Industrial action ..... unfortunately .
 

Moderator , if possible please leave this in Rumours and News as this greatly affects the chaps at the pointy end .

There is a very strong chance of industrial action at the Eurocontrol Maastricht UAC in early June , affecting the Belgian , Dutch and German airspace above FL245 .
Whilst managers post e-mails of congratulations to operational staff on greatly enhanced productivity , beating last year's September high traffic levels , in May already , they are totally disregarding social agreements concerning human factors secured many months ago . This is not about money , despite net salary reductions all round and increased pension contributions .
Enough said . Our apologies , the reputation of the Maastricht UAC Ops Room speaks for itself .

What have Maastricht UAC mismanagement been up to now then?

A clarifying thread rename would help I think.

Threadnames are the eyecatcher , that's the conundrum , one can be loud and vociferous or quietly succinct , how to bring the point over ? BYveterengirl ..... sounds as if you have The Knowledge ?!!!

2nd hand only. But I've been hearing for quite a while now that morale is at an all time low. There were already strong rumours of industrial action late last year. My info was that management had lost the plot. Not an unusual state of affairs in a good many ATC organisations these days!

Spot on . One has to go back to the 70's to find an understanding management worthy of the title . The present lot couldn't manage their way out of a wet paper bag . Thanks for your support .

Zed3 - let's hope we don't let them off the hook like we did last year by trusting our (incompetent) DG :mad:
It is unfortunate that it looks like we will have to take this action for the first time in the centres history, but we can only take so much. Local management's actions beggar belief some times but it just seems that they are trying to see how far they can push us - Talking to various people in the ops room I don't think it is much further!!!
Apologies to all the people it will affect in advance but if management had kept their promises this situation would never have arisen:sad:

Bollocks. All that does is put a few extra minutes on their day.
What about the countless re-routes / FL caps which may have to be undertaken thus resulting in the necessity to load/burn extra fuel? It is the Airlines pocket which will be dented resulting in more cutbacks.This will no doubt be passed onto staff & passengers alike with increased ticketing in the long run.

Please don`t misunderstantd what I am trying to say, I have every sympathy with your plight. Moral in the industry seems low as a whole but to say it effects the chaps/chapesses at the pointy end seems very shortsighted.
That said, Thanks for the heads up. Looks like it could be a busy month ahead.
Now where did I put that leave application form ?

Could be a tad more than just a few minutes to your day Buster Cherry.

Makes no difference to me personally. Comes with the territory. I`ll still be enjoying a cold one at 1900hrs. Will make my day a little busier though.(& our friends in France)

Received this today from TUEM (union representing most of the Staff at Maastricht). NB it doesn´t mention who will strike, Admin or Ops Staff.
Maastricht, 02.06.2006
Too many broken promises, going back several years. Incompetent management only interested in furthering own careers at the expense of those actually doing the job. Increase in workload coupled with a reduction in salary for ATC Staff. My ex-employers make John Prescott look good.:ugh:


See you all on the picket line

Operations .

Thanks for the heads up !
If you guys think that action is what is required, then i will happily put 10 mins on my flight time to make sure that we have "on the ball " and rested controllers on the ground .
Perhaps the complaints from the airlines over extra fuel burnt , and missed shedules will kick your management into honouring the deals they have agreed !!!
(we can but live in hope!)
If action is necessary then i say " go for it " :ok: :ok: :ok:

To the People of the Great Uprising,
So you are striking a blow for justice. Well done
First - How about telling the truth. You have NOT had a salary reduction. It has been frozen, big difference, your spending power has been reduced, you still receive the same amount of cash. If you want to experience a pay cut, get out of your civil service cocoon and join an airline (they are the people you are harming by your action). You might get in in time for the next round of cuts.
Second - Where is this union to represent you and your bitches? Has the management got them in their pocket, or is it too weak to fight for you.
Third - Are you so simple that you allow all your grievances to keep accumulating. Don't you know that management will keep turning the screw to get the most for their buck, sorry Euro. Of course they are looking after themselves, you do not of course. You now think for three and a half hours you have won, Don't you believe it, management doesn't just get even - they will beat you. At the end of the day they will still be management and you will still be the peasant.
Fourth - Don't try to gain support with your insincere apologies. If they were meant, you wouldn't affect people who can do nothing for you, and you only antagonise by your actions - I am one. We provide for your very generous livelihood.

Blank EFIS
Pls get your facts straight. The only way you will have a tired controller at MST is their own doing. Duty rosters are such that the rest periods are sufficient, that is if they were worked in full. So save yor sympathy for the pax and your colleagues who have been disrupted.

