NATCA Nominations for President/Vice President

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Minus the obvious, lets see if we can give some of the other candidates a platform. Please contribute information on these individuals so that the membership can be informed.

President

  • Bryan Zilonis is serving his fourth term as Great Lakes Regional Vice President for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. Bryan became active in NATCA in 1994 as an area representative at Chicago Air Route Traffic Control Center, followed by a term as alternate facility representative, and finally three terms as facility representative. He has spent his entire ATC career at Chicago Center, and has served NATCA nationally for over 10 years as a negotiator. "I commit to change these unsustainable practices and to utilize the Executive Board to ensure the Union is managing all aspects of its finances responsibly. The President should not have the authority to commit hundreds of thousands of Union and PAC dollars unchecked by the Executive Board. This is one of the many reasons why we have a National Executive Board, to create a system of checks and balances against unilateral authority. " Zilonis President Natca Election 2018 | Zilonis2018

    • 2003 Green Book Extension

    • 2005 White Book Contract Team

    • 2009 Red Book Contract Team

    • 2011 Multi-Units Contract Team

    • 2013 Staff Specialists/Engineers Contract Team
    • Permanent Change of Station Northern California TRACON MOU

    • Credentialing MOU

    • ATSAP (Air Traffic Safety Action Program) MOU

    • Technical Violation MOU

    • Flight Deck Training MOU

    • Furlough Implementation MOU

    • Furlough Policy

    • Section 804 (Facility Consolidation) Phase 1, Scoping Document

    • Section 804 (Facility Consolidation) Phase 2, Three (3) Scoping Documents

    • Section 804 (Facility Consolidation) Phase 2, Three (3) Consolidation MOUs

    • Section 804 (Facility Consolidation) National Workgroup

    • FAA Training Order Rewrite

    • FAA QA (Quality Assurance) Order Rewrite

    • Assisted with recreation of FAM (Familiarization) Flight Deck Training Program

    • Conducted Review of Discipline for Operational Errors that led to loss of SCI (Superior Contribution Increase)

    • SCI/OSI (Organizational Success Increase) Workgroup

    • Cru-X MOU

    • Article 17 Green Book Workgroup

    • Article 52 Green Book Workgroup


  • Ham Ghaffari is serving his third term as Western Pacific Regional Vice President of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association after spending his entire 16-year FAA career as an air traffic controller at Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center (ZLA). Ghaffari served as local NATCA chapter president of ZLA from 1997-2005 after working his way up the union ranks there as area representative and facility vice president.

    His NATCA experience includes training completion in facility representation and basic and advanced arbitration, and he also served on the NATCA Western Pacific Region's executive council and labor relations teams.

  • David Riley
    Served 9 years as an ATC in the USMC.
    Hired FAA Sep 97
    PRC 97-02
    P50 02-05
    D01 05-14
    DEN 14- Present

    FacRep at each facility.

    Served as NNM ARVP
    Served as NNM Hardship Lead

    Served on National Finance Committee for both NWP & NNM"
    .

Vice President
  • Ham Ghaffari
  • Steve Hansen
  • David Riley
 
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Great topic. If anyone wants to reach out to their candidate, I’ll give them a platform to communicate here.
 
Minus the obvious, lets see if we can give some of the other candidates a platform. Please contribute information on these individuals so that the membership can be informed.

President

  • Bryan Zilonis
  • Ham Ghaffari
  • David Riley

Vice President
  • Ham Ghaffari
  • Steve Hansen
  • David Riley

Are they all center controllers or are any of them in the terminal world?
 
Are they all center controllers or are any of them in the terminal world?
2 of the 3.

Basic Rundowns...

Bryan Zilonis
Bryan Zilonis is serving his fourth term as Great Lakes Regional Vice President for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. Bryan became active in NATCA in 1994 as an area representative at Chicago Air Route Traffic Control Center, followed by a term as alternate facility representative, and finally three terms as facility representative. He has spent his entire ATC career at Chicago Center, and has served NATCA nationally for over 10 years as a negotiator.

Hamid Gaffari
Hamid Ghaffari is serving his third term as Western Pacific Regional Vice President of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association after spending his entire 16-year FAA career as an air traffic controller at Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center (ZLA). Ghaffari served as local NATCA chapter president of ZLA from 1997-2005 after working his way up the union ranks there as area representative and facility vice president.

His NATCA experience includes training completion in facility representation and basic and advanced arbitration, and he also served on the NATCA Western Pacific Region's executive council and labor relations teams.

Dave Riley
DEN FacRep and Legislative Rep. NNM Finance Committee Rep.

