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National
Legislative Committee
4th QTR Meeting
Portland,
Maine
October 4-6, 1999
Present:
Alan Clendenin, Richard Ulmes, Randy Weiland, David Benedetto, David
Caldwell, Bernie Campau, Dustin Miller, Steve Fletcher and John
Fitzgerald.
Absent:
Chris Boughn, National Legislative Department
NLC/NEB/National
Leg. Dept.
Bernie
briefed on presentation to NEB at 4th QTR meeting in Alaska.
The
NLC will meet prior to end of year in DC to discuss the solutions with the
National Legislative Dept. Arrive
either evening of October 31 or morning of November 1; depart either
evening of November 3 or morning of November 4.
Meeting Monday, November 1 thru Wednesday, November 3.
Nomination
and election of NLC Chair
Randy
made motion to nominate and elect Alan Clendenin as NLC chair, John
seconded, motion passed unanimously. Alan Clendenin will be NLC chair from
January 1, 2000 thru December 31, 2001.
The
Committee recognized Alan for his hard work and dedication as chair of the
National Legislative Committee for the last two years with the
presentation of a plaque and gift certificate.
October
5, 1999
NATCA National Legislative Committee review of FY2000 Transportation Appropriations Conference Report
In reviewing the language of the conference report on
the FY
2000 Transportation Appropriations Bill the National Legislative Committee
sought to accomplish two goals. First,
to determine the effects of each pertinent section of the bill on
NATCA’s members and second, to objectively evaluate the effectiveness of
NATCA’s efforts to influence the language of the bill as it passed
through the legislative processes.
Finally, the NLC has included a narrative summary of
how we feel the report effects us in its entirety. This summary lists several potentialities of which the
language of the bill provides and from which, the NLC feels, NATCA must
take action to protect itself.
The following is the analysis of pertinent sections
and the NLC’s evaluation of NATCA’s efforts on each.
FAA Funding: All
funding is to be derived from the Airport And Airway Trust fund as
proposed by the Senate and included in the House reported bill. We will no
longer receive General Fund money to fund the Agency; potentially this
could be another step toward privatization.
[…] Indicates conference report language.
Contract Tower Program: [The conferees understand the draft report indicates that
annual savings of $30,000,000 to 50,000,000 are achievable except for a
provision in the current labor agreement, which requires the agency to
employ a minimum level of 15,000 government air traffic controllers. The
DOT Inspector General reported, “FAA has a responsibility to operate in
a cost effective manner. By concluding that no net savings related to
further expanding the contract tower program will occur, FAA is denying
itself and opportunity to reduce operations costs and/or offset potential
cost increases. ..FAA
should revise the [draft] study’s conclusions and recognize the
substantial savings that expanding the federal contract tower program
offers”. The DOT Inspector General is requested to review the
feasibility and benefits of expanding the contract tower program,
notwithstanding the current minimum staffing agreement, and report to the
Congress no later than March 1, 2000.]
The conferees were given to believe that expanding
the Contract Tower Program could save $30-50 million, but that the agency
cannot realize those savings because of the Collective Bargaining
Agreement minimum staffing level of 15,000 controllers.
The conferees request the Inspector General review the feasibility
and benefits of expanding the Contract Tower Program. The Inspector General has already stated publicly that there
are substantial savings in expanding the contract program.
The National Legislative Committee feels the previous public
statement by the Inspector General will carry over into the report due to
Congress by March 1, 2000 and will provide a strong catalyst for the
expansion of the Contract Tower Program. Should this occur, there could be
a potential reduction of bargaining unit positions from the negotiated
15,000 staffing level.
Controller-in-charge: [The conference agreement accepts the position of the House
reported bill that further transition to the controller-in-charge (CIC)
concept, as included in last year’s labor agreement with the National
Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), shall be deferred during
fiscal year 2000.]
NATCA’s legislative position was to strike the house language in
its entirety. The conferee’s not only adopted the house language but
also expanded upon it. The
National Legislative Committee’s position is that the adoption of this
language is a threat to the entire collective bargain process now and in
the future.
OSI/QSI: [Last
year’s NATCA agreement eliminated within-grade-to-grade increases for
bargaining unit employees and replaced them with performance-based
increases such as an “organizational success increase” (OSI) and a
“quality step increase” (QSI), to be developed as part of the
agency’s core compensation plan. However, since the agency has reached
no agreement on how to implement the new performance increases, they have
informally agreed to distribute these funds on a formula basis. This takes
a step backward from performance-based compensation by replacing an
experience-based increase with an automatic general increase.]
The conferees disapproved
the funding of the annual 1.6% (.8% OSI and .8% QSI) until such time that
the Agency and NATCA come to agreement on and implement a system for
performance increases. They
have stated that without such an agreement, the annual 1.6% is little more
than an “automatic general increase”, which the conferees oppose.
Oceanic: [The
funding provided is FAA’s estimate of the amount required to execute
this program in fiscal year 2000. The conferees would reconsider a lease
for this program only if the agency puts forward a plan to cover in the
lease the entire operation of these facilities, including air traffic
control operations.]
It is the position of the National Legislative
Committee that the oceanic facilities are still in jeopardy of being
contracted under the language adopted by the conferees.
The National Legislative Committee believes that this
language is a significant step in the continuing privatization of air
traffic services.
Interim incentive pay:.
NATCA was successful in restoring $12,190,000 for IIP.
