|
NAATS Board of Directors Meeting Day One -- January 27, 2004 9:00 am - Call to Order All Directors present. Executive Session President�s Report Motion - Have Bill Dolan act for the president while Pike is out on sick leave for his surgery and short term recovery. Motion - Mr. O�Connell, Second by Mr. Brown. Discussion - none. BOD decision. All in favor - Unanimous. IOUs from last BOD meeting. Official time package on the two national officer�s stipend/subsistence issue - Ms. Holmes would like to see stipend increased from 2200.00 per month to 3600.00 per month. Motion - The two national 80 hour positions get paid equal to the FAA Long Term Per Diem, no tax liability to NAATS. This will be paid if these two individuals are located in the DC area with no additional stipend, effective 2/1/04 and cancels the previous presidential stipend. Motion - Ms. Holmes, Second - Mr. Comisky. Policy. Discussion. In Favor - Ms. Holmes, Mr. Jaffe, Mr. Comisky, and Mr. Mounts. Opposed - Mr. Puffer, Mr. Van Vacter, Mr. Hoover, Mr. O�Connell, and Mr. Brown. Motion fails. Should the BOD policies be distributed differently to the membership and how? Discussion. Policy. Those in favor - Ms. Holmes, Mr. Jaffe, Mr. Hoover, Mr. Mounts, and Mr. Brown. Those opposed - Mr. Comisky, Mr. VanVacter, Mr. O�Connell, Mr. Puffer. Change in policy fails. Policies will remain available to the membership through their Directors. Mr. Lackman did provide a package for
the Directors - closed. President�s Report Not much work happening with the unions over the holidays but we are going to stay in touch with them. Our A-76 lawyer is staying plugged in to all current lawsuits currently filed on behalf of the other unions. No action needed at this time. Mr. Pike still in touch with our lobbyist and will be meeting with officials on the hill in the very near future. The support on the hill is still very strong for us. Mr. Pike has had a few meetings with Mr. Washington and looks forward to working with him in the future. Nothing new with the Administrator or the DOT Secretary. Recommendations for liaisons/tech reps., Mr. Pike would like to change out the voice switch and old ARS positions. Mr. Pike is still waiting to see how many liaisons we will fill, but the first name is Bart Gray from MCN. On hold until Mr. Pike can get some answers from Mr. Washington. Liaison and Tech Rep Reports Steve Glowacki - Voice Switch. Now call NAS VCOM, put all three air traffic options into one procurement. In the middle of writing the con ops and requirements document. The current install for FSS have not been developed yet. Steve Pollok - Old ARS liaison. His report was given to the BOD and it�s included in the packages. IIDS, budget line was zeroed out, so there is no way to get IDS into OASIS as required in the MOU. SUA/ISE is not installed currently at DCA AFSS like it�s supposed too. Mr. Pollok will check on it. Kevin Carl/Jim Meehan - FSOSC Liaisons. The end of June is when the contract runs out with Jeppesen. The agency needs to continue the contract both AOPA and FSDO agree and like the current work being done by the FSOSC. The automated systems are putting the information into the system wrong and the FSOSC team has to correct it. The graphical TFR�s that AOPA is using on their web site is the work that the FSOSC liaisons are doing. Action Item - A briefing may need to be developed for Mr. Washington to get him up to speed on the issue to include errors by other sites and also an MOU saying all presidential TFRs need to be done by the FSOSC. Mr. Dolan/Mr. Malon. FSOSC is a NAATS function and the work being done by the Mr. Carl and Mr. Meehan is invaluable. Action Item - Mr. Pike will mention it in his update with Mr. Washington and follow up with Russell Chew if need be. Chief Negotiator�s Report Bill Dolan handed matters over to Scott Malon. Does the BOD want Mr. Dolan to continue the RIF negotiations, he thinks we need a team of 3 people. Mr. Dolan would like to see Mr. Comisky be one of the individuals to be part of the team. The BOD should think about it and will address it tomorrow. The rationale needs to be written for the contract, Mr. Dolan would do it. Mr. Hoover has already written one and will send it for Mr. Dolan and Mr. Pike will look it over. There has been some work done, it may be complete by the end of February. Mr. Dolan went through the contract looking for workgroups that need to be set up. NTSB reps, Seniority policy union sets it, may want to have FacReps review process with directors, delegates able to go to convention, distribution of staffing, national EEO representative/committee, and PMS are all articles that need to be looked at. CISD reps need to