NWP “Hot Sheet” Week 9-8-08 and 9-15-08
NWP Reps/Members,
This past Thursday September 18, 2008, SCT controller Ted Angle passed from this life into the next. As such, I will dedicate this update to the memory of Ted Angle. Ted is survived by his wife Judy Angle who is also a controller at SCT and a former fellow Marine along with his two children Hannah and David.
This past Sunday, I had the honor of attending Ted’s memorial with hundreds of other co-workers and friends. There was standing room only at the Church. It was absolutely amazing to see the tremendous show of support for Judy and her family.
I learned so much about Ted from attending the service. The more I learned about him, the more I wished I would have had an opportunity to know him personally and perhaps go “Sushi Bar Hopping” with him. He was a truly uplifting and energetic person. Someone who loved to spend time with his family, go fishing, go to concerts such as Van Halen and Kiss…….
While I fully expected to leave the service quite sad, I have to tell you that I felt energized and motivated by Ted’s infectious spirit and his energy for life.
Please let this serve as a reminder to all, to live life to the fullest and enjoy your brief time on this Earth. Do not let work consume your life. Work is merely a means for us to enjoy the more important things in life such as family, friends, religion, etc.
Family and friends of Ted have set up a college fund for his children, Hannah and David, at the San Diego County Credit Union. I have asked Kevin Sherwood to set up a Paypal link on his website called the “Ted Angle Memorial College Fund” to simplify the donation process. You can also donate directly to the San Diego County Credit Union. The account number is 3416250 and the name on the account is “Theodore Angle Memorial Account. The branch phone number is 877-732-2848 x8331.
I would like to thank SCT ATM Linda O’Brien for going above and beyond the call of duty in helping Judy while she deals with this tragic set of circumstances.
Finally, while I was returning from the Miami Convention, I also got word that Burbank ATM Walt Fuller happened to be one of the passengers in the devastating MetroLink crash in Chatsworth, CA. Walt unfortunately didn’t make it and has since moved on to be with the Lord. May God bless Walt Fuller and give his family the strength to deal with this unfortunate loss.
Ham
NWP RVP
· While in Miami Beach on Saturday evening September 6, 2008, Mike Hull and I received a call from Acting HCF Facility Rep Charlie Lee. Charlie advised that HCF management had denied one of our members the ability to take COP (Continuation of Pay) after the fatal crash of a Coast Guard helo during practice exercises. I immediately contacted Western Terminal Director Kathryn Vernon and informed her that the agency has no right to deny an employee the right to elect COP following an on the job injury and for her to contact the HCF manager and rectify this situation. Here is an excerpt from the Federal Employees Compensation Act:
C-11. Does the employer have the authority to accept or deny a claim?
‘No. Only OWCP may make this decision. While the employer pays or withholds COP, this action is subject to review by OWCP in every case.”
· The following morning, I got a message from Charlie that the situation had been rectified. I am still somewhat taken aback by the lack of support shown by HCF management towards their controller(s) following this tragic accident.
· I would like to thank the Convention Committee and the Southern Region for their hospitality in the face of Hurricanes and a last minute cancellation by the Fointanbleau hotel.
· This was my first Convention as the NWP Regional Vice President and I must admit that I was very proud of our region for their participation and activism in the Convention business. I was even prouder of the show of solidarity when many of you stood behind Bob Marks at the microphone to signify your support for him as a member of our family. At the end of day, we need to stand together and support our members who are being attacked by those in management who have the means to file and pursue frivolous law suits.
· I thought the mood at the Convention was one of anger. Delegates, alternates, and members were angry at what the FAA had done to our profession. Unfortunately, much of this anger resulted in some angry motions with respect to seniority. I had no issues with the intent of A08-019 so long as we had given these folks advance notice that we intended to zero out their seniority when they returned to the bargaining unit. While I respect the will of the body, I disagree that seniority should be used as a weapon every couple of years. We really need to mature as an organization and stop messing with seniority.
I still remember the seniority policy that was passed in St. Louis and the division that it caused among our ranks. This was during an election year when a lot was at stake (Kerry-Bush). We fast forward to this year and we find ourselves in a similar situation. Faced with one of the most important elections in this country, we can NOT be divided; we can NOT lose focus of what is most important, we must remain united.
· It was great to see so many friends from all over this great Union in Miami Beach. At the closing party, ceremonial torches were passed on from the Miami Beach Resort to the Hilton Hawaiian Village and also from NSO RVP Victor Santore to me to signify the close of the Miami 2008 Convention and the passing of the torch to the host of the HNL 2010 Convention.
