CRWG

CaptainObvious

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Brothers and Sisters:



I am pleased to announce that NATCA and the FAA have agreed to significantly deepen our collaborative efforts to determine ATC staffing needs. For the first time in NATCA/FAA’s collaborative history, the FAA has committed to utilizing the staffing numbers determined by the Collaborative Resource Workgroup (CRWG) in its annual reporting to Congress thereby ensuring accuracy and transparency of controller staffing.



With this agreement, the CRWG will to conduct a facility-by-facility survey of our controller staffing to determine operational staffing needs. Upon completion of this process, a report will be submitted to the FAA Administrator and me for approval. Once approved, each facility’s CRWG CPC staffing targets, current number of CPCs actually on board, and the current number of ATCS in training actually on board will be used in the 2023-32 Controller Workforce Plan (CWP), and subsequent CWPs and will be shared with the DOT and disseminated to Congress as required by law.



As you know, current operational staffing targets, which were developed in 2014, are used in the Priority Placement Tool to determine new hire placement and transfer eligibility and release date windows. The agreement to include the collaboratively developed CPC staffing targets in the CWP is a monumental step forward for our Union and the Agency and will ensure that Congress, the aviation community, and the public have a clear understanding of our current and future staffing levels.



It has been a challenging year for everyone involved in aviation. There have been many thousands of commercial flight cancellations and delays affecting hundreds of thousands of passengers across the country. Although factors like severe weather and airline operational issues contributed to these disruptions, air traffic controller staffing shortages were also a contributing factor. This new process will be the first step in returning air traffic controllers’ staffing to an appropriate level at each facility nationwide. Appropriate staffing levels are vital to improve the efficiency of our National Airspace System.



In recent weeks, we have published two articles in a series about controller staffing. Those articles provided some historical context for how we got here and what NATCA is doing to resolve these issues. If you missed these articles, you may read them here and here. The next article in this series will be published in coming weeks and will explain in greater detail why we think this agreement will help us resolve many of the staffing issues our Union has faced.



We will be working over the course of the next few months to implement this agreement, but today, we should take a moment to celebrate this achievement.



We’d like to thank the NATCA’s members and staff who have been working on staffing issues over the past decade, particularly those who helped bring this agreement to completion. Their commitment to the solidarity of our Union and collaboration with the Agency is remarkable.



We’d also like to thank Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, Deputy Secretary of Transportation Polly Trottenberg, and Acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen for their steadfast commitment to a process that will accurately and transparently determine air traffic controller staffing needs going forward.



We didn’t do this alone. The commercial airline industry, airport leaders, air cargo, and our brothers and sisters in unions representing other aviation professionals all conveyed their support for NATCA’s objectives to the FAA and DOT as we worked toward this agreement.



Members with questions should contact their regional leadership.
 
This means when they up the numbers needed at your facility, it will be more difficult for you to transfer. So your hopes of leaving could become side tracked if say you needed 16 people currently and they up it to say 19. Now you have to train your replacements. I’ve been saying this for a while, an entire generation of controllers will most likely never transfer in order to fix the problem for the future.
 
This means when they up the numbers needed at your facility, it will be more difficult for you to transfer. So your hopes of leaving could become side tracked if say you needed 16 people currently and they up it to say 19. Now you have to train your replacements. I’ve been saying this for a while, an entire generation of controllers will most likely never transfer in order to fix the problem for the future.
*If* they fix the problem and it’s not just another BS solution that puts more people on details and doesn’t actually fix operational staffing
 
Yeah I get that for the majority of people this is a good thing. But for another majority of people this really sucks because it makes transferring that more harder now. Very unfortunate for those of us stuck at a facility we do not want to be at forever.
 
You guys got it all wrong. This is a positive development because it's going to more accurately reflect how poor staffing is across the NAS and facilitate more funding from Congress to hire more people. In some individual circumstances it will blow if you've been getting away with a lower staffing number than is really needed and your facility's cpc target gets raised up. But overall, more hires in the system will mean more upward movement for those stuck at facilities. They should still try to fix the placement a little bit though. I was thinking if I could have picked 5 states or 1 of the HR regions and been guaranteed a spot in one of those states, it would've been much better than what it is now. I'd rather them pick my facility in a region than me pick from a terrible list. Then just offer everyone FAI, ACK, ASE, and GCN as an alternate if they really don't like the facility they were assigned.
 
You guys got it all wrong. This is a positive development because it's going to more accurately reflect how poor staffing is across the NAS and facilitate more funding from Congress to hire more people. In some individual circumstances it will blow if you've been getting away with a lower staffing number than is really needed and your facility's cpc target gets raised up. But overall, more hires in the system will mean more upward movement for those stuck at facilities. They should still try to fix the placement a little bit though. I was thinking if I could have picked 5 states or 1 of the HR regions and been guaranteed a spot in one of those states, it would've been much better than what it is now. I'd rather them pick my facility in a region than me pick from a terrible list. Then just offer everyone FAI, ACK, ASE, and GCN as an alternate if they really don't like the facility they were assigned.
I agree with the placement thing. Not everyone’s end goal is 10+. Many people would be happy to be within a 6 hour drive of their home instead of halfway across the country where the only realistic option is to fly in order to see family.

