Last Wednesday, March 17; LR Director Mike Doring, ATX Liaison Jim Parris, OASIS Liaison Scott Chapman, ARS Liaison Jeff Barnes and I attended Carole Dubin�s funeral. The services were held in Union, West Virginia and attended by about 30 or so. Carole had worked for NAATS since 1993 and she was born in West Virginia in 1941. She is survived by her two daughters, Allison and Beth, and by her mother Virginia. The family has asked that any donations be sent to the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. in Carole�s name. Send payment to: Washington National Cathedral, Development Office, Massachusetts & Wisconsin Avenues, Washington, D.C. Please note Carole�s name for memoriam, ask that a "gloria deo" be sent back to you, and request that your name be placed in the remembrance book. We are all deeply saddened by her unexpected death and we are doing what we can to comfort her family.
We reconvene contract negotiations tomorrow for a two-week period and our hope is that we�ll continue the progress we made during the later part of our last session. The pay/compensation subgroup is continuing to meet but we�re a little concerned about conflicting signals we�re now receiving from FAA management as to how they prefer to proceed. Please check NM Director Don McLennan�s pay updates for details and the latest information. Nevertheless we�re determined to stay the course and deliver the best possible products for your consideration and ratification. While it may be technically true that the FAA/NATCA negotiations do not establish legal entitlements for our bargaining unit, it is also true that we have no interest in unfair and biased agreements. Your continued support is very much appreciated and essential to our success.
On another front, we�re working the Aviation Subcommittee members and their staffs in trying to restore the 90 lost positions in the FY2000 budget. OMB made the cuts and indications are that the FAA tried to keep the number at 3,000. It doesn�t take a rocket scientist to figure out where management will want to make those cuts in FSS. NAATS Congressional Representative Hal Gross has this as his highest priority.
We�ve received many questions about the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that we negotiated regarding the FAA Travel Policy. LR Director Mike Doring�s article on this follows:
Explanation of the Travel Policy MOA
Section (1) � Travel reimbursement shall be in accordance with Part 301-51, Subparts A, B, and C of the FAA Travel Policy that was implemented in October 1998. This section requires use of a government credit card.
Section (2) � Sections 3 thru 7 of Article 89 of the September 1998 NATCA Agreement read as follows:
Section 3. In order to ensure that employees are protected from adverse impact caused by their use of the card, the following will apply:
Employees will not be required to pay the disputed portion of a billing statement until resolution of the disputed amount.
Employees will not be responsible for any charges incurred against a lost or stolen card provided the employee reports such loss within forty eight (48) hours of their discovery.
Employees will not be reported to any commercial credit bureau unless through the fault of the employee the charge card account remains delinquent beyond one hundred twenty (120) days.
No credit check will be performed on the employee.
Section 4. The Employer shall timely process all employee travel vouchers to ensure that employees are promptly reimbursed for all allowable travel-related expenditures.
Section 5. If the Employer does not process an employee�s travel voucher in a timely manner, which results in an employee�s delinquent payment (sixty (60) days or more past due), the delinquent payment will not serve as the basis for disciplinary action.
Section 6. If a valid reason precludes an employee from filing a timely claim for reimbursement, which results in delinquent payment, the delinquent payment will not serve as a basis for disciplinary action.
Section 7.If an employee�s charge card privileges have been terminated because of misuse or delinquency, the employee shall be provided a ticket for transportation if one is required.
Section (3) � NAATS members shall be covered by the Travel Policy. NAATS members who attended the FAA Academy shall be paid the higher rate retroactive to January 1, 1999.
Section (4) � This MOA shall be incorporated into the new contract being negotiated. The Alaska Region shall negotiate its special needs at a future date. Mark Boberick and his Region shall negotiate a separate agreement covering Alaska as they identify specific requirements for Alaskan travel. Until that time Alaska members shall receive the higher rates at the Academy, but shall see no other changes until Mark and Will Nelson negotiate them.