be named. Traffic Management workgroup within 120 days. Flexible spending accounts and gain sharing workgroup. NAATS can bring 3 people in for a CIP briefing. Within 30 days the agency is supposed to get the FacReps an electronic copy, if not provide hard copies. No idea on the time frame of the contract books yet, we should be getting the prints to look at soon. The last contract took 3 months to get printed. The agency will not give people a conversion worksheet on the core comp calculations. Most regions will not provide a briefing to people on the conversion. There will be one opportunity effective in the new contract for members to drop from the union and that is October. Scott Malon-Staffing, there is now a freeze, we still need a double class at the academy to cover 139 losses last year. The regions also need to make sure the lists are ready to go when the academy starts up again. AISR, may need to file a grievance or a ULP due to a unilateral change without notification. CRU-X, the agency intends to re-open the MOU. Need keysites in ANE, ANM, ASW which requires regional negotiations. Still need to decide who is going to be doing the position rotation/on-break information, ATCS or supes. CBI courses contradict the MOU. We need to identify a part time rep for SUA/ISE, still waiting on a letter from ATX to make it official. Waterfall being developed, seems to be a bit aggressive. International Pilot WX Briefing, MOU U2 submitted waiting for response. Do we want to do international weather briefings for nothing, what would be the reward. Are we really in a performance based organization? PWB evaluators have differences in FAA standards and NWS standards which ones apply. Mr. Malon will follow up to find out what the answer it. The issues surrounding Nepotism should be status quo according to ATX-1, Mr. Malon will follow up with ATX-1 that some regions are still having problems. Day Two - January 28, 2004 9:00 am � Call to Order All directors present. Office Administrator�s Report The summer and fall BOD meeting locations are up in the air with moving this meeting to DC. Mr. Jaffe will check with the hotel in New Orleans to see what he can do with the rate for October and get back to the BOD. Special Elections being held in Alaska and Western Pacific will be completed in the middle of March. The next contract FacRep training will be held the week of March 8th, travel on Monday/Thursday, training on Tuesday and Wednesday. First location choice is Baltimore, back up is Leesburg. Dolan/Malon to conduct training. National meeting, FacRep training on Tuesday, Speakers on Wednesday, and other business on Thursday. Mr. Pike will put together a list of speakers for the Wednesday meeting. Last years imprest fund accounts need to be into NAATS HQ by mid-February, because the auditors are due in the beginning of March. Mr. Malon will check with ATX on the drug and alcohol briefing to see if it can be done in Las Vegas as not only a briefing, but part of the FacRep training. National election-The election committee needs to be named by April 15. NAATS HQ will check to see who the other members were and how long they were in. Do we need to appoint new committee members? Will review when data is available. Political Action (Mr. O�Connell) NAATS HQ will put together bullets and message for postcards for the field to use ASAP. The grassroots effort is still alive and well, people still need to be contacting their elected representatives. Post cards are effective, letters are good, phone calls are better, and the personal visit is the best way to get their attention. Make sure to thank the officials for their help and support. Need the reps for Oshkosh named by the directors by April 1, 2004, or Mr. O�Connell will select the individuals. The dates for Oshkosh July 26th-August 2nd. Do we need to revisit going to AOPA meetings/conventions? To get the political message out. It will be put under open topics and discussed during open topics. Press Releases, Joint Meeting, Change and how to deal with it (Mr. Puffer) We need to do a better job of getting press releases out although getting them picked up by the national press is beyond our control.. There needs to be a procedure set up to get the job done. Action item: Mr. Pike. Canvas the membership to see if they have a PR background. Have stock footage available for distribution to press. There needs to be a joint meeting set up between the FAA/NAATS to discuss HR issues. The issue will be discussed tomorrow when Mr. Washington visits. Ms. Breen has been pushing this meeting for months and will continue to ask for a joint meeting to take place. We may need to look the way we do business and how