Edit: anyone know why they left regional placement?
 
You guys got it all wrong. This is a positive development because it's going to more accurately reflect how poor staffing is across the NAS and facilitate more funding from Congress to hire more people. In some individual circumstances it will blow if you've been getting away with a lower staffing number than is really needed and your facility's cpc target gets raised up. But overall, more hires in the system will mean more upward movement for those stuck at facilities. They should still try to fix the placement a little bit though. I was thinking if I could have picked 5 states or 1 of the HR regions and been guaranteed a spot in one of those states, it would've been much better than what it is now. I'd rather them pick my facility in a region than me pick from a terrible list. Then just offer everyone FAI, ACK, ASE, and GCN as an alternate if they really don't like the facility they were assigned.
Plot Twist: they incorporate NextNextNextGen with partial ATC automation into the calculations and "collaboratively" lower staffing numbers in anticipation.
 
They need to fix the fact that people in well staffed areas can’t go anywhere to help. Also the change area clause in the contract is a joke

The regional placing got all messed up when they went to all this bioQ nonsense
 
I agree with the placement thing. Not everyone’s end goal is 10+. Many people would be happy to be within a 6 hour drive of their home instead of halfway across the country where the only realistic option is to fly in order to see family.

Edit: anyone know why they left regional placement?
Nobody is happy with regional hiring if you look at the raw numbers. It doesn't matter if you're 5 hours or 30 minutes from home for the majority of people. They will still put paperwork in as soon as they are eligible. There's like 15 facilities that have like 90% ERRs (no idea the actual numbers, they are available but you get my point). So if you work in your home area at a level 5, you're still going to put paperwork into the level 12 down the street.
 
Nobody is happy with regional hiring if you look at the raw numbers. It doesn't matter if you're 5 hours or 30 minutes from home for the majority of people. They will still put paperwork in as soon as they are eligible. There's like 15 facilities that have like 90% ERRs (no idea the actual numbers, they are available but you get my point). So if you work in your home area at a level 5, you're still going to put paperwork into the level 12 down the street.
You’ll still get way more people to the facility they want on the first try with regional hiring. Especially for en route
 
Nobody is happy with regional hiring if you look at the raw numbers. It doesn't matter if you're 5 hours or 30 minutes from home for the majority of people. They will still put paperwork in as soon as they are eligible. There's like 15 facilities that have like 90% ERRs (no idea the actual numbers, they are available but you get my point). So if you work in your home area at a level 5, you're still going to put paperwork into the level 12 down the street.
I agree with this but at the same time, some people are realistic with a transfer and after a while they get comfortable and stay put.

If you eliminate the need for someone to move from one coast to the other in order to be closer to family/home, you potentially can reduce SOME of the transfer requests.
 
They need to fix the fact that people in well staffed areas can’t go anywhere to help. Also the change area clause in the contract is a joke

The regional placing got all messed up when they went to all this bioQ nonsense

Regional placement was gone long before bioq. It was gone for years even before I applied in 2012. Regional was replaced by people picking 2 states. That was replaced by the current system at the same time bio-q was enacted.

Idk how it was for regional placement, but the 2 state pick was super hit and miss. Lots of people applied 5+ years in a row but the facilities in states they chose weren’t hiring. Others like me got hired first time round cause they had a short staffed facility in a state they picked or it wasn’t a popular state to pick. That was also when it was common to have a TOL for years before getting an Academy date. Believe it or not but the current system is way more streamlined than it used to be. Go look at old hiring threads on stuckmic. You also got a TOL with a facility on it and if you didn’t like it tough luck and go re-apply and hope.
 
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Regional placement was gone long before bioq. It was gone for years even before I applied in 2012. Regional was replaced by people picking 2 states. That was replaced by the current system at the same time bio-q was enacted.

Idk how it was for regional placement, but the 2 state pick was super hit and miss. Lots of people applied 5+ years in a row but the facilities in states they chose weren’t hiring. Others like me got hired first time round cause they had a short staffed facility in a state they picked or it wasn’t a popular state to pick. That was also when it was common to have a TOL for years before getting an Academy date. Believe it or not but the current system is way more streamlined than it used to be. Go look at old hiring threads on stuckmic. You also got a TOL with a facility on it and if you didn’t like it tough luck and go re-apply and hope.
Ah that’s what I was thinking of. I applied once to 2 states then got cucked so hard from BIOQ

Another thing is tower and enroute is so different. I understand how hard is prolly is to get to your dream tower but with any effort they could get a fairly percentage of en route people to their dream center

Maybe they should do smaller bids throughout the year where they lost what facilities they are hiring too
 
2 state hire was solid. All the info is out there, if people are diehard for the job, they can find what states have what facilities, and what those facility staffing numbers are. I had 3 separate applications under that system where I chose OH/KY, OH/IN, and KY/IN to be as close as possible to home. And I am mad thankful for KY over anywhere in IN or OH.
 
2 state hire was solid. All the info is out there, if people are diehard for the job, they can find what states have what facilities, and what those facility staffing numbers are. I had 3 separate applications under that system where I chose OH/KY, OH/IN, and KY/IN to be as close as possible to home. And I am mad thankful for KY over anywhere in IN or OH.

I mean if people are die hard for the job then the current system wouldn’t stop em either
 
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