NAATS HEADQUARTERS EMAIL UPDATE
Volume 2, #30
May 13, 2002
The negotiations on the pay rules were not completed last
week. Chief Negotiator Bill Dolan will provide an update for your information.
In the interim, he reports that the areas of dispute are not many but they are
significant. He has asked that I elevate the issues to the necessary level to
complete these negotiations. I began that process last week and I expect to
resolve this within the next week or so.
Our preliminary meeting with FMCS Director Richard Barnes will be held on
Thursday, May 16.
The FAA unions met last week to discuss the Aviation Labor Coalition (ALC). At
our meeting next November we will try to get all the union presidents to
attend so that we can finally sign the charter. Please remember, this is not
an affiliation or merger, it�s an agreement by the unions to work together on
items of mutual concern.
The FAA Labor Management Council also met last week. One of the items
discussed is the new performance management system (PMS). More work needs to
be done on this but it�s a pretty good product. Thanks to our representative
on the development workgroup, NE Regional Coordinator Tom Halligan. ADA-1
Monte Belger announced his retirement, effective August 2.
Secretary Mineta wants to implement a DOT LMR Board similar to the FAA one
above consisting of the various union presidents and agency heads. I indicated
my willingness to attend. Next step is for the union presidents to meet and
discuss a charter.
ACR-1 Fanny Rivera briefed the union presidents on the Dispute Resolution
Institute (DRI). This is an additional tool that can be used to resolve
disagreement but it does not replace any administrative remedies. The union
presidents will continue to work with ACR and try to reach an agreement.
My scheduled trips for membership meetings are as follows:
FOD July 11, HHR July 31, SAN August 1. I�m also coordinating a swing through
the GL Region with Director Jack O�Connell (probably in June) and a trip to
MIV with Director Donna Holmes.
The NAATS Finance Committee was at NAATS HQ last week. I want to thank John
Wesselhoft (PIE), Bob Roose (PIE) and Mark Bunker (GRB) for all their work.
John is completing his fifth year as our Treasurer and he�s worked very hard
on our behalf. Again, our thanks for his and the team�s efforts.
Please note that this is a solicitation of membership interest in serving at
NAATS Treasurer. The Treasurer:
If you are interested in serving as NAATS Treasurer please
send NAATS HQ your name and a short resume. I�m also soliciting interest the
members serving as liaisons or on national work groups. If you�re interested,
please send us a brief resume. If we already have your name, an updated resume
would be helpful.
You may have heard about legislation to correct specific FAA pay inequalities.
This is basically the same legislation we saw last year and is working through
the same congressional offices. I�m meeting next week with one of the
co-sponsors, Congressman Kanjorski (D-PA), later this week.
I�ll next see Don Young on May 21.
Wally Pike
Following is an OASIS Update from NAATS National Representative Jeff
Barnes.
05/08/02 - The Human Factors Team is meeting this week at STL AFSS doing demos
for STL and COU personnel in addition to our regular business. The demos have
gone very well and I would like to thank the personnel from both facilities
who have taken the time to attend them.
I have heard reports that are disturbing. What I have found is that misleading
information has been given out by the console site survey teams regarding
placement of equipment in the consoles. At several facilities they have
strongly discouraged any equipment placement outside their "standard" that
they bring with them, and at at least one (OAK) they said that no changes
could be made, period. They have cited Human Factors Team decisions to support
this statement. That is completely wrong.
The Human Factors Team has discussed equipment placement, and what has been
decided is that on the standard preflight console all the equipment has to be
mounted to the left side. This is to accommodate the size of the anticipated
Touch Entry Display that will come with the AFSS Voice Switch when it
eventually gets deployed. This is the only console where the Team has placed
any constraints. It was discussed by the Team and decided that we could not
anticipate local needs and equipment, therefore the placement of equipment in
all the other console types would be at the discretion of the facility.
Of course this is something that some in the program would just as soon be
talked about quietly and with the greatest reluctance because it means extra
work to produce the cutouts in the panels if they aren't all done the same
way. It's my understanding that Evans has been very supportive of this, but we
all know that there are people who are hesitant to let decisions be made at
the local level.
If you are going through site survey, or if you have gone through site survey,
and have been told that you have no choice in equipment placement the FacRep
should tell management and the console folks they are wrong and you want to
discuss the equipment placement in your consoles. If they continue to tell you
no get in touch with me and we will work the issue from the national level.
This might not get a quick correction if your console acquisition has passed
the point where the panels are actually cut by Evans, but we can at least
identify facilities that could be retrofit candidates if they were misled.
Action beyond that would have to wait until the OASIS program has money again
which would likely stretch out to FY2004, but at least we would be
on the path to correcting a problem.
Fraternally,
Jeff Barnes
703-582-6616