we need to deal with change. Treasurer�s Report Changes to the LM-2 from department of labor will change the way imprest funds are done or actually the directors will have to report how they spend their time and money. The directors will have to give NAATS HQ a report quarterly on how much time was spent on different categories, to report for imprest funds. Guidance from GC Arthur Fox on the LM-2 changes. There have been lawsuits surrounding the changes, but it appears they will not change the law at this point. New director packages to include the policy, how to do quarterly imprest reports, travel vouchers, and instructions to help in coming directors. They should be done shortly. Imprest accounts need to be set up as business accounts, not personal accounts. Sharing regional financial information with membership; discussion that this should be done with members coming to the directors for the information. If the director cannot satisfy the request, the member can go to the Treasurer. Members must go to their directors for the imprest fund information. The constitution does not specifically say the imprest fund information can be released. The Treasurer will check with the department of labor on any restrictions. NAATS HQ send tax number to directors. OASIS/NSTS update Mr. Detrow briefed the BOD on the latest news. Budget for OASIS for FY05 is $0.00, which means no more improvements or deployments. Being in a performance based organization do we need to take on additional duties surrounding local NOTAMS. The support should be put behind any equipment upgrades, but not additional duties. Get the most out of OASIS and we�ll deal with additional duties. Deploy SUA/ISE. The BOD�s decision was and is to make the last site to be deployed San Angelo. Some issues with OASIS training in Eastern Region, mostly with back fill overtime. Mr. Detrow is working with ATP and AEA to resolve the issue. Training is supposed to start in two weeks and nothing has been resolved yet. Seems to be the way ATP is operating lately, waiting until the last minute to put pressure on the facility. Also some problems noted in Central at COU. Administrator�s report cont�d Election Committee for the 2004-2007 time frame is Paul McDonald, Mike Zeman, Cathy Campbell, and Denise DeStefano as the alternate. All in favor. NAATS paid $1900.00 for AOPA booth last year. The three directors that left the last BOD meeting still have not refunded the money to NAATS national. Mr. Stafford and Mr. Comisky agreed to pay, Mr. Hoover doesn�t feels he needs to because he came back to the meeting. Mr. Hoover appeals the President�s interpretation to the policy. Second - Mr. Brown. In support of the ruling of the chair - Mr. Puffer, Mr. Jaffe, Mr. VanVacter, and Mr. O�Connell. Opposed - Ms. Holmes and Mr. Brown. Abstained - Mr. Hoover and Mr. Mounts. Interpretation stands, Directors owe NAATS National the fines. Legal Updates We are working with the attorney�s on the time frame for appeals and protests. We are continuing to explore other avenues. There is a telcon set up for next week with our attorneys to clarify some things. Mr. Pike asked BOD permission to explore additional A76 help. The BOD is in favor - Unanimous. The appeal from the MCN arbitration is still in the works and nothing completed yet. 4:45 pm - List of Issues to discuss with Mr. Washington tomorrow morning:
Open topics NAATS National funding of arbitration for a removal case in Southern Region - Mr. Hoover. Requests permission to hire Mike Doring to do the arbitration. It was noted that the arbitration committee has not yet approved this grievance. Discussion that a reasonable cap on expenses would be $5,000.00 for the total expense, $3,000.00 cap for Doring. If the arbitration committee agrees to arbitrate this, Mr. Hoover could hire Doring and National would pay if the BOD agrees. Motion - The BOD support hiring of Mike Doring to take the lead in the arbitration concerning the removal of Larry Schultz with a cap of $3,000.00, upon approval of the arbitration committee. Mr. Hoover, Second - Mr. O�Connell. BOD Decision. Discussion. In Favor - Ms. Holmes, Mr. VanVacter, Mr. Hoover, Mr. O�Connell, Mr. Mounts, Mr. Brown. Opposed - Mr. Puffer, Mr. Comisky, and Mr. Jaffe. Motion passes 6-3. Re-visit the AOPA support issue. Chair rules that this issue is not properly before the BOD due to funding issues are handled solely in October. Mr. Brown would like to appeal the ruling of the chair, Mr. Hoover seconds. Discussion. In favor of the chair - Mr. Comisky, Mr. Jaffe, Mr. VanVacter, and Mr. Hoover. Opposed - Ms. Holmes, Mr. Puffer, Mr. O�Connell, Mr. Mounts, and Mr. Brown. Chair ruling is overturned. Discussion - This is a standing rule, not a policy. Has Mr. Boyer changed his position and do we need to look at supporting AOPA? Motion - Overturn the current standing rule on AOPA attendance, the benefit to the membership outweighs the cost to the union. Mr. Brown, second Ms. Holmes. Discussion. In favor - Ms. Holmes, Mr. Comisky, Mr. Hoover, Mr. O�Connell, Mr. Mounts, and Mr. Brown. Abstaining Mr. puffer, Mr. VanVacter, and Mr. Jaffe. Motion Passes 6-0-3. Need runway safety reps - Mr. Jaffe. Each facility needs a runway safety representative in each facility and they would like the reps to have FTI training if possible, not required. Send in your names to Martha Grimsley. Southern Region Arbitration - Mr. Comisky. This recent arbitration loss could have significant impact to bargaining unit members and he had to find out through facility management. Three problems, one that this issue went this far and two that he didn�t hear about it, then it goes to the arbitration committee to approve. Will this issue be appealed? It was a past practice, even if it was illegal, failure to negotiate. We need a better process to distribute arbitration results. Day Three - January 29, 2004 9:00 am - Call to Order All directors present Open Topics Mr. Hoover would like to revisit the motion below: no second, does not get revisited. Any Director that voluntarily leaves the BOD meeting early, without reasonable cause, will forfeit the last day of per diem and the previous nights lodging Mr. Washington Liaison assignments - Have there been any decisions been made yet? By Monday of next week, the rest of the boxes will be filled in the structure right now shows management layers will be cut from 11 down to 6. Mr. Washington�s experience with the liaison program has been very positive and he feels he has benefited from the program. They have to figure out how many liaisons that are needed, but how to split them up in the different domains. For the immediate transition nothing will change, the current liaisons will stay in place. With the ATP Liaison position being currently vacant, can we do something now to help with the workload? Programs will suffer if we don�t have some help in ATP, the ATX liaison will be busy with the new contract. Mr. Washington will get back to Mr. Pike, on the ATP liaison issue. Headquarters/Regional Offices-No change in locations, there will still be 9 regions, 3 directors of operations who will have responsibility for 3 regions each. The new structure is Vice President, Director of Operations, Air Traffic Manager, Operations Manager, Operations Supervisor, Controller. This could have a significant impact on how the union does business. Changing from the Directors dealing with a 500 now, the Director will be negotiating with the Director of Operations who will be responsible for three regions. This structure may change as the plan unfolds, so this is not cast in stone. In 6 months after a review there could be more changes. February 9th the ATO will stand up. Speaking at the NAATS National Meeting - Mr. Washington will try to clear his schedule for the 9th of April. Joint FacRep/Managers meeting-Can the meeting be supported by the budget and location, Mr. Washington will push for such a meeting. It should be done sooner rather than later possibly within the next 60 days. Performance based organization/Incentives/Morale/Management rites/Interest based bargaining. Looking to set up a centralized LR structure, after February 9th it will be handled under Dennis Degaitano�s organization. There is still a lot to be worked out on the communication end. The bargaining unit has been asked to do more with less under management�s rite to assign work, is there something that can be done? A Performance Based Organization has to be a two way street. Need to reevaluate the need for staffing, putting together a better staffing standard. We need help to get some of the HR issues answered, some sort of a plan put together. There are negotiable issues that need to be decided and worked on. Workgroup/attention to list the order of priorities for next summer with the lower staffing and A-76 issues. We will have some serious staffing issues this summer as the traffic increases. Will we still have a traffic management program after the new contract comes into effect. The critical staffing issues need to be addressed ASAP, a joint Union/empowered management workgroup. Alternatives to hiring, ramifications of (local, part-time, temporary) and training initiatives (double classes at the academy). The agency only hired about 60 last year before the freeze happened. Maybe we need to look at temporary appointments for 2 years with the A-76 looming. Can we start