Pay/Compensation Sub Work Group
We�ve become very concerned lately about a disturbing trend by FAA management. First they cancelled a briefing by the sub group to the contract negotiations teams without any prior coordination with us. Then they cancelled a scheduled sub group meeting for this week, again without any coordination with NAATS. Lastly they postponed distribution of the pay plan pamphlets without, you guessed it, any coordination with us. I expressed our dissatisfaction to Administrator Jane Garvey and informed her that the process has now ground to a halt. I�ll keep you advised of further developments. Meanwhile Don McLennan is still sending his pay bulletins to the facilities.
As I mentioned in the last Update, we will meet again with the management team for two weeks beginning May 3 and again in July. Our hope is to have the labor agreement completed after the July meeting and the pay plan shortly thereafter. Both will then be submitted to you for your consideration and, hopefully, ratfication.
NFPC
I proposed several changes and improvements during the last election. In the next edition of the NAATS News I plan to publish a progress report on the various topics. One of the improvements I wanted to see was to make the NFP National Council more effective. Last week I attended my first Council meeting as Gatekeeper and I was pleasantly surprised by the work ethic demonstrated by the participants. I feel this can be an excellent vehicle for addressing many national concerns including the permissive areas of bargaining as well as oversight and support of the regional and facility teams. I think some fine-tuning is needed but the basic structure should work well for us.
TRAINING
Another area I think needs more attention is training. Preliminary reports indicate that the training in Alaska this week only attracted six Facreps. If accurate, that�s obviously not the most effective use of our resources. I expect this to be an agenda item for the June Board of Directors� meeting.
WSI, ACD, AIS
GL Regional Director Bill Dolan is responsible for WSI replacement, ACD and AIS. Bill tells me that he will have a status report on these issues in the next NAATS News. If you have any questions or concerns on these please direct them to Bill.
ARBITRATION
Later this month we are scheduled for an arbitration hearing in the CE Region. It seems that management at the regional office doesn�t much care for certain aspects of the CPP MOU. This goes to the heart of any agreement we reach with the FAA; they are only as good as the enforcement effort we�re prepared to take. The best MOU is meaningless if we�re not prepared to fight for it. I intend to push for more arbitrations in those areas where FAA management won�t keep their part of the bargain.
AOPA/NBAA
I�m trying to arrange a meeting with AOPA President Phil Boyer at his convenience. It�s my feeling that our two organizations share many of the same concerns and that we would be more effective on Capitol Hill if we supported each other in those areas. Obviously we�d like to get their help in our staffing, modernization and compensation fights. Similarly we have joined NBAA as a member for much the same reasons.
UNION MEETINGS
One of the things I�ve missed is meeting with the members to discuss their issues, concerns and suggestions. I couldn�t make the training session held in Florida by the SO, EA and NE regions and I regret that. I�ll make a commitment now that if I�m invited next year I will definitely attend. I also have invitations to union meetings at MIA and FTW. I appreciate those invitations and I fully intend to make meetings there in the near future.
NAATS HQ LIAISON
Our next liaison vacancy will be in ATX. If you have a specific interest in serving a one-year detail in this office please contact me. We will need to fill this vacancy at our June BOD meeting. I�ve included a brief description of this job from current ATX Liaison Jim Parris.
NAATS/ATX liaison duties;
ATX; Air Traffic Resource Management Program
Includes; Labor Mgmt Relations, Resource Management (budget), Training, Planning and Analysis, and Field Support (position descriptions, standards etc).
This position is the NAATS National liaison to ATX-1. In this position I work directly with Dave Sprague and his staff to facilitate the flow of information between FAA and NAATS. I attend tri-weekly ATX staff meetings where I gain information on a wide variety of subjects to pass along to our Board of Directors. Usually I have to research this information to more fully understand the issue.
Often, I intercede to insure a more timely action from either party. This can result in people being in place for a meeting, or to participate on a team or committee where timelines otherwise may be prohibitive. Often messages need to pass back and forth long before the paperwork, or possibly off line or with a personal touch to expedite actions and decisions. The subjects worked can range from Labor Relations to Training or Budget issues but also expect to be involved in much more as the Liaison�s all (ATO), (ARU), (OASIS) work very closely together on all issues involving our option. Also we find ourselves with collateral duties involving the NAATS national office in our spare time. � Jim Parris 202-267-8028
Y2K Update
I�ve been asked to update all NAATS representatives on the status of the Y2K Equipment issues that I have been working on. I hope this helps to identify the issues that we have regarding the Agencies efforts to insure Y2K equipment compatibility.
