Facility Update February 28th

Hello all, hope you’re all safe and healthy. A lot is changing in the facility so we’ll get right into it.

Masks

Last Tuesday, the face coverings MOU was updated to be in compliance with Executive Order 13991. Basically what this means for us is that unless you are in a single person office with floor to ceiling walls, outside while maintaining social distances, or actively eating/drinking while maintaining social distances, you are required to wear a mask. The control room is considered a shared office and therefore masks are required regardless of the time of day or distance to the next controller. Across the nation, we are hearing about increased disciplinary action and usage of the Professional Standards program to enforce this MOU. Please just wear your mask. Here’s the link to the MOU if you’d like to read it in its entirety. 

RL3 Cleanings

We have wrapped up our trial period for the RL3 cleanings. We can expect some things to change as they continue to iron out the details but all in all, it’s not too bad. If you’re working the swing shift, please do whatever you can to “de-clutter” the area. This includes things like:

• putting all empty strip holders in the dirty strip bin to be sanitized

• removing all extra stuff from the tables like knick-knacks, old headsets, food, garbage, etc.

• removing all extra chairs

It all has to be done and it’s too much for the mid shifter to do before the janitors get there while working traffic.

This will continue for the foreseeable future and since we’re all making our way back to BWS now, some of you might be working your first mid shift in a while. Here’s how that’s been working:

• At some point in the night, the active sector will move to an alternate scope so that the janitors can clean that one. If your area can get it moved over and fully settled before the mid shift arrives, that’s fine but don’t force it if you don’t have to. The supe will execute the commands necessary to move the frequencies to the alternate sector. Then you can move back as soon as they’re done.

• The janitors have been pretty good about getting the whole control room sanitized in about an hour and a half but that does not include the normal cleaning. 

• The Pure Hard Surface cleaner needs to sit for 1-5 minutes before wiping with a cloth with only water. If you happen to see something different than that please let someone know, too short of time and it isn’t effective, too long will cause a sticky build up.

Please let us know if any problems arise.

Vaccines

Your area reps might be sending you a quick, one question survey asking whether you plan to get the vaccine. It will not collect names or email addresses, it is only to help as a planning tool for us to try and get a plan together. Just a reminder, you do not have to get permission from the supes to get the vaccine, you only need to work with them to get EA to do it. Otherwise it will just be sick leave. Then, after it is done, just report that to the flight surgeon, not the supes. We sent another email to King County Public Health department to see about creating a vaccine schedule or something of that nature but still no reply. We’ll let you know if/when we do hear from them.

Have a good night,

Derek Adams and Amy Sizemore

Facility Update February 15th

They have started our RL3 (Regular Level 3) cleanings every mid shift. This will alleviate the need to go ATC-0 in the event of a covid hit at our facility.

RL2 and RL3 cleanings

There will be more janitorial presence in the building. During the day, you might see janitors in the area but they should not be cleaning the places you’re actually working at, just the unused scopes, etc. They shouldn’t be asking anyone to move or anything so please don’t ask anyone to leave the area. 

Here’s what we’ve seen so far from the RL3s: 

• For the first 14 days, it will be a rather large group of people in the operation to observe the cleaners. After that, it should just be two janitors and it will be between 1-3am. 

• We haven’t noticed any sort of cleaning product odor. The name of the cleaner is Pure Hard Surface cleaner and is basically isopropyl alcohol, citric acid and water. The safety data sheet is available, if you would like to see it, let us know.

• There are a couple of things that need to be done by the end of the swing shift: 

  • With the exception of the 2 chairs for the mid shifters, ALL chairs need to be removed from the operation. This includes chairs from behind the consoles. 

  • ALL unused blank strip holders (not the airport bay headers) need to be put into the strip buckets so they can be cleaned. They will be returned by 6 am. 

• The janitors are being trained not to clean any screen with a handset plugged in so these need to be unplugged and placed on the consoles to be cleaned. Anything in the overhead cubbies will not be touched. That will include any tracker positions with the guard frequencies on them. Also, the supe/CIC positions need to have the cordless headset, handset, and any other equipment used to activate the VSCS screen unplugged. 

• When you open up a sector after cleaning, please remember to check all the volume knobs. They will get moved during cleaning. 

• When they clean, it’s very probable that the D-side Input Keypad will get locked out. Check it right away when opening a sector so the SOC can send someone to fix it right away if necessary.

• Please report any surfaces, screens, keyboards, etc. that have any sticky residue to the supe/CIC right away.

