Brothers and Sisters,
October 2010 marks the one-year anniversary of our new Air Traffic Controller, TMC, and NOTAM specialist Collective Bargaining Agreement, aka CBA and/or Contract. This has been a very busy year for us on the National Executive Board. I’m certain that this past year has also been a very busy year for all of our Facility Reps, LR reps, activists, etc.
As I have told many of you during our membership meetings and pre-convention meeting, getting a fair contract is just a beginning. The real work begins when we start working on various workgroups, begin using the new PAR process (Pre-Arbitration Review), resolve the outstanding grievances from the Green book and the imposed work rules, and when we start developing new Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs), etc.
During this past year, our President and Executive Vice President have also taken it upon themselves to rely heavily on the National Executive Board. Each one of us on the Executive Board has taken on additional duties in certain areas in which we’re responsible for all aspects of a programs development and implementation. As some of you may have heard by reading the NEB minutes, I am the NEB lead for Training; both internal NATCA training and external training with the FAA.
My first order of business was to fulfill the language in Article 67, Section 2 dealing with Training.
Article 67, Section 2. Within one hundred twenty (120) days of the signing of this Agreement, the NATCA President or his/her designee will meet with the Vice President of Technical Training to discuss and craft a plan on how to improve requirements analysis, foster efficient use of resources, and increase employee involvement in the field of training.
With the approval of the board, we selected team members and began working with the FAA to finalize a plan for training. Our team was comprised up of NSW RVP Tim Smith, Aaron Fishman (ZOA), Bryan Neal (ZKC), Kevin Long (MCI), Kris Koke (ZFW), and myself. After meeting internally and then meeting with the FAA several times, we finalized our proposal and sent it to the ATO VP of Training Shawn Clark. Shawn and I then met to finalize the recommendations of the workgroup.
On August 26, 2010, Shawn and I agreed on our plan and began taking steps to incorporate the training plan into Shawn’s training priorities. I would like to thank Shawn Clark and Mark Marchese for trusting us and believing that together we can develop a much better product than alone.
As a result of our plan, we are now participating on the following workgroups:
Redesigning Air Traffics basics for terminal and enroute at the OKC Academy
Redesign of Stage II-IV for Enroute Training
Redesigning the Academy Air Traffic Radar Training program
In addition to finalizing the training recommendations, I am currently working on the following programs:
Operational Assessment- working with the FAA on a C90 like process to determine controllers’ aptitude and ability to work at ATC-10 and above terminals.
Flight Deck Training- I have been working with the FAA on FDT for close to five months. During this time, there has been a manager change, there has been a draft of the program circulated amongst managers and there have even been some alleged briefings of this draft order. Meanwhile, the new manager who has taken over the program has decided to revise the draft based on input by NATCA and management. He is also ensuring that all coordination is completed with the airlines. We still have some differences on the number of flights per year and whether annual leave can be used in conjunction with the flights. I am hopeful that we will have a program by the spring of 2011.
Overhauling NATCA Basic Rep Training- I have had the distinct pleasure of working with NSW RVP Tim Smith, NWP ARVP Mike Hull, NEA LR Rep Chris Boughn, and NCE LR Rep Scot Morrison to completely redesign our Basic Representative Training. We just rolled out the redesigned class for the first time at the New Orleans Basic Rep class this week.
Air Traffic Selection and Placement Tool (AT-SAT)- working with the FAA to validate the AT-SAT tool for selection and placement of new hires into the terminal option. We will be looking for some of our members to help evaluate the questions in November at OKC.
NATCA placement workgroup- working with the FAA on a workgroup to identify and resolve various problems with the FAAs placement process; new hires, training failures, hardships, etc.
Reno to NCT consolidation- working alongside NATCA Attorney Peter Gimbrere, NCT Facility rep Steve McCoy, NCT Area rep Dan McGuane, RNO Facility rep Rich Ferris, NATCA Realignment lead Mitch Herrick, and Mike Hull to negotiate the MOU on the relocation of RNO Tracon to NCT.
Basic/Advanced arbitration class- organizing our NATCA taught classes for Basic and Advanced arbitration in 2011. NATCA instructors and Bob Taylor will be teaching these classes. Some of our instructors teaching these classes will be: Victor Santore, Chris Boughn, Bill McGowan, Mike Hull, and Gretchen McMullen from our National office.
Just Culture Pilot Program- working with the FAA on a pilot program for “Just Culture” at SFO and ZLA. For a look at what Just Culture really is, you can click on this hyperlink: http://www.justculture.org/algorithm.aspx
Lastly, I would like to congratulate Paul, Trish, our national office staff, and our HNL Convention Committee on one of NATCA’s best conventions ever. It was my absolute honor to have worked alongside these dedicated professionals; thank you so much.
As you can see, my plate is rather full these days. But, I am going to do my best to try and give you regular updates via the NWP “Hot Sheet”.
Take care,
Ham Ghaffari
NWP RVP