First, a little history. The Agency has, as most of you know, been criticized for its lack of preparation for possible automation system problems related to the year 2000. Once they finally decided to address these issues they went at it like gangbusters. Problems have resulted from their approach. The Agency assigned personnel to lead these efforts in the areas of 1) ACD replacement, 2) Leased Service A/B (LABS) replacement 3) WSI Weather Graphics replacement. All other AFSS/FSS systems have been checked and certified as being Y2K compliant. The main problem that occurred was due to the fact that there was no central point of contact within Air Traffic to coordinate these efforts. In fact, the first few ACD replacement systems were contracted for and installed in AFSS�s without the knowledge of Air Traffic Operations. Once NAATS got wind of this we notified the Agency that proper notification and bargaining had not taken place. I was tasked with trying to get a handle on the ACD program and complete negotiations. Around the same time frame we began getting bits and pieces of information regarding AIS and WSI replacement programs. Again we notified the Agency of their bargaining obligations.
We found one of the problems to be the fact that the people put in charge of these programs had no clue regarding labor-management relations and statutory requirements surrounding changing bargaining unit conditions of employment. Again, I was tasked to take care of these two programs and negotiate as appropriate. The Agency assigned Ken Thomas/ATO 420 to get a handle on these programs and work with me to get thing in order. I think we have gotten to the point that I can report on our progress without any unexpected problems arising.
ACD Replacement: Installation of this system is nearly complete. A couple of issues remain. The first few sites to receive this equipment had a marquee board installed. This item is a large, scrolling message board that is hung on the wall in operations. Its purpose is to relay operational information to those working in ops. Any statistical data available (number of calls waiting, number of controllers available, longest call waiting time in cue, etc�.) in the system can be displayed on this board. You can also program messages to be displayed on this board. Then the program office found out about this message board and questioned the legality of spending Y2K funds on this item so they stopped the installation of the boards. A decision has not been made as to whether or not to install them at all remaining facilities.
Another issue still to be resolve is the fact that the LCD displays on the ACD units is not backlit and is unreadable in low light conditions. The two possible fixes are 1) each site gets $1000 to buy supplementary task lighting to shine on the LCD display or, 2) replace the present 4 line display with a backlit 2 line display. The first fix is a band-aid which would be ok if this system was only an interim system but unsatisfactory on a permanent system. The second fix allows the display to be readable but you lose the capability to display statistical data that presently may be displayed (if your system is programmed to do this). Of these only #2 is acceptable.
The third and most important issue is the fact that most if not all facilities have had these ACD units installed in places that that previously did not have ACD�s. These include QA offices, Training offices, Supervisor�s and Operations Manager�s offices, and even the ATM�s office. The new ACD system has the capability to silently monitor live pwb�s without you having any knowledge of being monitored. This situation is ripe for abuse. Any management official having access could sit in the office and monitor anyone on the ACD speakerphone. This could be done during a meeting or it could be done to target individuals they don�t like. I have raised my concerns to management and they should be making a decision shortly as to whether or not these units will remain. If they choose to keep them in the extra offices I will probably be requesting GAO to investigate whether or not these extra units were purchased illegally with Y2K funds. I�ll keep you posted on developments.
AIS: This system is being installed in all but the Alaskan Region and looks pretty good as a replacement for LABS as the backup system for Model 1. Alaska has developed its own Y2K replacement system (DAWN). I don�t know anything about it. Contact Mark Boberick with any questions.
The primary issues with AIS were installation and training. Initially, the Agency plan called for each AFSS to send one person to a class to learn system operation procedures and then go back to his/her facility, install the equipment, develop the training and provide the training. Once we advised Air Traffic Operations of this plan they agreed that it was unacceptable.
The installation issue has been taken care of. GTE and/or Agency technicians have been or will be completing the install.
