The following dates are scheduled for the MW1 Quarterly Chapter telcons. Meeting times are 5:00 EST/ 4:00 CST.
April 13, 2011 July 6, 2011 - week before Convention October 12, 2011 January 11, 2012
The call is toll free at 1-888-296-6500. Members have been emailed the passcode to their passmember email address.
As
a reminder, when you call in you will be placed on hold and you will
hear music. When the meeting starts, the music will stop.
Attendees: Dave Nash, Dave Arb, Joel Dolslager, Tim Mark, Rob Brassfield & Ken Harris Guest: Mark Dunlap - Region I Assistant & National Legislative Committee Chair
Meeting started @ 5:10pm due to some technical difficulties
Mark talked about:
With all the budget cuts looming, National Active and Retired Federal Employees (NARFE.org) calculated changes to our retirement from high 3 to high 5 year. They figured we would lose on average $1,200 each year in retirement pay.
Political Action Committee money is NOT dues money. It's a separate voluntary contribution. Very few members are contributing $25 or more each pay period. It would be much better if we could get a larger number of members to contibute $5 each pay period.
Grass roots lobbying (going to see your elected officials in person) is equivelant to 10 professiional lobbyists making a visit. Engage your elected officials!!
Everyone should have received a call to action email recently. The goal is to have 1,000 PASS members and their friends and families contact their elected officials...PLEASE DO YOUR PART!!!
Dave Nash talked about:
July 2011 convention was held downtown Seattle. Delegates run the business of the union during convention. Changes to the constitution were debated using Roberts Rules of Order. The results of the convention were mailed to each member recently for ratification. Some of the guest speakers at the convention were FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt, Flight Standards Director John Allen, ATO Director Teri Bristol. Check out the chapter web site (mw1pass.org) for video of John Allen under the convention tab.
Other Roberts Rules of Order and convention business videos coming soon.
Tim Mark will be attending the December PASS Representative training in Baltimore, MD.
Ken Harris talked about:
Attending OKC new hire evening social. Everyone is encouraged to attend these events. They are hosted by Region II Vice President Dave Spero and our National Organizer Carol Bolay. It's a great environment for all PASS members to get together!
Currently in DC for contract negotiations. It isn't a good practice to talk about specifics of the contract during the process. The negotiations are being conducted under the Interest Based Bargaining (IBB) process. That means neither party is coming to the table with solutions but rather, they are working together to come to an understnding or the issue first. After the issue is understood by both sides it is discussed openly and a mutual solution to the each parties interest is worked out. The negotiations are going well.
A joint union/mgmt pay team has been formed. The team developed job descriptions and duties and responsibilities were agreed upon. Wage surveys were sent out using a 3rd party company. The survey data should be finalized soon.
Many field managers are talking about reducing the 6,100 technical workforce to 3,500. PASS has not heard that at the bargaining table to date. That is not to say that mgmt is not going to propose a cut in staffing, but rather, it has not been talked about - YET!
All members that dialed in were asked to got to Imagepoint.com to pick out a shirt, hat or cup and get back to Ken with their selection. Ken's email address is radarlove101@comcast.net .
Meeting adjourned @ 6:00pm EST.
Attendees: In Romulus – Pete Van Brussel, Gil Alfaro & Ken Harris On the phone – David Nash, Jim Comerford, Mark Dunlap, Luke Drake & Mike Perrone
In Milwaukee – Bill McCollum, Melissa Hodik, Chris Stock, Bob Baker, Frank Humpal, Mike Kulba, Tom & John Sherrick On the phone – David Nash, Rob Brassfield, Steve Wold, Rick Walmer & Ken Harris
Presidential pay freeze information received from PASS National broadcast message – PASS/FAA (Tech Ops) pay system: · The portion of the Organizational Success Increase (OSI) that is funded from money that would previously have been spent on within-grade and quality step increases (1% of those funds) should still be paid. The portion of the Organizational Success Increase (OSI) that is funded from money that would previously have been spent on the annual Presidential increase will not be paid. This means a total increase of 1% for OSI for 2011 and 2012 should be paid. · The portion of the Superior Contribution Increase (SCI) that is funded from money that would previously have been spent on within-grade and quality step increases (an amount equal to 0.6% of those funds forms a pool that is divided among the employees who are eligible for an SCI increase) should still be paid. This means that any employee eligible for an SCI increase should be paid.
