. Obviously, we will be spooling up legislative efforts to stop that from happening, and you can expect to see emails on that soon.

GEFTA is still in effect - This bill requires employees of the federal government who are furloughed or required to work during a lapse in appropriations beginning on or after December 22, 2018, to be compensated for the period of the lapse. The employees must be compensated on the earliest date possible after the lapse ends, regardless of scheduled pay dates. Employees required to work during the lapse in appropriations may use leave.

MOUs

The team and I have been working our way through what we call our “U1” for each 2026 MOU. The U1 is the Union’s first proposal to mgmt. We will also receive an M1 from mgmt. This exchange will happen at our first official negotiation meeting which is currently scheduled to take place on 8/27. This is the meeting where negotiations will begin in earnest. Once negotiations begin, you won’t hear much from us about it other than that they are ongoing. Negotiations are kept confidential to avoid misinformation during the process and ensure that we keep our negotiating position as strong as possible. We will provide a full update once they are complete.

That being said, we are still in the phase of the process where we are open to ideas from you all. We do appreciate the participation we have received so far. Please reach out to any member of the team with your ideas.

Grievances

I recently moved a grievance from Step 1 to Step 2 out of the A area regarding an improper issuance of a PRoC. The Agency has agreed they have done the PRoC incorrectly, we are still working on getting them to remove it though.

HRPMs vs MOUs

This issue always comes up, so I want to say emphatically that regardless of what any mgmt official thinks, HRPMs will never supersede a matter covered by our contract or an MOU. The agency constantly gets this wrong because all the HRPMs apply to them because they do not have a contract as employees. So any time they see an HRPM, it applies to them. There is even language in most of these that addresses it directly. It will say something like “It does not apply to Bargaining Unit employees or positions where the applicable Collective Bargaining Agreement contains conflicting provisions.” I mention this because there is an HRPM floating around about voting EA not applying to mail in ballot states. We have an MOU on the matter so we can throw that HRPM directly in the trash. It does not matter. It is worth mentioning that sometimes HRPMs are a precursor to a change we see, but that has not been the case yet. HRPMs can fill in the gaps where MOUs and CBAs do not cover an issue, but they are always subordinate to MOUs and CBAs.

Drew

VP Update

All,

I am acting FACREP again while Amy is out so I wanted to provide an update on what I have been working on this week.

MOUs

The MOU negotiating team that consists of myself, FACREP-elect Josh Curtis, and Kevin Brothers met with Cristalle today to set some ground rules and expectations for MOU negotiations. Her team will consist of her, Stan Conrad, and Jared Perkins. We have future meetings scheduled and hope to begin making progress quickly. Linked below is a quick survey about bid windows, OT assignment in conjunction with AL, and a spot to include your thoughts for 2026 MOUs. Thank you to those that attended the local meeting and gave input on the 2026 MOUs. If you were unable to attend, please let us know if you have any thoughts or ideas for the upcoming MOUs.

Link to Survey

Grievances

We filed 2 grievances regarding messed up pay that took WAY too long to fix. Those pay issues have finally been resolved though. Please keep us posted on any pay issues, DOI is strug-uh-lin.

As you may recall from my last update, at Step 2 (facility level) we had the grievance regarding the painting of the pickleball court. Surprise surprise, that one was NOT sorted out at the facility level and we will be elevating it to PAR (Pre Arbitration Review). It did not make the cutoff for the August PAR though so it will have to wait until the 4th quarter PAR that has yet to be scheduled. Our regional LR Lead (Rick Tornabell from D01) will continue to work this at his level prior to that time in hopes of resolving it before PAR. He has conversations with an agency position called the “ETR” which stands for Executive Technical Representative. They work with the Agency LER (Labor Employee Relations) people to determine if they can settle a case prior to having to go to PAR with it. All cases go through this process prior to PAR, even the ones we are planning to argue at the PAR on 8/20 are still being worked and could be settled prior to the actual meeting.

No update on the previously mentioned ones that are on the PAR docket - OT Skip (Fatigue Violation), OM not liking certain words used in their presence, and agency inability to reply to a grievance fully.

EA

Ok so EA is a real hot button issue around the NAS right now and we are no different. I am currently working 2 separate issues involving EA. One is for voting EA. The Agency denied an employee voting EA recently and has yet to provide a valid reason, in my opinion. My concern is that they think that because the EO that spawned the MOU has been repealed, the MOU is no longer valid. That is not the case. The MOU is tied to the Slate Book and I am not sure if you have heard but the Slate Book is in effect for the foreseeable future.

The other EA issue, and the more frustrating one IMO, is one where employees were held over and the holdover necessitated a shift change the following day. I am of the opinion that barring some sort of extreme circumstance, the time that the employee was required to stay extra the following day should be EA. To me, that is the bare minimum we should be doing to get people’s schedules back on track after causing a massive disruption with only a few hours notice. I don’t even think there is a solid staffing argument to deny the EA, if the schedule was published a certain way, then the agency was fine with it being that way, and the EA should be given for that time window because the agency wasn’t expecting them to be here then anyway! It is not the fault of the employee that the area is drastically short staffed and we should not be paying the price for it at every turn when we don’t have to be. It’s basic human decency and the right thing to do. I will continue to try to make that argument and keep you all posted.

Recreational Areas

I am in preliminary discussions with Cristalle for us to have a sit down with the tech ops folks. The purpose of this will be to try to determine areas that we could use for outside activities. Perhaps even a pickleball court? This is in the early phases of discussing but I hope to be able to give more information soon.

Chairmageddon

A request has been made for us to stop stealing chairs from places outside the control room. Mostly because there are rules around what kind of chairs are allowed to be used in the control room (has to be super fart resistant or something). In addition to that, Al Franklin should soon begin working with each area rep to identify broken chairs and mark them for death or fixing. The more chairs we can identify as broken, the more chairs we are likely to get approval to buy. The facility currently has approval to buy only 5 new chairs. I am assuming that’s about 7 million dollars. Supercharge ATC chairs?

Rain Drainage Repair

There is something going to be happening soon regarding the gutters or something and it somehow impacts the inside? Honestly I don’t get it but expect certain areas to be roped off an unusable while they work on that. You can expect more info in TEAM. Sadly, this will include portions of the ready room for a few weeks and is unavoidable.

Hit me up if you need anything,

Drew

503.593.8178