The Agency and NAATS agreed that a quality training plan was needed. The Academy was then tasked to develop a quality Training Plan and provide it to GTE for course development. This should be accomplished soon and training may then begin. I have been advised that some facilities have begun training based upon the original plan. This may be good or it could be a waste of time. If your facility has already trained personnel based on the original plan you will still be required to complete the approved training under development. At best, the training already received will make completion of the approved training easier.
WSI: This issue only affects the Great Lakes, Southwest, and Northwest Mountain Regions. The Agency initially attempted to field this Y2K fix in a haphazard manner without regard for the unions rights for bargaining. They said it was a regional issue but was covered by a separate procurement contract for each region. The problem with this was that the contracts called for identical system requirements that affected each region. Once we convinced the Agency that we viewed this a national issue things moved along pretty well. There are still issues to be resolved and these will be handled on an ongoing basis by a workgroup on a consensus agreement basis. If consensus is not the basis for agreement then further negotiations will be required prior to implementing any changes. Each region will have a NAATS representative on this group. This system seems to be a very good system and we only have a few things left to work out.
Any questions contact me via e-mail: [email protected] or [email protected]
Bill Dolan
May is going to be another busy month. We have contract negotiations the first two weeks as well as a National Partnership Council (NFP) meeting. There are two OASIS meetings the week of May 17 and a DOT Partnership meeting the following week. This is addition to the normal course of business issues that always arise. During this time it will be difficult to keep you updated from NAATS Headquarters on events as they are happening. I encourage you to contact your regional representatives. They are kept up to date on all events but they are certain to be busy too. Please bear with us, we�ll keep you advised to the best of our ability.
CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS
We meet with the management team again next week and we hope to continue to excellent progress we made during our last session. We are nearing the halfway mark and hope to complete the tentative labor agreement by the last of July. We�ve already addressed a good mix of articles, some difficult and others not so difficult, so there�s no reason we can�t continue to accelerate the process.
PAY/COMPENSATION SUB-GROUP
Unfortunately the news is not so good on this front. For whatever reason, management has chosen to stop all progress on the new pay proposal. I�m continuing to attempt to contact Administrator Jane Garvey on this but so far to no avail. I hope to have better news for you soon. We�re determined to provide the best product possible for your consideration in both pay and work rules.
NATIONAL PARTNERSHIP COUNCIL (NPC)
NPC is the FAA partnership council made up of the three nationally recognized unions (NAATS, PASS, NATCA) as well as the other four unions (NAGE, NFFE, AFGE, PAACE), Deputy Administrator Monte Belger and the associate and assistant administrators in the FAA. We meet on May 4-5 and I intend to take advantage of this opportunity to push our issues and solicit support.
AOPA
I have a meeting with AOPA President Phil Boyer this Friday and I hope to finalize some areas of mutual cooperation. One idea is for us to jointly address common issues congressionally.
NBAA
Public Relations Team (PRT) Chairman Larry Burdick has been working closely with NBAA and we�re now a member of that organization. Larry and I are scheduled to attend their national meeting the week of October 11. I plan to meet with President Jack Olcott whenever the schedules allow.
USER�S/CUSTOMERS ROUNDTABLE MEETING
I attended this Tuesday and pushed our issues of staffing and equipment. The roundtable participants are from NBAA, AOPA, most of the air carriers, transports and Air Traffic. It�s probably not the best forum for us but I thought it was worthwhile to sensitize as many organizations as possible to our concerns.
MODEL WORK ENVIRONMENT
Tomorrow morning I will be at a meeting to address implementation of the above. The presentation will be made by ACR-1 Fanny Rivera with AT-1 Ron Morgan and NATCA President Mike McNally also present. I�m aware of the problems and misunderstandings regarding this program and I�ll stress our concerns.
Thank you for your patience and support. I know everyone is concerned about all the issues we�re facing. I�ll do my best to keep you updated in a timely manner.
CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS
Last week we concluded our latest bargaining session with the management team. Although it was productive (19 tentative articles signed) it was disappointing to our team that we didn�t get more issues addressed. With over forty (40) proposed articles left to be negotiated it�s clear to us that we�ll have to pick up the pace in order to finish during our July meeting. There is no agreement to meet past that time.
