Sisters and Brothers,
We are finally adding two lines to the schedule! One line will be on Crew 1 and another will be a CWS line on Crew 2 (Saturday, Sunday, Monday RDOs). Dave Wilson has already selected the CWS line, which consists of all 1200 shifts. The lines now up for bid in the area and listed below are the new Crew 1 line plus the lines vacated by GX and AV. Bidding begins today, May 3, and will close no later than May 17 at 2359 local.
SUN MON TUES WED THUR FRI SAT
CREW 1 RDO 14 08 08 08 08 RDO
CREW 3 07 RDO RDO 16 1330NF 09 07
CREW 1 RDO 15 1330NF 08 07 07 RDO
As soon as a line is filled by the person with the highest seniority, that person’s vacated line will be put up for bid. Lines will be available to bid for a maximum of two weeks and may close sooner depending on who bids and how quickly they do so.
As a side note, management did not want any more staffing on the weekends. I proposed a line on Crew 6, Crew 7, or Crew 1 plus the CWS line. They chose the line on Crew 1. If we are able to add another line in the future, it will help with staffing on the weekends.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please come find me, email at skorniakoff@comcast.net, or call/text me at 253-332-2066.
In Solidarity,
Paul Skorniakoff
Brothers and Sisters,
I’m sorry that it has been awhile since my last update. As you will read below, there is a lot going on behind the scenes. Your input on any of these issues is welcome and encouraged.
1. Your AWS requests have been submitted to management. As with the other areas, your requests are pending discussion between the front office and NATCA regarding some finer points of AWS. Hopefully we’ll have a resolution sometime next week.
2. At KSEA, 16L/34R will be closed from April 1st to May 15th. The arrival rates will decrease significantly when ILS approaches are required. Also, 16C/34C is scheduled to be closed immediately after the 16L/34R closure for 21 days. Expect heavy metering when the weather deteriorates.
3. There is a workgroup addressing Sector 46’s metering issues and our area is being represented at these meetings. Sector 46’s oversaturation is being handled inconsistently on different days of the week and we hope to come up with a solution that will help Sector 46 while not overwhelming our controllers. The tentative plan is as follows: If metering delays become too great to be absorbed by the B and D areas, Sector 02 will take more than a 1 minute delay. How much of a delay it takes will be defined and communicated by TMU. Sector 32 will reroute aircraft out of Sector 46 when necessary. The reroutes will be defined and coordinated by TMU when they are required. The tentative reroutes are DSD..JUNEJ.Q7, DSD..JUNEJ..BOWLS.TUDOR arrival (KSMF), and DSD..JUNEJ..next fix along the route. Aircraft on the OLM1 arrival will be positioned west of the HAWKZ arrivals. All of this will be organized into a Notice or MOU.
4. This summer, there will be TMIs on the HAWKZ when KSEA is in a north flow. The TMIs will be miles-in-trail at FOOTT with the MIT variable based on traffic and weather conditions. This is much preferable to the speed restrictions S46 initially wanted us to give aircraft (such as 250K at HAWKZ) which contradict the restrictions on the STAR.
5. S46 has come to the conclusion that the north flow transition of the HAWKZ allows for too much compression and too little time to blend aircraft from other arrivals. The north transition may be redesigned if the TMI’s do not alleviate the issues S46 has in a north flow. I am participating in a workgroup with Airspace & Procedures, S46, and the users (Alaska Airlines, etc.) to come up with a solution that works for everyone. The current proposed redesign will take the north flow transition west of Ft. Lewis. The altitudes on the arrival will place KSEA arrivals below KBFI arrivals.
6. S46 has also had some issues with the MARNR and JAWBN arrivals in a south flow. Remember that the MARNR and JAWBN arrivals are procedurally separated in a south flow when the JAWBN arrival is at 100. If there is a KBFI arrival at 110, the arrivals are not procedurally separated because the MARNR arrival can descend to 110 immediately after MARNR. If you leave a KBFI arrival at 110 then you have to use radar to separate them or else appreq the MARNR arrival at 120. Sorry if this is obvious, but a number of S46 controllers have been confused about various aspects of the LOA and I want to make sure that everyone on our end understands and is compliant.
