Training hold

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The agency is literally running atc basics classes on zoom. And you think trump is going to increase the unemployment rate even more during an election.
The POTUS doesn’t care about federal employees, neither does his republican base. Government too big, too expensive, employees make too much etc. His base would see it as a win/win to furlough or cut staffing. He’ll sell it as a lot cheaper paying unemployment than paying salary and benefits.

Our facility is transitioning to 5/5 due to traffic. They cited over a 10% increase in volume from where things were a month ago.

Things are improving both with traffic and COVID. Anyone who denies that at this point is either delusional, or selfish wanting to milk the reduced staffing schedules as long as possible.

Unless there’s a major shift in the other direction, there’s no reason trainees cannot be brought back into the buildings on the 15th and at least start warming up in the labs.
Who do you think will run the labs? Contractors may not want to come back after this and last year not getting paid.
 
Who do you think will run the labs? Contractors may not want to come back after this and last year not getting paid.
Not saying we will be at 100% capacity day 1. My point is, everybody and their dog has an opinion on what MIGHT happen a week, or a month, or 6 months from now. But the only thing we can go off is facts. The facts and the numbers say that traffic is trending up, and COVID is trending down. Again, not saying everything has to go completely back to normal immediately, but unless there’s a change in the numbers, there is no reason they can’t begin to bring trainees back when the current hold expires on June 15th. The blanket policy of “everyone needs to stay home indefinitely” idea no longer has legs to stand on. At the very least, these decisions need to start being made at the regional or facility level. There’s no one size fits all for this any longer.
 
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Not saying we will be at 100% capacity day 1. My point is, everybody and their dog has an opinion on what MIGHT happen a week, or a month, or 6 months from now. But the only thing we can go off is facts. The facts and the numbers say that traffic is trending up, and COVID is trending down. Again, not saying everything has to go completely back to normal immediately, but unless there’s a change in the numbers, there is no reason they can’t begin to bring trainees back when the current hold expires on June 15th. The blanket policy of “everyone needs to stay home indefinitely” idea no longer has legs to stand on. At the very least, these decisions need to start being made at the regional or facility level. There’s no one size fits all for this any longer.
It should be trending up as it was basically nil. Yes there needs to be a phased approach to returning to ‘normal’ ops and would be nice to see what those guidelines are. The FAA does not need to make a one size fits all approach as every facility and state in this country are experiencing different things.
 
The facts and the numbers say that traffic is trending up, and COVID is trending down

One theory is a traffic based approach. But if the traffic comes back, then NATCA/FAA will say "you can't train while social distancing, stay home (or furlough). It's lose-lose for trainees. On the other hand, if traffic never comes back up (in the near future, obviously it will eventually) then the powers will say "We don't need you because traffic." Like I said, lose lose.

What are they going to do stop fighting for our return. ??

so much this.

Also, my facrep (apparently at my level 4 tower) doesn't even know my name, so I'm not really worried about it.

Contractors may not want to come back after this and last year not getting paid.

I'm pretty sure I heard a rumor they're getting paid this time around. But, a lot of them (I hear) are old and retired and probably more "At risk" than the controllers they'd be training. I wouldn't know, my level 4 tower doesn't have contractors.
 
One theory is a traffic based approach. But if the traffic comes back, then NATCA/FAA will say "you can't train while social distancing, stay home (or furlough). It's lose-lose for trainees. On the other hand, if traffic never comes back up (in the near future, obviously it will eventually) then the powers will say "We don't need you because traffic." Like I said, lose lose.
Not saying it’s going to be easy to figure out how to make things work, or that everything can be solved in a day, but that doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be discussions to try and start moving in that direction. This entire career is about coming up with solutions in difficult situations. Saying it’s a lose/lose and nothing can be done is like saying when you have several aircraft show up at once all wanting an approach clearance, you just say ‘screw it, I can’t make this work’ and just spin everyone indefinitely. That’s not a solution.
 
Nope, I'm not. If trainees are not brought back soon, they're going to get furloughed. Nobody has any incentive to bring them back to work.

The don't bother training them comment was a bit tongue-in-cheek, but it's obviously the mentality of NATCA, the FAA, and most certified essential controllers. Period.



Sure there is. NATCA doesn't want you back, and that's the only reason that matters. The heck with long term staffing, the heck with upcoming retirements, if these trainees can't certify on pre-covid traffic which they won't see for years, furlough them!
I'm not sure that's how furloughs in the work force would play out. Every trainee but one in my building is a CPC-IT. Some have seniority on current CPCs in the building and throughout the NAS.
 
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It does
I'm not sure that's how furloughs in the work force would play out. Every trainee but one in my building is a CPC-IT. Some have seniority on current CPCs in the building and throughout the NAS.

The contract doesn't say furloughs have to go by seniority. Sucks for those in CPCIT and DEV positions at home. see ya in a few years when we deem you all worthy to come back.
 
what other approach is there? Let ATMs decide who is and isn't furlough worthy? Is that even allowed?
How about we train the ones that are close to cert instead of shutting them down. Or allow CPC-ITs to return to their previous facilities. Taking 30+ percent of the workforce and shoving them out the door unpaid for years is just flat out stupid
 
How about we train the ones that are close to cert instead of shutting them down. Or allow CPC-ITs to return to their previous facilities. Taking 30+ percent of the workforce and shoving them out the door unpaid for years is just flat out stupid

Yeah, well, the FAA does a lot of stupid shit. Returning CPC-ITs to old facilities wouldn't matter because they'd have to train at their old facility anyways unless they just showed up at their new facility and hadn't lost their currency.... but they all have because they've been at home for 2 months. Hell, what if someone transferred from a level 10 to a level 5? Going back to the 10 might take longer to train than just finishing at their level 5.

June this, June that. The only thing worth mentioning in June is 3 paychecks! #Holla

Oh true, I almost forgot about the raise that was robbed from every CPC-IT that should've been certified by now.
Also, isn't it the first FULL pay period in June?
 
Yeah, well, the FAA does a lot of stupid shit. Returning CPC-ITs to old facilities wouldn't matter because they'd have to train at their old facility anyways unless they just showed up at their new facility and hadn't lost their currency.... but they all have because they've been at home for 2 months. Hell, what if someone transferred from a level 10 to a level 5? Going back to the 10 might take longer to train than just finishing at their level 5.
Might as well just fire them all then. So much less essential than you
 
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