One item that we did get resolved was the new FAM article. We signed an MOU last week that reflects that FAA�s agreement with NATCA on this and we�re mailing it to all FacReps today.
PAY/COMPENSATION
As of today, the Pay/Comp subgroup is still stuck in neutral. It seems that ALR decided the Administrator needed to be briefed before we moved any further along and they unilaterally halted all progress until this occurred. Supposedly they briefed Ms. Garvey last Friday and we will be back to work shortly. Please check Don McLennan�s pay bulletins for more information and contact him with any concerns or suggestions.
NATCA/PASS
Last Friday I attended the NATCA BOD meeting to discuss how our unions might work together on common matters. It was a good meeting and I plan to attend the PASS BOD meeting later this month for the same purpose. Current plans call for the NATCA and PASS presidents to attend our BOD meeting in June.
LEGISLATIVE
We�ve contacted every member of the Aviation Subcommittee to stress our twin concerns of staffing and equipment (OASIS). We hope to see the results of that work during the next 45 days.
NEW PAY PLAN
I received a call the day this week from the FAA Labor Relations Representative. He told me the Agency feeling was that the Pay/Compensation Sub Group had completed its work and there was concern about the product that had been developed. Specifically, I was told that the work so far indicated a "raise" and that there wasn�t any money available for a raise without the corresponding offsets. He went on to say that the pay talks should now be included in the work rules negotiations and addressed at the end. In response to my questions he assured me that the necessary support, including subject matter experts, would be included on the Agency team. I made the observation that it was premature to conclude that the pay/comp sub group had arrived at a raise since we haven�t yet started the process of costing out any articles or discussing the dollars. I made no commitment during the call and I said I would get back with our answer. I did indicate that their proposed process represented a considerable change from our previous agreement with Air Traffic and that this alone was a cause for concern.
We will be considering all of the ramifications of this proposal during our Board of Director�s meeting the week of June 7. We will also consider all options available to us. Please rest assured that we are determined to negotiate the best available pay plan for your consideration, however, no one can make any promises on the final agreement. I can say that we are insisting on fairness. The FAA/NATCA pay plan is a good agreement and we congratulate them. Now it�s our turn.
We�ll keep you informed.
Last week, at the Board of Directors meeting, we decided to withdraw all participation from the NAATS/FAA Partnership. This decision was not taken lightly but only after much discussion and consideration of the potential consequences. In the end the withdrawal was supported unanimously by the Board.
The reasons for this action are significant. As I mentioned in my last update to you, the FAA Labor Relations representative contacted me and told me that the Agency wanted, in effect, to discard two years worth of collaborative effort in determining reclassification for our bargaining unit. It seems that they had unilaterally made a determination that the work of the compensation and costing sub group required a pay raise for our members and was inconsistent with the Agency "core" plan. That's an amazing conclusion to draw considering we even haven't started the dollar discussions yet.
Nevertheless, the FAA now chooses to renege on previous understandings and to insist that pay negotiations be addressed at the conclusion of the work rules negotiation. Further, they state that we're currently overpaid and they base this assumption on a market study that both parties have previously agreed was flawed and must be discarded. All of this was determined without any discussion with me or any of our other representatives. Since I've haven't talked with the Administrator I can only assume that she has received extremely poor advice.
Obviously, management's credibility is near zero with us now. Partnership requires mutual respect and a degree of trust. If we can't trust them to keep their agreements on the single most important issue to our members (pay) how can we deal with them on the day to day issues? They appear to have mistaken our willingness to work collaboratively as a weakness. That's a serious miscalculation on their part.
The fact is that the FAA must negotiate pay/compensation with us. If traditional bargaining is all they understand and respect then we're fully prepared to use all options at our disposal to achieve fair treatment for our members.
Meantime, effective immediately, no NFP activity is authorized at any level. Officially the program no longer exists. Agreements reached in NFP remain in effect but those awaiting final disposition are now to be negotiated traditionally. I've asked LR Director Mike Doring to prepare guidance and forms for use by our FacReps on these issues and he will have it distributed this week.
