All,
As some of you are quickly finding out, you will need a My NATCA account to bid. This is because BidATC is no longer its own entity and is now owned by NATCA. So please go to bid.natca.org/zse and login. If you cannot login, you will need to set up an account. If you need your member number, you can get it by going HERE. As always, reach out to your reps with questions, happy bidding.
Drew
All,
That subject line is about bidding, by the way. Enough of you have attended the briefing for us to be comfortable commencing the bid, so your area reps are free to begin the bid at their discretion. You should be hearing from them shortly. If you have questions, please ask your area reps before bidding.
So that you may brief yourself, I have attached the PowerPoint used for the briefing HERE.
You can find additional resources at on our local website HERE.
Please be kind to one another and bid when as soon as you can.
Drew
AL/BWS MOUs have been signed! Briefings will start Monday, and we will start bidding as soon as they are finished. As a reminder, you will only be bidding the BWS line initially. We will start round one of annual leave after BWS is done, perhaps sooner if the BWS bid goes smoothly. That will be left up to each area rep to decide for their area, but the main goal is to get the BWS bids back to the scheduler as soon as possible. OT MOU is basically agreed to, but it will be a couple of weeks before that one is finished.
All Members Meeting
Our next All Members meeting will be Monday, November 18th, at 1pm in the E/W Conference room. Agenda Items currently include:
Finance update and 2025 budget
Events Committee Update
NATCA Constitution Amendments
Please reply with any agenda items you wish to add. We will have lunch at 12:30. Not sure what we’ll be able to grab for this lunch but if you would like to volunteer to pick up something, we would gladly welcome the help!
2025 Calendars
November 8th is the last day to change your calendar preference in myNATCA. If you need help with navigating that website, please let us know.
Member in Need
Most people are aware of the Voluntary Leave Donation Program, it is intended to supplement someone’s leave balance when they have had to deplete it due to family or personal circumstances. We have someone in the facility who could use your help, Kieth Priebe has been approved to be on this program. He gave me permission to share his story:
“In August, I suffered a heart attack. I exhausted my leave relatively quickly and have spent the majority of the time I was out recovering on LWOP. Any help would be both incredibly generous and greatly appreciated!”
Thanks for reading Kieth’s story. Please consider donating any leave you can by accessing the link below behind an FAA firewall.
All leave donations must be made from an FAA computer https://ahrweb.faa.gov/ovltp/.
I will be at New York Center next week as part of team helping to review their training program. Drew will be the acting FacRep for the time, and I will be back next week.
Amy Sizemore
How’s THAT for a subject line?? I bet you all opened this quickly though, eh?
We’re aware some of you who receive pay on Fridays experienced a brief delay in your paycheck reaching your account today. This was a nationwide issue and appears to have been resolved. If your pay hasn’t come through, please reach out, and we’ll make sure to help you get it corrected.
We had anticipated beginning briefings on the MOUs this Sunday, 10/27, but unfortunately, due to circumstances outside of our control, we’re holding off for now. We’re optimistic this will be resolved in the next few days, aiming for briefings by the end of next week and bidding to start the following week. While I hesitate to commit to an exact date given the unpredictable nature of this process, we expect bidding to start no later than 11/10. This does mean that, once again, it will be on us to bid quickly and efficiently once the process begins.
One thing I want to emphasize: this delay is not due to any actions on the part of your area reps. They’ve been working tirelessly to get this moving as quickly as possible amid a very challenging MOU season as we work to integrate new fatigue guidance.
We’ll keep you updated as soon as we have more information.
Drew
MOU on Executive Order No. 14019 “Promoting Access to Voting”
A quick reminder that this MOU is still in effect. BUEs may request up to four hours of excused absence for:
Federal general elections;
Primaries and caucuses;
State, local, municipal, tribal, and territorial level elections;
Special congressional elections that are not held on the date of a federal general election;
Serving as a non-partisan poll worker (including training); and
Participating in non-partisan observer activities at the federal, state, local (i.e., county, and municipal), tribal, and territorial level (including training).
This is applicable even in states with absentee voting like ours. There is no restriction on time they are allowed to give but I would not expect all four hours. Read the full MOU HERE.
UNUM Open Season / NATCA Benefits Visit
UNUM open season is upon us. If you don’t recall, this is the disability insurance offered for NATCA members. While no one plans on getting a long-term illness, this service will allow you to focus on healing with the assurance that your bills will be taken care of. Lance Liberty will be in the facility on 11/12 and 11/14 and will be set up in the cafeteria. He will also be answering questions about the alternatives to FEGLI (federal life insurance). All employees sign up for FEGLI when first employed with the FAA, but it quickly becomes the more expensive option. Please stop by and talk with Lance to start the process of getting moved over.
MOU Update
All the area schedules have been negotiated, and we should finalize the AL and BWS MOUs tomorrow. We will brief the MOUs Sunday, 10/27, through Friday, 11/1, and should start bidding after the last briefing on Friday, the 1st. We were briefed on the OT Fatigue MOU last week and will begin negotiations at the local level shortly.
T-Shirt Raffle
Congratulations to Fartun Strutin (B Area) and Katrina Linder (A Area) on winning this month’s raffle. We are doing this every month on the 15th, so be sure to wear a NATCA shirt to enter and have a chance to win a gift card!
In Solidarity,
Amy
