Wednesday, October 22, 2008

ELECTIONS-The general election is coming up in about two weeks. Take time out of your busy schedule to vote. Your career depends on it, your family depends on it. Whatever your choice, you know the right one, get out and exercise your right to vote!! Early voting is available from the 21st at certain City Hale. That’s a good way to get your vote to count earlier.

LOCALITY-The lawsuit is having it share of problems and much of it revolves around the Senate Bill on COLA to Locality. The Locality Bill authored by Sen. Akaka passed the Senate with unanimous consent. This is very rare! The House is blocking the vote because of dissention voiced by Puerto Rico through the president of AFGE to their representative in Congress. When Congress comes back into session (date unsure) we will try to persuade the president of AFGE to not block it. If that is unsuccessful then we will lobby congress to not block the vote because of an extreme minor dissention. For now we are trying to get PR’s reasons for blocking and try to address their ignorance. There is a lot of support for the bill, but we have to get by this roadblock. The timeline is uncertain right now but I will update as I can. I have two telcons with the PR rep and the VP of both Alaskan region and the southeast region to try to sway their thinking and understand their concerns.

ANNUAL LEAVE- Paper Bid on Duty Time, Webschedule will be updated as soon as possible to use for reference. Weschedule is still used for your non vacation and spot requests through the “Request Leave” tab. You may elect to bid on non-duty time! Lets all try to push this thing through so we can make some plans with our families.

NON-VACATION REQUESTS-Non-vacation leave requests are for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th vacation bid rounds to allow you to get in line in the 4,5 or 6 slots per day to help you secure the day off if you were not able to get in the top three. It will also put you in position to request the 4,5 or 6 slot either in the beginning or end of your vacation to better match with your significant others vacation. The free for all will probably need to be delayed until 1/4/2009 because of the recent changes to the bid process.

PLEASE AVOID MAKING REQUESTS IN 2009. IF YOU DO HAVE A REQUEST PENDING, EITHER CANCEL IT AND MAKE IT DURING THE SUCCEEDING ROUNDS OR DURING THE FREE-FOR-ALL OR it will be removed before non-vacation begins to make it fair for all.

CONTINUATION OF PAY (COP)- If you are involved in a serious accident you are entitled to COP. If as a result of the investigation your claim does not hold up, you will be required to pay back the time off. This is important to know because an employee of ours was involved in an accident where lives were lost through no fault of the employee. Management denied his request for COP saying his claim was denied. They also went on record saying that Mr. xxx has his/her own medical insurance, he can use that if he needs to. Is this the level of concern that this employer has for their employees.


CHRISTMAS PARTY-This years Christmas party is on Tuesday, Dec.16, 2008.We are attempting to give different people the ability to attend the party by moving it through out the week. Through the shirt sales (mahalo to Jimmy, Rosa and Thom) we have raised $1200.00 and through the recycling effort we have raised another 200.00. This all will go to helping with the party. If you have any input, please let Poli, Shawn, Chad, Thom or myself know.

SHIRTS-We have a few shirts left for sale to our members at cost. (26.00)
The only remaining sizes are xxl, xxxl, med and sml. I’m sorry the prime sizes are not available, but the objective was to raise money for the Xmas party. I you are interested in a shirt we are considering having others made specifically for the facility. Please let one of the E- Board know and we will decide if we have enough interest to get it done.

I WILL PARTICIPATE…-As you know the requirement to say this has been removed. This is largely the result of your local attempting to convince management that it is a poor idea and being told that it was mandatory. Thinking the FAA has lost its mind; we followed up nationally and found out that we were only the 2nd of 3 facilities in the NATION doing it (the other two were smaller towers). Then we find out that it is not mandatory, approach our management team with this information and are told…”when my boss tells me he thinks its a good idea, I think it’s a good idea” and refuses to remove the requirement. Shortly after, the FAA rescinds the “guidance”. During our next meeting I thanked Mr. Rabideau for his part in removing the requirement and I was told: “If I had a choice it would still be implemented here”, by giving into the union, the FAA has just made it ok for them to complain and something will be done. Amazing!