CaptainO'n'G , Post number 1 , I see , I suspect you are a Euro "manager" . QED . If I compare my salary for 2005 against 2004 I earned e2816,81 LESS in 2005 - I have just checked my official Eurocontrol annual salary returns used for tax purposes . If you give me your office number I will bring the paperwork and prove it to you . The truth is now out .

Captain O´n´G too many g´n´t, I think. As Zed3 said, probably a middle manager Your attitude is the one that caused the situation. Don´t forget that the very existance of Maastricht UAC has been threatened by experts in the past, but it´s still here.
There is a real reduction in salary. pension and sickness contributions have increased. Actual hours worked have increased ( Yes, I know we had it easy in the past, but we are not afforded the luxury of swanning off for a cup of coffeee and a quiet smoke whenever we feel like it, nor can we postpone our decisions until next week like management do - again, part of the reason the mess arose).
Insincere apologies? When was the last time Euro went on strike? NEVER. You are probably too young to remember the last action, a training stop, which only had an internal effect, but led to a complete cave in by management.
All avenues have been exhausted by TUEM, unfortunately most management representatives couldn´t lie straight in bed. Every time action has been threatened in the past promises to speed up the dialogue were made by them, only for these promises to be `forgotten` as soon as the proposed action was cancelled.
I would say `wake up and smell the coffee´ but I think that you may have already drunk too much.

Blank EFIS look at your charts, the size and location of the Maastricht UIR probably means more than an extra 10 minutes to fly round it unfortunately

BTW, O´n´ G, just in case you don´t know who I am, 3FO, retired DECO Supervisor, Training Officer and member of the New ODS Development Group.

My opinion from my perspective, for what it’s worth, is that there's much much more involved than simply money (and the Captain knows it). For years there has been an array of issues on the table and management have persistently played a game of “talk-and-delay”, reaching agreement with the unions after unnecessarily protracted negotiations and then renegading on them at the last minute. It's been going on for so long that finally the affected staff have snapped. I know that the decision to take industrial action has not been taken lightly and is very much regretted. But when all other avenues have been well and truly exhausted it becomes the last possible course of action, albeit not a pleasant one. Arguably a competent management could have avoided this, not by giving in to all demands, but by reaching a good compromise and then, and this is key to the issue here, honouring and implementing their side of the deal. They have almost systematically avoided doing this by hiding behind a maze of political manoeuvring and skullduggery, whilst treating the staff with disrespect and contempt. No wonder we have reached this very sad state of affairs. Maastricht Control’s excellent reputation hangs in the balance, but please don’t blame the controllers.

There are rumours that German ATC is also going out the same day. Can anyone confirm?

CaptainO'n'G seeing as though you are so "well informed" you will also know that the union asked management to clarify the situation regarding industrial action. The union and the controllers wanted a series of steps to be made ( such as a training stop, work to rule etc ) thus being able to make a point without affecting the customers in the beginning.
Management declared that these steps were illegal and that the only course of action is to strike!!! They believed that we would never do this but as always they have completely misjudged or ignored the feelings of staff. So management has brought this action to a head themselves.
With over 4000 flights through our airspace daily and capacity reduced to around about a 10th of the norm for the period of the action I am sure that it will be noticed by everyone. Ironically once the action is over we will hve to work our arses off for the rest of the day to cope with the demand our actions will have created ! However we will be more than happy to do this as we believe we have to make our feelings known.

Don't undersell us Millerman :) , it's more along the lines of 4500 flights per day. We recently broke the record with 4528. And let's not forget that approx 4350 of these are in an 18 hour period.

Maastricht UAC handled 4217 flights today.
0630- 1000 last Friday you handled 1152 flights
Latest word is that the strike may be extended to 2300, that would affect over 4000 flights.

If Maastricht reduce to 3 sectors per UAC with standard capacities delays will be around 22, 000 minutes before re-routeing and level capping.
If the strike is extended with the same criteria to 2300, delays will exceed 316,000 minutes (without counting recovery regulations afterwards).

Flowman.excuse me for asking how did you come up with those figures?
I have a degree in mathematics but wouldn't know where to start working that out.Quite impressive.
One thing for sure, you are correct in suggesting it would be one heck of a day in delay.

Computerised predictions by CFMU tools.