· In accordance with Article VIII, “National Conventions” as the host RVP of the HNL 2010 Convention, I have selected the following individuals to serve on the HNL Convention Committee: Dave Caldwell (SFO), Thom Gurule (HCF), Poliala Lorenzo (HCF), Scott Sorenson (HCF), and Mickela (Regional Admin).
· The National President will appoint up to two National Office members to be added to the Convention Committee.
· I hope all of you enjoyed the daily updates from the Miami Beach Convention courtesy of our NWP Communications/Tech Lead Kevin Sherwood. Kevin was in Miami, at my request, for the sole purpose of reporting on the Convention and allowing the members back home to be fully apprised of everything that happened at the Convention without having to sit through hours of media footage or read about it on the NATCA BBS. I would like to thank Kevin for doing an outstanding job in covering all facets of the Convention.
· While at the Convention, I worked with NATCA’s Director of Government Affairs and Senator Boxer’s office to request that she co-sponsor S. 3416
The following week, I was notified by Senator Boxer’s office that she WILL co-sponsor S. 3416.
· After many months of working with Western Terminal, the SEE Tower break room finally has air conditioning.
· NATCA received an attorney’s fee decision from Arbitrator Barnard awarding fees and expenses totaling $21,429.17. The merits of the case involved a supervisor pushing a controller through an open doorway. The grievant got three days for allegedly provoking the assault on himself. In deciding the merits, the Arbitrator found that the Agency had failed to interview the grievant regarding the charges, thereby violating his due process rights. This violation had been substantially corrected at the hearing, but even based on all of the evidence, the grievant had not done what the agency had accused him of doing. At the most, the grievant was guilty of getting angry at a supervisor regarding an unwarranted performance discussion. The advocate on both the fees and the merits was Jennifer Kukac; great job Jennifer.
· Following the Convention, I got word that HCF Management was directing ALL controllers to include the following phrase in every position relief briefing, “I WILL PARTICIPATE IN PREVENTING OEs.” Management at HCF then told our local reps that it was out of their hands as this directive was mandatory across the country. When I queried Western Terminal regarding this directive, I got the following response:
“The guidance HCF management put out came from our Terminal breakout at the Summit. While this suggestion was not directive in nature, it was suggested as a good operating practice by Mr. Johnson and it was recommended and supported.”
As you can see from their email, this new procedure is NOT mandatory and completely at the discretion of the Manager. So far, there are only two (2) facilities in Western Terminal that are doing this: HCF and LGB. Enroute is not involved in this earth shattering OE prevention initiative.
· I am happy to report that the Coast Area at SCT is 100 % NATCA; great work to all.
· While at the Convention, Mike Hull worked with APC Facility Rep Debbie Young to resolve a watch schedule issue at APC.
· The APC elections are complete and congratulations are in order to the following individuals who will take office on November 3, 2008:
President: Debbie Young
Vice Pres: Jessica Mauldin
Sec/Tres: Emily De'Ath
· SCT experienced yet another radio and radar failure in the Burbank Area. So far this year, there have been a total of four (4) critical failures of FAA infrastructure at Burbank, Van Nuys, and SCT.
o 8/4/08 BUR SCT Radar and Radios Failed for 1 hour and 30 minutes
o 8/13/08 BUR Tower Radios Failed for 30 minutes
o 9/5/08 VNY Tower Radios Failed for 2 hours
o 9/14/08 Burbank SCT Radar and Radios Failed for 1 hour
· These chronic outages are having a definite impact on Air Carrier and General Aviation traffic, just take a look:
o There were two (2) aircraft delayed out of the Van Nuys airport.
o There were nine (9) aircraft delayed out of the Burbank airport.
o One of them was an Alaska Airlines jet that waited so long that they had to go back to the gate for more fuel, $$$!
o There were 15 to 20 airborne aircraft delayed that were trying to land at Burbank.
o One of them was an American Airlines jet that abandoned the RADAR safety net and used visual separation (Visual approach) to land at Burbank because they were running out of fuel.
o There was one cancellation of a flight from Fresno to Burbank as a result of the outage and the traffic management initiatives.
· I worked extensively with Mel Davis, Jim Ullmann (CISM National Chair), and Western Terminal to arrange for EAP professionals and a CISM peer de-briefer to be present at SCT following Ted’s passing. I want to thank Tom Morin (ZBW) for foregoing his vacation time with family to fly out to San Diego from Boston in order to assist his brothers and sisters at SCT.
· Mike Hull, Kevin Sills and I talked about a performance/discipline issue at L30 (Las Vegas Tracon) and a proposed suspension at ZLA. Mike and Kevin also talked to Garth Koleszar and Bryan Baker regarding these two issues.
