 Update March 7, 2004 The Agency is still basically continuing on the warpath over contracts, LMR and working conditions. I hope they don’t cry foul about us calling them on these actions and defending our membership. I never understood it when management declared war and then went into a pouty snit when they found themselves actually at war. Oh the nerve of us! With apologies to Sun Tzu, if they choose the warpath I don’t think shock is appropriate on their part when the Union actually engages them in battle. Here are some of the week’s developments; Federal Managers Conference Association The FMCA is what has been reborn from the ashes of the FAA Conference of the FMA. You may recall that their charter was revoked after it was discovered they were operating an illegal PAC operation. Instead of disciplining the folks involved, the FAA turned the other way and even allowed folks to travel on government time to the FMCA convention. Now if that isn’t bad enough, this last week was their equivalent of lobby week with FAA Management types scurrying all over the hill and they have got to one of our own. Sam Graves, a Republican Congressman from the Kansas City area has co-authored a letter with Congressman Shuster of PA that is circulating around for signatures in Congress. The letter demands that the FAA hire more Supervisors (good luck getting the funding but we don’t begrudge the FMCA for lobbying for their own folks, we could use more controllers too) but the problem is that their justification used is a claim that operational errors are up because of too few supervisors and the direct failure of the CIC program. Huh? The data certainly does not support that conclusion and this sort of rumor spreading can cause great harm to us. So we are requesting a grassroots campaign in this region. Congressman Graves has been supportive of us in the past by writing letters against privatization as well as being extremely gracious with his time for tours and local issues and we have responded by supported him with PAC funds.. Unfortunately he is also a major recipient of PAC funds from the FMCA and has been lead astray on this issue. I know the Sam would regret his signature on something that was false so we are asking all members in the Central Region to please call, e-mail and/or fax Congressman Graves. Explain how the CIC program works; tell him about the CIC program at your facility, about controller staffing shortages and upcoming retirement problems. There should be an email alert shortly to those of you on the grassroots action list. Please click a few links and send the letter. In the meantime, Congressman Graves can be contacted at; In district:
816-792-3976 0r 816-233-9818 Pay Raise The President finally decided to sign the executive order last Friday authorizing the remainder of our pay raise for this year. After inexplicably waiting a month and a half over what seemed to be sour grapes about losing on this issue (he only wanted us to get a 2% raise) the question now is when will we see it? I have certainly never been able to figure out payroll’s operation (or lack thereof) but past experience would suggest several months, hopefully just in time for…[warning!..shameless plug follows]… the NATCA Central Region float trip the weekend after Fathers Day. Expect your backpay without interest and keep an eye on your differentials, premiums and overtime adjustments which usually seem to be the toughest challenges for payroll to get right. Future Pay Raises The President has already fired the first salvo for next year by requesting a paltry 1.5% for us while again requesting a higher amount of 3.5% for the military. Additionally the Administration, as I reported last week, is attempting to introduce legislative hurtles to keep congress from implementing pay parity as they have done with every budget since Bush took office. This issue extends beyond the FAA to the whole Government, but we have many friends on both sides of the aisle who feel the Presidents intent is wrong. Here is an article on that. Key Committees Back Pay Parity Federal employees should receive the same raise in January 2005 as uniformed military personnel, the two congressional committees with primary jurisdiction over federal employee issues have said. The panels, the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee and the House Government Reform Committee, expressed that view in letters to the Senate and House Budget Committees, which soon will write a first draft of the fiscal 2005 federal budget. "For 16 of the last 18 years, Congress has enacted pay parity for employees in both the federal civilian and military sectors. I will continue to support equal adjustments in the compensation of members of the uniformed services and of federal civilian employees, regardless of their pay and classification system, and urge you to provide for pay parity in the budget for FY 2005," Governmental Affairs Committee chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, wrote. President Bush has recommended a 3.5 percent January 2005 raise for the military and 1.5 percent for federal employees. |