Contract: Pay – Employees hired before 2000 had a minimum of a 5% pay raise per Appendix V of the 2000 contract: 2000 - No pay adjustment ($500 bonus for non-technical employees) 2001 - 0.5%, 2002 - 0.5%, 2003 - 1.5%, 2004 - 3.0% For the most part, post 2000 hired employees did not negotiate their starting salary. Employees hired after 2005 have not seen a contractual pay raise. Additionally, mgmt has only adjusted the pay bands one time since 2000. Band adjustments have always been left up to the FAA Administrator. Most mgr’s are not putting any effort into bridging the pay gap. They use the excuse “Only 2% of the workforce can receive a pay adjustment each year so I’m not going to waste my time trying!” All the while, post 2000 hired employees see the GS pay scale catching up to their FAA Specialized pay scale. The post 2000 hired employees don’t blame the pay gap on their mgr being lazy and inconsiderate of their pay. Instead, they blame PASS. The pay disparity issue is two-fold. Post 2000 hires believe they are doing the same work as the “old timers” and deserve similar pay. There are rumors floating around where post 2000 hires are making $40,000 less than the “old timers” they work with everyday. They say “I’ll never make the same money the “old timers” make.” The “old timers” (with 15 or more year’s seniority) for the most part are content with their pay. They empathize with the “new hires” but blame them for not negotiating their starting salary and not pushing their mgr to give them an increase within the band. Here is a brief history of the pay raises since 2000. 2000 - 2004 2005 - 2010 2011 - 2012 2012 - ?? 5% ATRA (rolled into base) Presidential raise + 5% over life of contract +OSI & SCI Presidential raise + OSI & SCI Presidential freeze ONLY PASS contract raise (OSI & SCI) Contractually required pay raises
The majority of the current dues payers are “old timers”. I have not verified this but have heard that nationwide post 2000 hire membership is low - mainly because of the pay disparity issue. The post 2000 hires need to significantly increase their membership numbers in order to have the voice and the votes to ratify a pay system that takes their issues into consideration.
Negotiations - Mike Derby (PASS Council) is discussing ground rules, timeline, impasse panel, non-ratification, etc... with mgmt. It’s been a slow process so Tom Brantley (PASS President) has been talking to Randy Babbitt (FAA Administrator). Tom Brantley and Terry Bristol (ATO Director) have agreed to use an Interest Based Bargaining process for this negotiations. If you want to provide the negotiating team some guidance please visit passnational.org. An area has been set up under the “Members Only” tab. Go to “ATO contract”.
Joint Leadership Team – Composed of PASS Executive Board Tech Ops members and FAA Tech Ops mgmt team. They have been meeting for a while. Planning a meeting in Atlanta to discuss their processes and brief the District mgrs & PASS reps. The process is centered on Pre-decisional Involvement (PDI). They are looking for more open communications and collaboration between PASS & mgmt at all levels of the organization. Some recent examples of success are the rollback of Article 41 Section 4 (in lieu of holiday), liaisons opening up for major FAA initiatives and the Safety Stand-down.
National Organizer – Discussed the recent selection of a PASS Organizer (Carol Bolay). An Organizer will bring coordinated, consistent and organized effort to building out membership. Every union has an Organizer on their staff. Some concern as to the starting salary, how does the position fit into the organization and who hired the Organizer and who will she report to were brought up. Ken took an action to ask PASS Executive Board for answers to those questions. The response received from Region V Vice President (Bob Abbott) was a reference to the PASS Constitution “Article Thirteen, Section 2 of the Constitution, The National President shall have the authority to hire, to fire, and to set the salaries for all other PASS employees.”
MW1 Chapter Communications – When asked how many members visited the Chapter web site @ passmw1.org, we didn’t get any responses. When asked how many members forwarded their passmember.net email to their personal email, we received a few responses. Other than the quarterly telcons, these are the methods MW1 Chapter leadership has decided to communicate with members. Dave Nash stated “if you need us to develop another method please tell us”…no responses so we will continue to do what we are doing.
PASS Convention – The next convention will be held in Seattle July 11 thru 13, 2011. During convention we discuss the rules that govern the union. Amendments are proposed and there is usually a lot of robust debate. Typically 300 or so members attend the convention. Randy Babbitt, Terry Bristol, members of Congress, etc… spoke. We expect similar guest speakers in Seattle. Next telcon -
This year’s quarterly telcon dates will be posted by David Nash to the passmw1.org web site and sent out via members passmember.net email.