Also, there are some folks at S46 that think we’re required to sequence turboprops (specifically DH8Cs) and jets over MARNR/JAWBN. They are incorrect and have been advised that is not a requirement.
7. The Vancouver LOA has been updated. There are a few minor changes that do not affect the way we have been operating and reflect what is already going on. The effective date is March 31st.
8. Route Channelization will be discussed in the near future. I am going to address transfer of control throughout our entire area. I would like us to have control from sector 07/47 and from Vancouver Center. Within our area, I think that some of the transfer of control agreements can be simplified and made more user-friendly.
9. Finally, as many of you know, Dave Wilson is out on extend leave. He has been accepted into the On-Line Voluntary Leave Transfer Program. For more information on donating, talk to a supervisor.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please come find me, email at skorniakoff@comcast.net, or call/text me at 253-332-2066.
In Solidarity,
Paul Skorniakoff
Brothers and Sisters,
The Vacation Bid is still plugging along. We’ve have assessed and approved all of the Recurring Shift Change Requests possible. The next step is AWS. The AWS Request forms are in the area or available online @ natca-zse.com/bids. The forms are due on February 26th. Please place the completed forms in the black NATCA box near the mail slots. I will try to approve more recurrent shift swap requests while going over the AWS requests.
If anyone sees any problems with the schedule or the way OT is being administered please let me know.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please come find me, email at skorniakoff@comcast.net, or call/text me at 253-332-2066.
In Solidarity,
Paul Skorniakoff
Sisters and Brothers,
The Vacation Bid is in round 6! I’ll keep the bid going until everyone passes. The bid binder will remain open all year. If anyone decides they would like to bid more vacation after everyone passes they will have to notify me. At that point I will essentially start another round of bidding.
The CPC-IT/Developmental Schedule Bid is complete and the Vacation Bid is in round 3. The same as above goes for the CPC-IT/Developmental Vacation bid. Bidding until everyone passes and then if anyone wants to bid more vacation we’ll start a new round.
The Recurring Shift Swap Request forms were due by February 5th. I won’t be back to work until the 8th so that will be deadline for our area. If that is problem for anyone, please let me know and we can work something out. Return the form to the black NATCA box next to the mail slots. After the shift swaps are completed we’ll take AWS requests.
The Area Manager has informed me that the facility is being scrutinized on several fronts. Operationally calling weather is a huge issue. I’m sure we do a good job calling weather just remember this is an emphasis item. Time on Position (TOP) is also a big issue, especially with all the overtime being assigned. I realize this isn’t necessarily our problem but be aware when you are asked to staff a slow position they’re trying to keep our TOP up. CEDAR and ELMS are on the list of issues that are being watched too. CEDAR is our responsibility to accomplish every day. ELMS is management’s responsibility to assign. I’ve been informed that enough people are not reading the CEDAR that it’s a problem. Read the CEDAR it’s our responsibility!
S46-SEATAC: We are in the process of renegotiating the S46 LOA. The TRACON initiated the negotiations. They have a few issues that they need help with. The biggest thing they need help with is the HAWKZ arrival in a north flow. They need to talk to the arrivals ASAP. If we could make an extra effort to ship them earlier it would help them out. They have asked us to include language in the LOA that say’s we’ll transfer communication at least five mile from the S46 boundary. The long term fix is to redesign the north flow portion of the arrival. Another item they wanted to include in the LOA is to keep the DH8D in the jet flow to the extent possible. I'm pretty sure we already do this.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please come find me, email at skorniakoff@comcast.net, or call/text me at 253-332-2066.
In Solidarity,
Paul Skorniakoff
Brothers and Sisters,
The Natca-zse.com/bid website now has all the CPC-IT and Developmental information available and it's updated and accurate. Hopefully this information will make it easier for all of you to bid your vacation.