Masks

We’d like to take the time to remind everyone of the importance of mask usage. This is even more important now that some areas will be returning to BWS. Proper wearing of masks is imperative as we continue to train and have more people returning to the facility in the coming weeks and months. In addition to being a courtesy to those you work closely with, it is also a requirement under the current MOU, and would be very hard to defend if management were going to attempt some kind of discipline. We know that sometimes the FLMs or OMs appear to not follow the MOU, but we assure you, we are constantly making it known that they must be in compliance. When a cleaning crew is in your area, they will be moving all around the area so please just put your mask on so they can get in and done as quickly as possible.

Thank you,

Derek Adams and Amy Sizemore

Facility Update February 5th

Good Evening All!

Covid Vaccine

Most of you saw the new guidance in CEDAR for getting the vaccine. Basically it boils down to EA is only allowed if it’s pre coordinated, otherwise it’s sick leave. All vaccines need to be reported to the flight surgeon still. We have contacted the King County Public Health Department to inquire whether they have plans to place Air Traffic Controllers any higher in the phase program but we have not received a response yet.

Local Training Order

Recently, the national 3120.4 Air Traffic Technical Training Order was fully rewritten. Because of that, we need to bring our local order up to date and now have a chance to make some changes. If you have any suggested improvements or changes you’d like to see, please email Drew Stewart at drew.s.stewart@gmail.com.

On-call EA

With some of the areas going back to BWS and some other changes, management will no longer be scheduling “on call” EA. We are still collaborating on how exactly this will look, but don’t expect to know whether you have an EA day any earlier than the night before. While we are on the subject, EA is still a duty day. You must remain available, in the area, and responsive to phone calls. We are in danger of losing all EA if these conditions are not met. 

Have a great week,

Derek Adams and Amy Sizemore

Facility Update January 22nd

Good Evening All!

BWS

We will be meeting with management in the near future to discuss a plan of action to return to BWS. This is only an initial collaboration meeting but we’ll be sure to tell you all as soon as anything is set in stone. Our primary goal is still to stay on 5/5 as long as feasible but we need to honor leave, conduct OJTI and to keep the NAS safe and efficient. Our secondary goal is to keep as many crews/areas separated as possible. While not optimal, this may present itself as different areas transitioning sooner than others. In a perfect world, we could all stay on this until the pandemic is contained but since traffic, training and leave obligations vary from area to area, we’ll settle for some protection is better than none.

COVID Vaccine

Some of you may have noticed a letter in CEDAR stating, “Employees that receive a vaccination without prior coordination and approval will be charged Sick Leave.” Our understanding of the guidance that was sent out leads us to believe this is incorrect. That being said, it will cause mass chaos if we don’t try and coordinate this a little. We know that the availability of vaccination is sporadic at best but please try to do this on your EA days if you can. 

Thank you all for your continued patience while we work out the specifics of these two topics. As always, please let us know of any questions you may have or topics you’d like addressed.

Facility Update January 8th

We hope you all had nice, low-key, uneventful holidays this year. It feels weird to wish boring on people but after the last year, boring is good. 

Charity

At our last all members meeting, we discussed the excess budget we had since there wasn’t any travel for events, training or meetings this year. We presented a motion to donate a portion of that to charity. After discussion, the members in attendance voted to make the donation at $10,000! Five thousand of that has been donated to NATCA Charitable Foundation and we need your help dispersing the other five thousand. Please send us your suggestions for local charities. They must be “official” (501c3 registered) charities. You guys are amazing and we are so proud to work for you. 

BWS

We are continuing to keep an eye on each area and check in every other week with the reps to see when/if we need to transition back to normal schedules. We are still trying to stay on covid scheduling as long as possible but at some point training, leave or traffic will force our hand. This is a fluid situation and information changes quickly but we assure you that the final decision still needs to be made collaboratively by NATCA and management. The E-board will continue to keep you informed of any changes. Thank you all for being so flexible during all this. 

COVID Vaccinations

NATCA and the pilot’s union are still working on getting us all put in higher in the priority list due to the nature of our work. As it stands, the Washington State timeline puts most of us in the April-May categories. If you are able to get in to take the vaccine, please remember that it will dq you for 48 hours and please try not to put your crew-mates in a bind. 

The updates have been sporadic lately partially due to the holidays but mostly due to the lack of topics to report on. It seems like there’s everything yet nothing going on. If there’s ever anything that you’d like more information on or think we should talk about, please let us know!

Derek Adams and Amy Sizemore