Northwest Mountain Region
November Quarterly
29th November 2000
Casper, WY Casper AFSS
In attendance for NAATS:
- Don McLennan, Seattle AFSS (NAATS Regional Director);
- John Dibble, Denver AFSS (NAATS Regional Coordinator);
- Darrell Mounts, Denver AFSS (Facility Representative);
- Steve Hovey, Cedar City AFSS (Facility Representative);
- Pat O'Connor, Casper AFSS (Facility Representative)
In attendance for FAA:
Lee Daniels, Regional Office;
Joe Jingles, Casper AFSS (Facility Manger)1. Centennial Airport Weather Observers: What is the status of the contract? When will they moving to their new facility?
Telecommunications (installation of phone lines necessary to operate the Operator Interface Device) has been holding up the move of the contract weather observers. Contact last week with the program office individual responsible for making those arrangements revealed that those lines should be installed within the next two weeks. All else is ready for the observers to move to their leased space.
2. 2002 Olympics: What is the status on preparation for the Salt Lake City Olympic event?
We advised Lee that the Union is evaluating the need to establish a temporary FSS at the Olympic site. We would like to study the issues and present our findings, to them, at the next Quarterly. Some of the issues we are concerned about are:
Known weather problems at Salt Lake City.
Mountainous terrain.
The high profile.
International scope.
Lee suggested a budget "piece" would be important to eventually being successful in our endeavor.
Also the idea of a special "800" number for ICAO briefings with OAK AFSS was brought up and will be considered.
3. Call Offloading: What is the status of call offloading by Casper AFSS and is it still necessary?
The original concept was not based on resolving a staffing issue. The ANM region was attempting to look to the future, working with fewer people, who would rather move the traffic than themselves. CPR AFSS was perceived as not objecting to offloading other facilities traffic and WANTED to have the additional business. The offloading "evening" issue was originally a result of short staffing but now it is not really a staffing issue, but is one of still moving people on a case by case basis. It all began in November of 1997 in the attempt and spirit of increasing productivity and becoming more business like. Facility Consolidation was never a concern under this particular topic. Mr. Mounts presented some new statistics to Mr. Jingles relative to offloading from DEN AFSS to the CPR AFSS. Mr. O'Connor brought up the question of wether other facilities did not want to take CPR traffic. DEN and CPR are going to develop an inter-facility agreement to work out the details and time frames. Mr. Daniels and I will request a briefing on the final product. The main theme here is to maintain a customer service focus we have worked hard to create.
4. OASIS: Request an update briefing on OASIS at Seattle.
Seattle AFSS declared Initial Operating Capability (IOC) on September 18, 2000. Since going operational, the specialists have improved their proficiency to the point where most offloading of "weather briefing" traffic has been discontinued. Model One Full Capacity (M1FC) continues to run in a "hot standby" mode and is expected to continue doing so until mid-summer of 2002 when the full software package with all the PTR fixes is to be installed. The facility is using OASIS exclusively for all operational functions with the exception of graphics. Some WSI graphics are still needed. Update November 17. On November 2, Lisa Bee of ATQ conducted the IOT&E briefing for regional/facility management. The evaluation concluded that for Seattle AFSS, the early deployment OASIS is Not Operationally Acceptable. The facility, both management and the union, wish to continue developing and using the system, but agree with the ATQ assessment. They developed workarounds to mitigate the deficiencies identified during IOT&E. The workarounds will be sustainable through the winter months when traffic is in its normal winter decline.
5. Intranet Access: When will bargaining unit members be able to access their T&A information on the FAA Intranet per OPM's recent mailing? Also, when will Facility Representatives be able to access traffic data per the recently signed national MOU?
I briefed on the situation on-going in one of our facilites where access is being denied to the bargaining unit members. At CPR AFSS, Mr. Jingles shared they had tried to implement access with no rules or restrictions and had problems but chose to keep it active and requested that a specialist get permission to use it and restricted access to some limited information. Mr. Daniels offered the point of view that the key here was it needs to be tailored to "official use only" usage. At CDC AFSS, Mr. Hovey said they are getting automated equipment, plus implementing the computerized slot reservation program. They have two computers in the building dedicated to the Intranet. Their issue is management does not want to let them have access to the NAATS/NATCA Web pages.
6. CPP MOU: Request an update on CPP moves to this region? Specifically on Donna Minnie (AAL) and Lisa Rosenthal (ACE)?
Mr. Daniels is amenable to developing an ANM staffing plan. We need to collect some data, share it with the FacReps, get their input and then he and I will sit down and develop a flexible and fluid plan. We explained the Minnie coordination issue and the down side to us caused by either a lack of communication or misunderstanding of the information we need to have to be successful. Also, we briefed on the potential CPP MOU move of Lisa Rosenthal. Mr. Mounts presented his view of why staffing statistics alone never accurately depict what staffing levels genuinely exist on the operational floor. We also inquired if there will be OT in the Olympic budget for the one month the activities are scheduled because of low staffing in surrounding facilities?
7. 2001 Regional Quarterly Meeting Dates: Request that we schedule tentative dates for the 2001 regional Quarterly meetings? This should help avoid problems getting NAATS representatives off their facility watch schedules.
The following dates were set for the 2001 quarterly meetings.
- First Quarterly Meeting: Travel to, February 5th, meet the 6th, travel home the 7th.
- Second Quarterly Meeting: Travel to, April 30th, meet the 1st, travel home the 2nd in Boise, ID.
- Third Quarterly Meeting: Travel to, September 10th, meet the 11th, travel home the 12th.
- Fourth Quarterly Meeting: Travel to November 26th, meet the 27th, travel home the 28th.
Open Items.
Telephone discussion with Bruce Johnson. Our new Air Traffic Division Manager had wanted to make the trip to Casper and participate in the meeting but scheduling snafu's prevented him from doing that. Instead, he arranged to hold a min-telecon and hear what was on the attending FacReps minds. He began by briefly stating that the new NAATS contract is something that we should be anticipating on how best to deal with the new issues that come from it. He acknowledged there is also the issue of the number of people in FSS who are eligible for retirement and what will happen if they are ultimately unhappy with what the Agency and NAATS did; might this not place facility staffing levels in a precarious position? Bruce felt that staffing levels were really tight if not actually a little short and the Agency and the Union should work together and look to the future to insure we can continue to provide a high quality product to our customers. He also asked Lee to discuss with us if there are Model Work Environment issues that need to be identified, and if so, solutions need to be developed to achieve the environment we are really striving for. There is a phase two being implemented shortly. Again, though, this is simply about treating people the way we would want to be treated. It is about respecting other people and treating each other with dignity.The requirement is gone to brief on the conduct and discipline Order but we may want to ask for this on a facility by facility basis. I will inquire if NAATS national has received a briefing or if the I and I at the national level have taken place.
Security Issue at Denver. The regional office is waiting for national guidance on several issues but asked that we implement those things we can with no costs associated to it.
Contract Negotiations. I gave a short briefing on the current status of these negotiations.
Don McLennan
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