TOWER STRIPS-The plus signs around the PDAR in HNL tower is the result of the PDC not being able to differenciate between the filed FP and the PDAR assigned. PDC is not reverse shade able and therefore the only way to identify the PDR is to use a character like +. The + signs let the program know that the PDR/PDAR is a revised routing and places it a different section of the PDC.

TRAINING-Remember to always give and receive OJT debrief sessions. It is a required part of training and the developmental deserve that process. For those that debrief on sector, you are taking away the trainees ability to ask questions and give feedback. Don’t cheat yourself and them out of this process. A training form and debrief should be completed each session. You should be allowed time each day for this to happen.

CLASS G AIRSPACE-Management is preparing a Class G Airspace briefing that highlites rules for airports like LNY, JRF, NGF, MKK, KOA, MUE. Be prepared to ask questions or challenge faulty procedures.

SPOUSAL BADGES-There has been a change to Hickam procedures regarding badges for spouses. It is going to require a more in-depth background check as well as a charge for the process, $15-25. They will require you to go to a criminal check website for a back ground check and SSN verification as well as the paperwork from the facility. The sites are:
www.criminalwatchdog.com, www.sentrylink.com, and www.criminalbackgroundrecords.com.
Let me know if you need more information.

WEBSCHEDULE-Webschedule has been a good tool for all of us to track and be accountable for requests, bids, swaps, etc…It has been somewhat of a disappointment in its limitations, speed and cumbersomeness. Overall though it provides us with a level of protection and accountability that helps us make things fair. UNTIL RECENTLY! Management recently made a phone call to someone outside the facility and wiped out all data for leave requested in 2009. They claim to have that right. They claim to have the right to alter data in ART also. Now I’m not so sure that the data in either of those two systems can be trusted. My recommendation to you is that after you bid A/L in webschedule, you print a copy of your SF-71 for your records. In case management decides to erase data, you will have a copy for your protection. It still has proven to be a valuable tool to keep everyone honest.

FATIGUE-The faa distributed some fatigue pamphlets to all. I haven’t been able to find who created these and from what source. It seems this was the product of a meeting created by the government to address fatigue. Instead of taking action to minimize the effects of fatigue, it seems they will just tell you how to change your life.

CONVENTION-I wanted to ensure that all of you know the level of work, personal time and money that goes into attending the convention. The amount of financing that the union was able to help with this year covered most of the airfare, but the hotel and any extras are out of pocket. The leave used is personal leave. The flight schedule alone traveling to the east coast and then coming right back to work is brutal. Its one thing for me to do it, it’s my job; for the others it’s strictly volunteer. The people that volunteered to go enabled me to conduct the business of the convention while they focused on selling Hawaii and selling the shirts that will allow us to help with the X-mas party. The whole contingent from Hawaii has a secondary purpose. We are there to engage and represent our facility on the national level. The national office knows who we are, they react when we speak or when we ask for something. This becomes even more important during this time of conflict. I appreciate those of you who work an extra shift to cover Thom, Jimmy and Rosa being gone. It is definitely a contribution to the Union.

NEW SUPERVISOR-Management removed Liane Hamamoto from the Island Area for a detail to become a supervisor without talking to or negotiating with NATCA. I am asking them to place her back on the schedule for the holidays to help with staffing. We’ll see if they share my same concern!

POWER OUTAGES-We have been plagued by power outages that affected the entire facility, one day and caused us to lose the OGG radar another. In both these instances the controllers involved acted with knowledge and professionalism. It continues to become obvious that the system would not run if not for the Air Traffic Controllers. Keep up the good work!

SOLIDARITY-I know it’s difficult for 90 strong-willed controllers who never make mistakes to agree on everything, but we are all in this together. We are here to help each other and make each other better. Always remember: Our solidarity is their enemy!