We know that this decision will not be universally popular within our membership. To those of you who have been supportive and worked for NFP over the years, we thank you for your efforts and we hope you will understand the need for this action. As one who has been a strong proponent of partnership I certainly feel it's regrettable that this has become necessary. I do not know when or if NFP will be re-instituted; that ball is in the FAA's court now. Other strong actions are being contemplated; if management continues along this negative path we will react accordingly. I've called and left a message for Jane Garvey that I'm available to meet and discuss the pay issue.
At this time we intend to meet with the management team in July and conclude the work rules part of the negotiations. No further meetings are scheduled. Of course you will be the final judge of both the work rules and compensation packages through the ratification process.
As details become available we'll keep you informed. Your patience and support during this difficult time are appreciated. If you have any questions please contact your Regional Director or me.
This week I met with the attorney representing the FAA on pay negotiations in an attempt to resolve the issues that led to our NFP withdrawal. I believe we may be close to a resolution but nothing firm yet. It is important to note that none of these discussions address the dollar issue on our compensation; that will be negotiated by teams representing the FAA and NAATS at a later time. We�re merely trying to reach agreement on how to address those issues.
We�re not the only FAA union experiencing difficulty in negotiating with the FAA. Our brothers and sisters in PASS are now at impasse over AF compensation issues. PASS President Mike Fanfalone and I are staying in close touch and we�ve agreed to support each other.
I am also working closely with AT-1 Ron Morgan on the many other issues facing us. That relationship remains positive and productive.
I�ve been made aware of Model Work Environment (MWE) problems, especially in our Southern and Southwest regions. I was at a CMD Civil Rights meeting last week and I believe the MWE process has been misrepresented in these regions. In my opinion MWE merely means treating each other with respect and making the workplace more productive. Apparently there are those who have agendas that distort MWE for their own purposes. To help address this problem I�ve asked NAATS Southern Regional Director Craig Campbell to be our representative on a future workgroup that will more clearly define the roles and responsibilities of employees.
One of my goals is to make us more effective in gaining support for our issues from our congressional representatives on Capitol Hill. Recently we enjoyed a great success in getting the ninety (90) new hire positions restored in the House subcommittee. Of course we�re not out of the woods yet, the restoration still has to survive the final House/Senate markup but we remain cautiously optimistic. Like it or not, that�s the way business is done here and effective congressional lobbying is essential for our survival.
More details as they develop. Happy July 4 to all.
Wally Pike
Contract Negotiations
It wasn't easy but we now have 120 articles tentatively agreed upon (TAU) with 11 at impasse. The management team has chosen to publicly identify these articles for their constituency so we are doing the same for you. Listed below are the articles in agreement:
Parties to the Agreement Purpose and Objectives of the Agreement Union Recognition Employer Rights Seniority Copies of the Agreement Child Care Dues Withholding Record of Meetings and Communications Recruiting Members Joint Union/Management Meetings Union Publications PWB Evaluation Recording Smoking Policy Employer Publications Parking Calendar Days Dress Code Special Events and Mutual Reassignments Search and Rescue (SAR) Activity Memorandum of Agreement on "covered by" Issues Annual Leave Union Representation and Official Time for Representational Duties Work Groups, Committees, Program and Project Representatives Use of Official Government Telephone Lines Use of Employer Provided Facilities, Publications, & Services MOA on Implementation of Travel Policy Academy Representation Surveys and Questionnaires Discipline and Adverse Actions National Transportation Safety Boards (NTSB) Union Representatives Fare Subsidies Accommodation of Disabled Employees Priority Consideration Disabled Veterans Affirmative Action Program Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) Excused Absences Leave Without Pay for Union Officials Flexible Spending Accounts/Gain Sharing Applicable Regulations Controller Performance Security Leave for Special Circumstances Sick Leave Union Board of Directors, National and Regional Meetings Names of Employees and Communications Prenatal/Infant