Yes, as Avman says. We've got a bloody great machine that does all that. We can simulate a given ACC configuration and input appropriate capacities onto known traffic demand.
The answer in this case = enormous delays

..... and why ? because Maastricht has always had the capacity and willingness to accept any extra traffic , which could not go via France for example . Management always encouraged this and up went the traffic figures making it the most efficient centre in Europe . Flexibility , efficiency and safety is the name of the game ..... up to a certain point .

What has not been mentioned so far is that FFPE (the union representing IFPU staff and some FMD controllers) has also issued a notice to strike to Eurocontrol management. If the two strikes co-incide it will be absolute mayhem.
Expect the world cup to be a clue as to exact timings.:(

Aaah , the second front !

No Strike in Germany
 

This is negative! German ATC will definitely not go on strike at the same day. (Maybe just working "according to the book" would be sufficient to support our colleagues from Maastricht!?) Don´t expect german controllers to work harder to compensate for any UAC-DLA!

www.gdf.de is still in the negotiation-process with DFS-Management.

Expect Strike earliest at the end of June.

If Maastricht reckon they have to strike, then so be it!
As a customer of Maastricht (80 % of my flts go through Maastricht) I have nothing but respect for the service they provide. They are extremly helpfull, flexible and willing to do what ever is nececssary. Without the Maastricht ops room we would realy be up the creek.

Brgds EB
(German carrier with 3 letters)

To Captain numb nuts, wonderful literary piece, worthy of most politicians... me thinks it's too late... yep..... too late.... the whole of your head has disappeared up your 'nether regions' . I have heard that if you say things often enough, no matter the subject you start believing them to be true, no?

Anyway let's discuss management... Just look at the promotions made over the past 18 months? Some of them truly astounding! And by that I mean bad... A few words spring to mind.....incompetent, indecisive, lack of man-management abilities, and normally useless at their former primary job. "Captain" (oh dear... delusions of grandeur??) I don't doubt for a second that you fit one of the above, or maybe you are a loyal "golfer"? :D

Many thanks for your support and kind compliments Eurobrit. Your post has done the rounds in the Maastricht Ops Room.

It's very sad to see you Maastricht folks have to go down the industrial action road! I do however FULLY support your actions as they are the sad result of continued failure of your management in their dealings/treatment of yourselves.

You are not a militant unit, your record and industry reputation is up there with the best of ACC's. I know such a group of professional folk won't have taken this decision either lightly, or with any joy......

The charter industry will be severly disrupted by your action, unlike schedules we can't just cancel flights. The whole of this coming weekend will be a nightmare, and I along with many others will probably have their whole weekends worth of work and leisure time turned upside down as a result:(
If my flight is running say 6 hours late - my working day/night will run 6 hours late also......... not fun be assured.

This aside, again I state I fully support your action - I hope your management take note and realise that user support and sympathy is with the front line staff, not with them.

30W
(UK Charter Airline Capt)

and its a "here here" from a north-west england flight ops. (east of liverpool)

From a thread in Jet Blast, unfortunately it sums up management's attitude
:ugh:

Nice to see the gestures of support from the airline industry
The decision to strike was not taken lightly The staff at Maastricht have always tried to go the extra mile for our customers. One of the first lessons drummed into trainees was, "We're down here because they're up there; not the other way around."

Exactly Lon ..... and the management's attitude is that Ops is there because management is there ! The beatings will continue until morale improves .

Flowman,

The public viewable sections of the CFMU website seem to carry no news of this action as yet. Have all operators been informed? What is the CFMU's contingency advise to carriers regarding re-routing etc?

Seems it's all going to be last minute panic, with no one grabbing this issue by the horns at an early stage.

Hope I'm wrong!!

30W

Having watched this thread develope over the past few days, I'd like to thank both Eurobrit and 30W for their words of support. It's heartening to know that our normal level of service is both noted and appreciated. I hope this coming Friday doesn't prove too arduous for either of you but, you can rest assured, if you are flying after the flood gates open again, we'll be working our nuts off to get the show back on the road and you guys home again, as quickly as we can. Thanks again for your support.

30W
There is an AIM under construction by management, I don't think it will tell you anything you don't know already.
The strike will be dealt with as any other strike: measures will be applied pre-tactically based on the information available at day minus one. Re-routeing advice will be given on the same basis.
The situation is developing all the time so to publish information too early would be counter productive. For example up until a few minutes ago it was thought that IFPU would be going on stike on the same day. That has now been changed to the 15th.
The Maastricht union also expects a degree of solidarity from neighbouring ACCs so any re-routeing advice issued without consideration of that would also be less than helpful.
It's not a case of last minute panic, more a case of wait and see and deal with it like any other strike.

Good Luck - I feel you may need it.

TT