· It appears that the recent training stand down at NCT hasn’t slowed down the number of operational errors at NCT. Since the training stand down, there have been an additional four (4) operational errors and one (1) operational deviation.
· So far this fiscal year, NCT has experienced thirty-eight (38) operational errors/deviations, twelve (12) of which have been serious category A/B errors. In Fiscal Year 2007, NCT had sixteen (16) operational errors/deviations of which six (6) were category A/B. The fatigue and stress of these draconian work rules, the loss of experienced controllers to retirements, and the additional stress of training every day is starting to take its toll at NCT.
· Our NWP Constitution Lead/LAS Tower Facility Rep Troy Verville has begun a monthly “Robert’s Rulez Review”. Kevin Sherwood is in the process of placing Troy’s monthly updates on the regional website. Thank you Troy for taking time out of your personal life to keep our membership educated and informed.
· Meanwhile, we have updated the Parliamentary motions (Robert’s Rules) cheat sheet on the website and substituted it with the sheet from Jim Slaughter’s website, http://www.jimslaughter.com/pdffiles/ROBERTS10thpobox.pdf
· As many of you first-timers in Miami Beach noticed, it’s essential to be familiar with Robert’s Rules if you want to succeed at our biennial Convention.
· SFO Facility Rep Dave Caldwell and Fran Silva shared their local updates with me; thanks.
· CNO Facility Rep Michael Flores asked me about the NATCA Education Reimbursement Fund. SRF-14 and the newly enacted NEB policy govern the process that needs to be followed for reimbursement.
· NATCA in Washington (Lobby Week) will take place May 17-20, 2009. This is a tremendous opportunity to meet with your Congressional representatives. For those that have never attended Lobby Week, plan to fly in on Sunday May 17, 2009 and fly out the afternoon or evening of Wednesday May 20, 2009.
· Pat Forrey will be testifying on runway safety at a Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing this Thursday, September 25, at 10 am, Eastern Standard Time. To watch the hearing, go to:
http://transportation.house.gov/hearings/hearing.aspx and click on the "LIVE WEB CAST" button in the upper right hand corner.
· NWP Finance Lead Erich Hughes sent guidance to all Facility Reps regarding their responsibilities to follow the National and Local Constitutions. When it comes to the DOL, the policies enacted are considered “Laws”. As an example, if you do not have "dual signatures on checks" in accordance with SRF-20, then you are committing a crime in violation of the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA). Read your Constitution, know your Constitution, and follow your Constitution. Keeping your Local's Constitution and Standing Rules/Policies as one document will help any successor to your position and enable them to know where to find the "laws" of the Local. If you have any questions, please contact Eric Hughes at air.rock@sbcglobal.net
· NWP Legislative Lead, Noel Kingston send out a notice to all Facility Reps and members regarding the Hatch Act basics.
· I worked with Western Terminal and HCF Facility Rep Scott Sorenson to take care of several developmentals who did NOT get COLA while at the academy.
· Mike Hull sends out the Basic Watch Schedule agreement from ZOA to all Facility Reps. This agreement has already cleared agency head review. Scott and his team did a terrific job with this watch schedule. If anyone didn’t get a copy of the agreement, please contact Mike Hull or Scott Conde.
· During a recent FOIA request, we discovered that the FAA will not give us any information that had to deal with a very scary operational error involving Hawthorne Tower (Contract Tower). Here is what the FAA said:
“The Hawthorne Airport Traffic Control Tower is a private business operated by Serco, Inc. under contract to the FAA and may have records pertaining to your request. However, please be advised that Serco, Inc. has no statutory obligation to respond to a FOIA request.”
No wonder why Senator McCain is stating that Contract Towers are just as safe as FAA towers! No one can find out how many close calls they are having!!
· Wednesday September 24, 2008, Aviation Daily reports that the House has passed a six-month FAA Bill. Here are some excerpts from that news story:
House lawmakers yesterday passed a six-month extension for FAA’s operating authority, which will sustain the agency’s programs into the next administration but is well short of the 12-month extension called for by FAA head Robert Sturgell.
The bipartisan bill was introduced by House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee leadership and was passed under suspension of rules, meaning no amendments could be attached. There is some urgency, as Congress is scheduled to recess Friday, and the FAA’s current short-term extension expires at the end of this month. The Senate was expected to pass the House version of the authorization bill by unanimous consent, either yesterday evening or this morning.
A House T&I spokesman told The DAILY that the committee decided on six months instead of 12 because it wants to see some movement on a longer-term FAA reauthorization bill early in the next administration. The proposed bill will extend about 10 weeks into the new administration, giving the new Congress and White House time to consider a full reauthorization.”