Care Employee Rights and Obligations Retirement and Benefits Administration Privileged Communications Official Government Business Wellness Centers and Physical Fitness Programs Operational Error/Deviation Investigation, Reporting and Review Assignment of Temporarily Disabled Employees Critical Incident Stress Management Traffic Management Program (TMP) Facility Closing and Part Timings Regional Quarterly Meetings Enroute Flight Advisory Service (EFAS) Training Leave Transfer Reduction in Force (RIF) Working Hours Watch Schedules Employee Recertification Facility of Preference Position Descriptions Official Record Liaison and Familiarization Training Facility Evaluations Equipment Placement National Pay Procedures Contracting Out/Enhancing, Altering and/or Reassigning Functions Effect of the Agreement Duration Reopener Ground Rules Immunity Program Hiring Criteria Return Rights from Overseas Locations Details and Temporary Promotions Training and Career Development Part-Time Employment Flight Service Option Career Strategies Representation Rights Career Transition Hazardous Duty Pay Grievance Procedures Studies of Employees and Their Working Conditions Promotions Injury Compensation Human Factors Mid-Term Negotiations Alternative Work Schedules Overtime Jury Duty and Court Leave NFP MOU Learning Councils On-The-Job Training (1 section impassed premium pay) Facility Expansion Technological/Procedural Changes Cultural Diversity FAA Policies and Directives Controller-in-Charge Duties (1 section impassed - premium pay) Performance/Incentive Awards Compensation Within Grade Increases Severance Pay Changes to Personnel Policies, Practices and Working Conditions Official Travel and Relocation Temporary Assignments OSHA Employee Assistance Program Agency Abstinence Requirements Self Referral Substance Testing Staffing Bargaining Unit Placement Program (BUPP) Hazardous Geological Conditions Wages Sick Leave Buyback (FERS) The following articles are at impasse and will be addressed with the assistance of a mediator from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS).
Nondiscrimination Holidays Medical Exams Travel and Per Diem for FMCS Meetings Travel and Per Diem for FSIP Meetings Compensatory Time in Lieu of Overtime/Holiday/Day-in-Lieu of Holiday Premium Pay Section of OJT Premium Pay Section of CIC Performance Appraisal One article, Personnel Reform Implementations, has initially been declared non-negotiable. We will request a written declaration from the FAA and pursue this through the Federal Labor Relations Authority.
We now have agreement to begin negotiations on the new compensation system, perhaps as early as next month. One of the advantages of having such a large negotiations team is that we can now split into two separate units to address the compensation negotiations and the remainder of the impasse articles.
The following articles are identified for the Compensation Negotiations:
NAATS Classification and Compensation Reinventing Government Bargaining Unit Staffing Sick Leave Buyback (CSRS)
The John F. Kennedy, Jr. tragedy occurred during our negotiations in San Diego. I was interviewed by the ABC and CBS affiliates to discuss the services we provide. My thanks to WP Regional Director Ward Simpson for his help in coordinating events. We expect to be contacted by other media sources as the accident story unfolds.
NAATS NE Regional Director Kurt Comisky and I have maintained contact during this time and he has been on top of the situation at BDR AFSS. As you may know there was a Boston Globe article concerning one of our controllers at BDR. I'm happy to report that this matter has been fully resolved and the controller has been exonerated by the FAA of any wrongdoing. Kurt advises that no further action is necessary from us and that AOPA has been very helpful on this matter. EA Regional Director Ron Maisel has also been working with ISP FacRep George Fonos and they're investigating any possible contacts with the aircraft that evening. MIV AFSS FacRep Ron Consalvo has informed us that there were no contacts at his station.
NAATS Webmaster John Dibble has published a press release and NAATS PR Chairman Larry Burdick is contacting the various periodicals with this information. Our NAATS Headquarters liaisons are in contact with their agency counterparts to ensure that our message is heard there.
I've also tasked our congressional representative Hal Gross with ensuring that Capitol Hill fully understands the services we provide and our staffing and equipment concerns. Through all this we've taken care not to appear to be "ambulance chasing" and we're taking the high road while still be informative about our mission.
We expect there will be ramifications of this crash for the next several months and that we will have opportunities to further our message in a number of forums.
Wally Pike