Out of the two RVP's, they're the few I've heard little to nothing about. If anyone has direct experience with them, I'd love to hear about it.
 
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2 of the 3.

Basic Rundowns...

Bryan Zilonis
Bryan Zilonis is serving his fourth term as Great Lakes Regional Vice President for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. Bryan became active in NATCA in 1994 as an area representative at Chicago Air Route Traffic Control Center, followed by a term as alternate facility representative, and finally three terms as facility representative. He has spent his entire ATC career at Chicago Center, and has served NATCA nationally for over 10 years as a negotiator.

Hamid Gaffari
Hamid Ghaffari is serving his third term as Western Pacific Regional Vice President of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association after spending his entire 16-year FAA career as an air traffic controller at Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center (ZLA). Ghaffari served as local NATCA chapter president of ZLA from 1997-2005 after working his way up the union ranks there as area representative and facility vice president.

His NATCA experience includes training completion in facility representation and basic and advanced arbitration, and he also served on the NATCA Western Pacific Region's executive council and labor relations teams.

David Riley
DEN FacRep and Legislative Rep.

Out of the two RVP's, they're the few I've heard little to nothing about. If anyone has direct experience with them, I'd love to hear about it.

Steve Hansen is up for VP, and with the searching I did, looks like he's at ZDC. And was at ZAB and ZAN in the past.

David Riley would be my pick, just based on not being a center controller. He was at some facility in Arizona too before going to DEN.

With the other two having spent their entire careers at ZLA and ZAU, that's a negative for me.
 
Steve Hansen is up for VP, and with the searching I did, looks like he's at ZDC. And was at ZAB and ZAN in the past.

David Riley would be my pick, just based on not being a center controller. He was at some facility in Arizona too before going to DEN.

With the other two having spent their entire careers at ZLA and ZAU, that's a negative for me.
I'd be curious to hear the rest of Dave Riley's background. Unless there was another Dave Riley who retired (possible), he also worked at ZOB circa 2007.
 
I'd be curious to hear the rest of Dave Riley's background. Unless there was another Dave Riley who retired (possible), he also worked at ZOB circa 2007.
That's a different Dave Riley. That one has been at ZOB since at least 2004.
The DEN Riley has been in Colorado since 2005 (not sure if it's been DEN the entire time or not) and was in Arizona in 2004. Before that I'm not sure.
 
Steve Hansen is up for VP, and with the searching I did, looks like he's at ZDC. And was at ZAB and ZAN in the past.

David Riley would be my pick, just based on not being a center controller. He was at some facility in Arizona too before going to DEN.

With the other two having spent their entire careers at ZLA and ZAU, that's a negative for me.
Isn't Steve Hansen the MC at a lot of the Communicating for Safety panels?
 
Just personal anecdotal experience:

Ham always maintained a great relationship with Western Pacific, and always kept frequent communication at both the facility and the individual level. Met him twice, seemed like a nice guy.

Perhaps it was just the facilities I was at in Great Lakes that tainted it, but Zilonis was always distant, and I never met the guy. He never sent out any emails to keep BUE's informed about what's going on in NATCA.
 
Ham is a pretty decent dude. Very informative to the membership in the region and always seemed to make his way to all the region facilities and be there to address concerns
 
Updated. Keep the information flowing guys. MJ can we reach out to the candidates and see if we can give them a platform?
 
Met Ham once seems like a good dude, always keeps the NWP members well informed via email, and everyone who isn't anti-natca seems to like the guy.
 
I would avoid Dave Riley in any position personally. I would try and reach some controllers there to get a honest answer (maybe), as opposed to asking him.
People are definitely free to post their opinions, but I’ll give anyone who’s running the ability to communicate here if they want.
 
I tried to direct David Riley here and this is what he gave me:

"Here is a quick resume.

Served 9 years as an ATC in the USMC.
Hired FAA Sep 97
PRC 97-02
P50 02-05
D01 05-14
DEN 14- Present

FacRep at each facility.

Served as NNM ARVP
Served as NNM Hardship Lead

Served on National Finance Committee for both NWP & NNM"
 
I tried to direct David Riley here and this is what he gave me:

"Here is a quick resume.

Served 9 years as an ATC in the USMC.
Hired FAA Sep 97
PRC 97-02
P50 02-05
D01 05-14
DEN 14- Present

FacRep at each facility.

Served as NNM ARVP
Served as NNM Hardship Lead

Served on National Finance Committee for both NWP & NNM"
Any idea what nomination he'll accept?
 
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