to look at duties to see what we can cut in order to alleviate some of the pressure on the workforce? One option maybe to do away with EFAS training and use those instructors and money for basic classes. Placing a freeze on all temporary/permanent staff and supervisory positions/bring support specialists back to the floor. There are things that can be done now to help the staffing situation. Move people to critically staffed facilities (regional push back) look at the CPP moves that are available. Name the critically staffed facilities and see if we can get volunteers to move to those facilities. No give and take in some of the facilities/regions. Have management and supervisors get back into the rotation. FSOSC Issues with the Jeppesen contract ending in June. If that happens it could cause operational errors. The graphics on the FAA web page is inferior, the AOPA graphics come directly from the work done in FSOSC. It�s a natural fit for AFSS controllers to continue to work with this issue. It may take some additional funds but it�s a very important tool for controllers use. International PWB, we keep getting asked to do more with less. The agency has not defined what exactly goes into an international briefing. We haven�t been given the tools or guidance to do the job properly. When is the test period over, it started last spring? Our workforce continues to make things like this work. Employees want support. This could also effect the MEO and or final bids, it was not in the PWS. FSDPS issues - Need to look at the transition plan with changes that have happened, including waterfalls, lack of staffing. Flight Service hanger (joint) at AOPA/OSH/airshows, it would be good PR. Run it like a flight service forum. Final thoughts, we need to keep the fire walls in tact between the MEO/PWS to ensure fairness in the process. It was a significant event to have the Administrator extend the schedule for the MEO to submit bid and the final decision to March 2005. AFSS evaluations will be starting up again within the next few weeks. Mr. Washington and Mr. Pike will start to travel to facilities as soon as he is able, Mr. Washington will be going to Kankakee next week. During his visits, he would like to do an all hands meeting and possibly plug in with people to get a better understanding of what we do. It�s frustrating not to be able to have answers, he will be better off once he stands up his organization. Watch the ATO website for the names Harris Briefed the BOD on their history and let them know they will do everything they can to help the MEO win the bid. Open Topics Negotiable items for A-76, the main ones are pay and reasonable accommodations. Mr. Dolan will start on negotiations. Arthur Fox needs to give an opinion on pay scales. Virtual Flight Surgeons - Mr. Brown will send the BOD a power point presentation on the issue and they can discuss it at a later date. Liaison Issues - How are we going to structure are liaisons with the changes in the ATO? We need to wait until there is a commitment, before we make any decisions. However, the BOD needs to put the right liaison to the right position. Motion - As it pertains to union members serving as elected or appointed union officers and/or representatives. No union funded stipends and/or subsistence shall be increased without a majority vote of the members voting or a majority vote at the delegate convention. Mr. Hoover, Second - Mr. VanVacter. Policy. Point of order, the constitution states the BOD handle the budget, chair rules this is a valid motion. Discussion - It�s about union members only and the membership should be able to decide that. The elected officials should have the responsibility of making those decisions the membership have already given them that authority according to the constitution. Point of order, Mr. Comisky, Second Mr. Puffer. Uphold the ruling of the chair to discuss the motion - Mr. Puffer, Ms. Holmes, Mr. Jaffe, Mr. VanVacter, Mr. Hoover, Mr. Mounts, Mr. Brown. Against - Mr. Comisky. Abstain - Mr. O�Connell. Ruling of the chair is upheld and the motion will be discussed. Discussion. In favor - Mr. Hoover, Mr. VanVacter. Opposed - Ms. Holmes, Mr. Jaffe, Mr. Puffer, Mr. O�Connell, Mr. Brown, Mr. Comisky, Mr. Mounts. Motion fails 2-7. FSDPS telcon - Regions have to keep an eye what�s happening with the transition plan. The July BOD meeting will be held in San Francisco the week of July 12th. The October BOD meeting will be held in New Orleans on the week of October 18th. Discussion on the need to have a special BOD meeting the beginning of March. List of invitees for the national meeting:
Motion to adjourn Mr. Mounts, offered
second Mr. Comisky. Unanimous. |