2024 NATCA President Election

[ATC Zero]

Anyone got a copy of that email to post?
Did they list articles to open or vague?

 

[GulfCharlie]

Anyone got a copy of that email to post?
Did they list articles to open or vague?

January was a very busy month. Travel for the Strategic Leadership Meeting (SLM), an attempted NEB meeting in Nashville, ABACUS validation at ZJX, and the Committee Chair meeting in Chicago. All were week-long meetings except for the two-day meeting in Chicago. At the SLM, discussions surrounding the potential degradation of collaboration throughout the NAS. This was apparently never as evident as the relationship during Article 32/24 negotiations. Luckily, your New England Reps were prepared for the FAA’s digging in of their heels because of the pounding the FAA took about staffing. In New England, our Reps were up to the challenge and dug in their own heels as well and wouldn’t settle for bad agreements to protect any fictitious relationship. Your New England Reps have been trained for this, were ready for this, rolled up their sleeves, and signed good agreements that they could be proud of in front of their members. The NEB meeting went from a standard meeting to a disaster as a result of the weather. Not one RVP was able to get to Nashville and many of us were stuck mid-way through. So the meeting went virtual and we had to conduct it over a three-day period. The Friday portion of the meeting was centered around the rumors circulating about five centers being upgraded or being blocked by the NEB. To put a rest to any rumors, here is what actually happened: In October of 2022, the FAA came to NATCA to advise them that they were defunding ABACUS, which is the program being created that will enable us to count center traffic and get our centers paid correctly. President Rich Santa argued the ignorance of this decision and how important this program is to accurately pay our En Route controllers. Rich presented the agency with an option to upgrade 5 centers until such time that ABACUS was complete. After much back and forth, and without the risk of any downgrades, the FAA agreed with NATCA to create a workgroup to upgrade those five centers. Rich came to the NEB with that info, and the NEB didn’t have the appetite for this because it was not a repeatable process. This position was reached due to needing 75% NEB approval as per the constitution to pass such a proposal. This workgroup idea did not receive the required interest to even take an official vote. As far as ABACUS, our trip to validate the program at ZJX was met with extreme success. We validated the program to a 99% accuracy. This a very promising update as the program is really starting to come together. Paying our members appropriately for the work they do is the highest of the priorities of the organization. In terms of finances, NATCA New England was one of only two regions that operated under budget this past year. We had a budget of $120,000 and spent $119,959. New England had to make difficult decisions last year to cut back some of what we wanted to do because of the increased costs of doing business. That didn’t happen everywhere. NATCA has also sent over a notification for our intent to open up the Blue Book and the Purple Book. These contracts were extended to 2024 and thus we had the unilateral right to open those two contracts. The Slate Book can be unilaterally opened in January of 2026.​

 

[32andBelow]

Bruh they just admitted they blocked 5 centers from getting upgraded

 

[KiloZulu]

Jesus, so the agency agreed to upgrade 5 facilities, close to 1000 controllers, and NEB said no. Cool.

 

[Move78]

2152s should be rewarded for keeping currency. Get rid of CIP and institute a currency bonus for ALL controllers. 2152 and maintaining currency, here's your monthly bonus. If you are on a detail, "supervisor," office worker, or aren't a 2152 sorry about your luck.

Os and staff and TMU are 2152

Bruh they just admitted they blocked 5 centers from getting upgraded

Where did they admit this

 

[32andBelow]

Where did they admit this

In that email or am I about the enter the spin zone?

 

[Move78]

In that email or am I about the enter the spin zone?

Yeah what email is that? From who? And is it bullshit politics from the rich side? Or is it true?
That’s a massive accusation.

 

[32andBelow]

Yeah what email is that? From who? And is it bullshit politics from the rich side? Or is it true?
That’s a massive accusation.

Gulf Charlie’s post like 4 up inside the quote box thing. It looks like it’s from Mick

 

[Move78]

Gulf Charlie’s post like 4 up inside the quote box thing

Yeah I see the internet post. Which has 0 credibility. I’m wondering where it was taken from. Is it make believe?

 

[32andBelow]

Yeah I see the internet post. Which has 0 credibility. I’m wondering where it was taken from. Is it make believe?

You think someone random just typed that all out? It looks like an RVP update. They talk about the weather in Nashville and everything

 

[Soul_Controller]

Jesus, so the agency agreed to upgrade 5 facilities, close to 1000 controllers, and NEB said no. Cool.

Meh, I get it. The workgroup was for 5 specific facilities and a one time agreement. Your goal should be to abide by the contract, not do special carve outs for certain places. I know they do special carve outs all the time (N90, I'm looking at you), but it breeds discontent among the membership.

It would help to know which five facilities it was though to know if Rich or the NEB fucked up

 

[Move78]

You think someone random just typed that all out? It looks like an RVP update. They talk about the weather in Nashville and everything

Probably not but you’d have to be full retard to just believe it on here. Need a name

 

[ABACUS]

Meh, I get it. The workgroup was for 5 specific facilities and a one time agreement. Your goal should be to abide by the contract, not do special carve outs for certain places. I know they do special carve outs all the time (N90, I'm looking at you), but it breeds discontent among the membership.

It would help to know which five facilities it was though to know if Rich or the NEB fucked up

Fucking take the money now and negotiate abacus in the next contract. Absolute joke. There was no chance abacus was going to be done before that anyway.

You’re talking about 1000 controllers getting a several thousand dollar raise. Millions of dollars in pay bumps which will affect their entire career.