Conclusion
It is the unanimous opinion of the National Legislative Committee that the FY2000 Transportation Appropriations Bill, in it’s particulars and in it’s entirety, holds very real and negative potential for NATCA’s membership and the gains we achieved in the last collective bargaining agreement.
In the section of the conference report dealing with
Within-grade increases/Grade-to-grade increases, the conferees have shown
a willingness to step between the parties of a negotiated agreement.
The conferees state their disapproval of the initial payout of
OSI’s and QSI’s (the August increase totaling 1.6%), labeling them an
“automatic general increase”, rather than the performance-based
increases they were designed to be. While
it is unclear whether FAA would continue future OSI/QSI payments without
Congressional approval, the NLC feels that FAA could be forced into a
position to find cost-saving measures elsewhere if it were to continue OSI/QSI
payouts without specific Congressional funding.
Speaking to the issue of Controller-in-Charge, the conferees deferred, during FY2000, the transition to the controller-in-charge concept as defined by the collective bargaining agreement. A delay in implementing these changes prevents FAA from proceeding to the agreed-upon 10:1 controller to supervisor ratio and in so doing they deny FAA the ability to realize the cost-savings associated with this section of the agreement. FAA will now be forced to absorb these costs and, potentially, look for cost savings in other areas.
Another potential area for outsourcing of air traffic services comes to light in the section of the report regarding Oceanic automation system. The conferees provide funding and direct FAA to acquire the necessary equipment through traditional acquisition methods rather than through the operating lease requested by FAA. After enumerating FAA’s past acquisition problems and expressing it’s confidence in the current administration of FAA’s ability to avoid similar pitfalls, the conferees leave the door open for future contracting of oceanic services with the statement, “The conferees would reconsider a lease for this program only if the agency puts forward a plan to cover in the lease the entire operation of these facilities, including air traffic control operations.” The NLC feels that the conferees have given FAA a very wide berth to handle the issue of oceanic operations and in doing so have given pre-approval to the consideration of outsourcing oceanic automation, so long as the proposal includes the outsourcing of air traffic services.
The section of the conference report regarding Air Traffic Management shows the conferees willingness to entertain the idea of privatizing the traffic management function of the FAA. While the conference language regarding an independent analysis of this idea by the National Academy of Sciences seems innocuous, their deferral of “significant investment in upgrading the traffic management system” during FY2000 could skew the results of this analysis. Should the traffic management function of the FAA be contracted to the private sector, two potential problems for NATCA could be created. It could require that those FAA employees currently staffing the traffic management functions be returned to the bargaining unit, thereby effecting NATCA’s negotiated staffing agreement. Perhaps more importantly, it could place private sector employees, whose job it would be to directly impact the flow of air traffic throughout the nation, within feet of their federal government counterparts.
The NLC feels that each of the five issues listed above has the potential to raise areas of concern for the bargaining unit. But, collectively, they could pose a problem not specifically stated in the language of the report. That is this, if FAA is continually placed in a position where it cannot meet it’s air traffic obligations due to the restrictions placed on it by Congress then it should follow logically that the air traffic functions of FAA would be considered a prime target for sale to or acquisition by the private sector. Having seen the effects of privatization in Canada and several countries in Europe the NLC feels it should be NATCA’s position to prevent this type of privatization at all costs.
Regional Meetings
NLC attendance: We discussed the importance of attending regional Facility rep meetings.
2000 convention
Arrive April 23, meet the 24 and 25, reception the 26, convention 27-29, depart the 30th. April 27, Randy Weiland birthday. April 29, David Benedetto birthday.
Pac Pins
Alan presented examples of three different levels of giving for PAC Pins.
PAC Contribution List
The PAC contribution database needs to be updated. There appears to be numerous errors. It was noted that this was an ongoing problem.
PAC raffle
Volunteers were solicited to chair the upcoming PAC raffle during the NATCA convention in April. It was decided to seek two volunteers to gather items for the PAC raffle i.e. airline tickets, hotel rooms, etc. Dave Caldwell will co-chair with Dustin Miller.
NATCA.org
National office has established an email account for everyone on the committee
We also have a legislative list serve – only for our committee. Everyone is to be up and online by end of today.
Alan will be changing all web pages to reflect new email addresses and we need to order new business cards
Regional facility tours
Legislative – have the ability (funding) to go to
facilities and update locals on the legislative issues, coordinated with
the facility legislative reps of each facilities.
Would like to see this a National priority for all regions.
Legislative Committee Visits to DC
Discussed the feasibility of NLC visits to DC for
lobbying purposes.
NLC/DC Education
Per Mike McNally suggestion for more NLC exposure,
discussed budgeting requests for Leave Without Pay for 30-day details to
the Legislative Department.
15:30 David Benedetto departed the meeting.
Dissemination of our review of the Transportation
Appropriations Conference report
The committee decided to disseminate our review of
the Transportation Appropriations Conference report for fiscal year 2000,
to the NEB and then at 9:00 PM October 5,1999 via voice and electronic
format for wide dissemination.
October 6, 1999
PAC Drive
Discussion centered around timing of PAC drive in
light of problems with the Transportation Appropriations Bill for the year
2000.
2000 NLC Budget
Goals: Budget for Joint Regional Committee Meeting,
Campaign Volunteer Training Session:
3 Meetings.
CQ Advanced Legislative Training: 6 Members
Teleconference
Teleconference between Mike McNally, Ken Montoya and
the NLC. We discussed the NLC review of the Transportation Appropriations
Bill.
Meeting Adjourned: 1600 local.
Alan Clendenin
Chairman
National Legislative Committee