NATCA in Washington

[Scott Voigt]

As I stated on another thread NATCA has a legislative gathering in Washington DC. every year. This year is called "The Future is NOW!" This year was the first time that the first day was covered on CSPAN which is a govt. tv station that runs stuff on what the govt. is doing. We have a two hour bit of coverage and thought that some of you might have some interest....

http://video.c-span.org:8080/ramgen/hdrive/e052002_air.rm

This is the web site that I am listening too right now. Hope that it works for y'all...

regards

[BEXIL160]

Hey, it works! But i'm off to bed now... catch you later Scott.

best wishes

BEX.

[HounslowHarry]

Scott

Thanks for that info. Many ATCOs here in the UK might think that the USA has little relevance to us here, but that view would be very wrong and vice versa of course.

Others might also be interested to know that the Branch Chair of the ATCOs branch of the trade union Prospect is in Washington meeting NATCA reps, and I believe he has time at Your conference, sharing our experience of Privatisation, our experience of Globalisation (ie Europe) and of course making valuable International contact.

ATCOs worldwide should remain Professional and safety orientated, though with profit first motives in government and company, particularly in the UK, I see that slipping away rapidly.

Sad

[professor yaffle]

Dear Scott,
Thanks for this thread, much appreciated.
Just out of interest what is the maximum time you guys can spend in position and what are the minimum breaks if any? Just as a comparison.
Cheers

[BEXIL160]

Scott...

Well, I've watched the first hour or so of it now.

Impressions... There seems to be a lot of co-operation going on, Michael Jackson (Dep. Transportation Sec) mentions this a lot. He also seems VERY GRATEFUL for the involvement of NATCA in future projects.

Something that has not happened here in the UK recently, BUT I BELIEVE SHOULD HAVE.

John Carr seems like one of the good guys as well...

Question for you. Is Jane Garvey really out of the running for COO? If so, can we have her over here please? :D

Take care

BEX

[Iron City]

BEX:


Jane has a 5 year stabilized tour/no cut contract that is up the first week of August 2002. From what I hear she really is going. She is very smart and politically savy, which I believe means she would not take that COO job on a bet. If you are pretty lucky she could take one of your jobs and do, I think, a good of not very very good job. But she is not Gwyneth Dunwoodie!!

The COO job is to run the Air Traffic Organization in the new performance based organization FAA. This means not just ATCOs, but the folks that must keep everything running and the folks that must buy everything for all types of air traffic services, not just ATC. The COO will get the money the agency requests (as modified by the Department of Transportation, the Office of Management and Budget and everybody else up the line) and then appropriated by the Congress and apportioned back down the chain. It is never enough and never for the right things. The number of people you have to do the job is also fixed by Congress. Of course the performance goals will not be changed and if everything does not go according to plan the COO will get to be whipped. The powers that be, I hear, already found somebody earlier this year and after he got a good look at the job decided he wanted to spend more time with his family (or some such reason for running screaming in the opposite direction) Don't blame him.



Iron City

[BEXIL160]

Iron City...

Thanks for the info about Ms.Garvey. I wonder if she'll get some sort of public service award when she (sadly) departs? If not, she sure DESERVES one.

As for the COO job, thanks for spelling out the nature of that particular "Poison Chalice". Someone's got to take it, but who? It seems to me there is a remarkably risky opportunity here for someone to grab the bull by the horns and make a name for themselves (or to be made an ignominious scapegoat). Someone with not a little courage and presumably very politically savvy.

Does NATCA have any favourites? (I mean apart from Jane!)

Best rgds
BEX

[BEXIL160]

OK! Finally finished watching the whole thing, and very worthwhile it was too. Thank you Scott for directing us to C-SPAN.

Best rgds
BEX

[Scott Voigt]

Hi HounslowHarry

I agree that we all have a lot ot learn from each other. I was always surprised that we hadn't talked to each other more than we had in the past. I hope that we are trying to fix some of that now though. I know that we are getting more involved in IFATCA and we are trying to learn the lessons from other countries on what you have done and what works and what doesn't... Right now the UK and Canada are looking like poster children of what we don't want to happen. But we also know that we have a large up hill fight.

regards

[Scott Voigt]

Prof;

We are restricted by contract to two hours on position at any time. That however isn't always adhered too by the agency and then we have to grieve it...

As to breaks, we are supposed to get one 30 minute meal break and two 15 minute breaks in a day. That other than on really bad days doesn't happen though. We normally get more than that in almost all cases........

We can't work more than six days without a 24 hour break and we can't work more than 10 hours a day... That is law.

Hope this helps

[Scott Voigt]

Hi Bex;

Iron City pretty much explained it very, very well for you... Jane isn't going to take on another five years as administrator, nor does she have ANY desire to do the COO job. We also have seen a few folks in line for the COO job and no one seems to want the job. Must tell you something. It also is one that is going to be a very hard job to get done and they aren't going to pay them all that well... Might as well stay in the job that you are in...

A lot of us feel that Ms. Garvey is the best thing that has happened to the agency in a long time. Of course there are those in the agency who don't feel the same. But it appears that most of those work at HQ or the regional offices...

regards

[Findo]

Intersting point is that I believe you pay 1.5% of salary and a levy of up to $50 per month to get such comprehensive representation for an almost all ATCO union.

and we pay ...........

[Scott Voigt]

Hi Findo;

We have no levy... However, if we like, we can put extra money into a PAC (political action committee fund) and we do a LOT of that..... You get what you pay for in most things in life.

regards

[Scott Voigt]

Hi again all;

For those of you following this stuff <G>... I have some more tidbits from our NATCA in Washington that was reported on our private portion of our website...

We had three guests from the UK who came to educate our members in the problems they are having since privatization. UK National Air Traffic Services (NATS) has been private for less than a year and they have already required a government bailout, and are now facing bankruptcy as the banks have cut off their credit. Prospect, the union representing NATS employees, is now concerned that new funding will come from investors looking for very specific return on that investment. The airline group, who originally purchased NATS from the government, is unwilling to invest any more money.

After they spoke, John and I met with Shane Enright and Joe Magee from the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF). They are forming an ATC committee within the Civil Aviation Secretariat specifically to fight privatization and its effects on air traffic controllers. I have been working with them throughout the year and they have provided a great deal of information and assistance in building NATCA’s arguments opposing privatization schemes.

regards