 

[Move78]

Meh, I get it. The workgroup was for 5 specific facilities and a one time agreement. Your goal should be to abide by the contract, not do special carve outs for certain places. I know they do special carve outs all the time (N90, I'm looking at you), but it breeds discontent among the membership.

It would help to know which five facilities it was though to know if Rich or the NEB fucked up

The point of the workgroup was to address the fact that they’ve been violating the contract without recourse for an actual decade

 

[Soul_Controller]

Fucking take the money now and negotiate abacus in the next contract. Absolute joke. There was no chance abacus was going to be done before that anyway.

You’re talking about 1000 controllers getting a several thousand dollar raise. Millions of dollars in pay bumps which will affect their entire career.

But let's say the deal was something crazy like ZJX not being part of the five.

 

[GulfCharlie]

Probably not but you’d have to be full retard to just believe it on here. Need a name

Mick's email sorry copy/pasting from mobile is a bitch

 

[32andBelow]

The point of the workgroup was to address the fact that they’ve been violating the contract without recourse for an actual decade

Because they are getting absolutely cucked collaborating with these people. If they are breaking the contract then you need to enforce it legally. Also if you can get a huge raise for 5 centers you should take it and also enforce your contract

 

[Logical_Mongoose]

I was frustrated to learn that NATCA will not be renegotiating the Light Blue & Purple Books in full. Instead, they will select only a limited number of articles from the existing CBAs and attempt to negotiate changes to those.

If they fix the pay article I don’t think anyone will care if the rest is renewed. They did something similar with Midwest FCT and got an instant 3% raise and annual 3% raises though 2027.
Would you be happy with the that? I would with a 3% June raise but we need a minimum of a 10% instant raise to pull us even with 2020 buying power.

Agree. I feel like if the entire slate book rolled over but we got an instant 10% with 3% every June I bet a majority would be pretty happy.

10% is the minimum should be closer to 15-18% but again if 10% plus 3% every June should be the bare minimum NATCA should aim for

This is turning into I’ll take any little thing they give. We weak little boys. Please please.
This should be a full out assault. Similar to how Germany thru Europe. What a bunch of little sissies on here.
We deserve 30% minimum. To keep up with bidennomics.
Stop being whiny bitches asking for 3%. —- Is crap!!!!
Also sick leave Increase. 3 personable days. And I can think of at least 5 more things.
Saturday 15%. Sundays 40%.
Cic. 15%. Ojti 25%
The list goes on and on.

It's also important to know what things NATCA can bargain for and what is dictated government-wide. If we are strictly going off of what are easily-known variables...

In the Purple Book article on pay (CBA for Support Specialists and more that is currently set to expire this July), they have a section dedicated strictly to a one-time lump-sum payment that happened in June 2013 (Article 108, Section 4). It is ABSOLUTELY REASONABLE for NATCA to bargain to do the same thing (but larger), as well as amend the section before it to "update" the length of service adjustment; and it should be downright simple for them to do so. They could go to the table asking for a basic pay adjustment (a one-time raise), a one-time "bonus" that wouldn't increase your basic pay, or they could ask for both. All 3 (length of service, one-time raise, and one-time bonus) should be their starting point, length of service and one of the other two should be their landing point.

They also owe it to membership to renegotiate the article on medical qualifications (Article 66) to put the onus on the FAA for those in a medically dq'd status. Regardless of the scammers it might bring out, if someone loses their medical then they should be automatically on other duties; let the FAA light a fire under the RFSs to start doing their jobs. Everything I've seen so far points to the Regional Flight Surgeon being the choke point for how terrible the entire medical qualification system is and it screws a lot of people and facilities over. I am grateful I don't have to worry about ever having to deal with that system.

If echster is correct and they truly are opening up only specific articles to negotiate for the Purple & Light Blue renewal, then anything less than updating the length of service adjustment to 2.5% (at minimum) and some additional form of a one-time raise (or an even larger "bonus") is an abject failure on NATCA's part.

OPM already has simple language for a retention incentive at up to 25% of basic pay, and up to 50% "based on critical agency need." To me, it seems like it should be easy enough for Purple & Light Blue to get a 25% one-time bonus and for NATCA to "update" that language for the Slate book contract to 50% for controllers when the time comes. Pair that with adjusting the length of service to 2.5-3% every year and NATCA can blast that out as a massive victory when it truly doesn't cost them or the agency that much at all in the long run. A massive one-time bonus means that the FAA will still get to abuse OT instead of worry about staffing & scheduling, won't impact retirement calculations, and it wouldn't compound year-over-year with other raises.

As much as I hesitate to ever be in agreement with 32andBelow on something, I believe they are correct that NATCA owes it to simply try to bring in line other benefits that are available to federal employees. Things that are simple such as:

1.) The Student Loan Repayment Program: pays off up to $60k of federal student loans in $10k yearly increments that helps to boost retention. Suddenly those CTI grads can burden being stuck at a level 4 for 6 years because each year they stay knocks off $10k of their loans.

2.) A Tuition Assistance Program: varies from agency to agency, but most are somewhere in the ballpark of $5k per calendar year and it would be an easy PR win for both NATCA and the FAA to brag about this program that few NATCA members would ever use.

 

[Move78]

Mick's email sorry copy/pasting from mobile is a bitch

Who was the recipient

 

[KiloZulu]

Who was the recipient

Why is it so surprising that it could be from Mick? It's one of the few things I've seen that actually makes his running mate seem somewhat competent