If you have any questions, please come find me, email me at skorniakoff@comcast.net, or call/text me at 253-332-2066.
Paul Skorniakoff
Sisters and Brothers,
The Schedule has been bid and the Vacation bid is into round 3. Progress has been amazing! We’ll keep the bid going until everyone bids all of their accrued leave or everyone with accrued leave passes. Now that leave slots are filling up we have to be careful about the 5 consecutive days or less per round rule. 5 consecutive days may go around your RDO’s but not through a day that is not available.
The CPC-IT/Developmental Schedule and Vacation bid will begin tomorrow. We have 11 CPC-IT/Developmentals that are bidding, 5 R-sides and 6 D-sides. We are bidding 1 R-side per crew and 1 D-side per crew by seniority. Crew 5 will not have a D-side trainee and 2 crews will not have R-side trainees. The bid will determine which crews do not have R-side training.
CPC-IT/Developmentals will have 1 vacation leave slot per day available. All of the rules for bidding are the same as the CPC bid;
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.
AWS implementation or how to request an AWS schedule has not been negotiated. The BWS MOU has the nitty gritty rules for the AWS but not the procedures to request an AWS schedule. We should have the procedures complete by next week.
If you have any questions, please come find me, email at skorniakoff@comcast.net, or call/text me at 253-332-2066.
In Solidarity,
Paul Skorniakoff
Brothers and Sisters,
Bidding the schedule and vacation leave will begin next week. The schedule bid and vacation bid will be conducted simultaneously. The NATCA designated reps for the bid are Brooke Dawson, Tony Germann, Derek Adams and myself. I will have all the information available to view online during the bidding. We’ll being using Google Sheets to view the schedule/leave bid progress and leave availability. The rules for the allotted time to bid are very similar to years past. As soon as the rules are available I’ll ensure everyone has access to them.
Obviously time is of the essence to complete the schedule bidding. If you are going to be away from the facility during the next few weeks please comply with these rules: “Employees scheduled to be away from the Area/Facility have the option of providing their bid requests via written proxy to a NATCA designated representative for submission. Employees are responsible to ensure that their request contains sufficient prime time options to complete their bid.” Also if you are away and have access to the internet we can make this work too, using email and/or texting.
If you have any questions, please come find me, email at skorniakoff@comcast.net, or call/text me at 253-332-2066.
In Solidarity,
Paul Skorniakoff
Tentative Schedule and Vacation Leave Bidding 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.
There will be 6 rounds for bidding leave.
Round 1 - up to 2 weeks, consecutive or non-consecutive
Round 2 through 5 - up to 1 week
Round 6 - First come, first serve.
The bid book will remain open until one of the following:
- All leave slots (first 3 slots per day) are filled.
- All accrued leave has been exhausted.
Definition of a week
1) Five days of accrued leave.
2) Days contained within a week.
3) You may bid leave around your RDO’s.
Other notables:
· Employees may cancel/change their bid leave after round 5.
· If a BUE elects to temporarily pass, they must wait until the completion of the next BUE’s bid prior to select their leave.
· BUE’s on the same crew are allowed to bid the same day(s).
· Any NPT used between 1/10 & 3/5 will be counted against their accrued leave for 2016.
Any PT or NPT leave bid on a holiday, will not count towards your accrued leave for bidding.
A Area NATCA Sisters and Brothers,
Thank you for honoring me with your votes. I am excited to serve you as the Area Representative. This is a responsibility that I do not take lightly, and I will represent you with the utmost transparency and boldness.
Also, I would like to thank Brooke for running to be the Area Representative.
Here we go on our two year journey to make the A Area better than ever with:
· Improved Communication
· Input from everyone
· Transparency in decision making
· Collaborate when possible
· Push back when necessary
· Ensuring the schedule is administered correctly
· Bidding lines in a timely manner
If you have any suggestions or questions, please come find me, email at skorniakoff@comcast.net, or call/text me at 253-332-2066.
In solidarity,
Paul Skorniakoff (PS)