FTI FAILURE PROMPTS CONGRESSIONAL INTEREST

On Thursday, flights were delayed nationwide due to an outage of the Federal Telecommunications Infrastructure (FTI), a system privately owned and operated by Harris Corporation that provides all telecommunications used to transfer critical data used by the FAA for air traffic control. It took Harris Corporation four hours to rectify the problem, which was caused by a corrupt router card, as flight delays continued to mount across the country. The incident elicited concern not only from PASS but also members of Congress regarding the resolution process and Harris Corporation’s inability to coordinate maintenance with the FAA. For more information, click here.

FERS PROVISIONS BECOME LAW

On October 28, President Obama signed the FY 2010 Department of Defense authorization bill into law, which contains a number of valuable provisions for military and civilian federal employees and retirees. The new law provides FERS employees a credit for unused sick leave at the time of retirement. PASS worked diligently with lawmakers to ensure that PASS members and all FAA employees were covered in this important provision. Additionally, the new law phases out cost-of-living allowances and instead extends locality pay to federal employees in Alaska, Hawaii and the U.S. territories. Click here for more legislative news [Active Members Only].

MESSAGE FROM TOM BRANTLEY REGARDING DRAFT EXECUTIVE ORDER ON FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS: CREATING LABOR-MANAGEMENT FORUMS TO IMPROVE DELIVER OF GOVERNMENT SERVICES

Yesterday, I attended a White House meeting with 10 other labor organizations. Administration officials asked each union to take a week to decide whether or not they can support the order. The PASS Executive Board will be discussing the order over the next week and a response will be provided to the Obama administration. We will continue to provide updates on the status of "Partnership" and collective bargaining periodically or as circumstances change  View: [President Brantley's full message] and [Executive Order Draft]

AGREEMENT REACHED ON RETURNING MILITARY PERSONNEL

Since 2001, federal employees returning from active duty military service have had the right to five days of excused absence as part of the transition to their civilian jobs. As part of bargaining in connection with the FAA’s implementation of recent government-wide changes in the policy, PASS discovered that very few bargaining unit employees returning from active duty were aware of their right to excused absence. As such, on behalf of all bargaining unit employees, PASS successfully negotiated for enhanced notification of the right to excused absence through email and the posting of the parties’ Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on the FAA’s website. In addition, the parties agreed to retroactive coverage from 2001 to the present for previous periods of active military duty. Click here to view the MOA.

Obtaining fair contracts for bargaining unit employees that takes into consideration the rights and needs of PASS members has been and will continue to be PASS’s primary focus. For an update on the status of contract negotiations, click on the links below and revisit this section often as PASS will continue to highlight new developments as they occur.

• Flight Standards, AFS-700, AVN and MIDO
• Technical Operations

PASS PRESIDENT TESTIFIES BEFORE CONGRESS

• July 29, 2009: NextGen: Area Navigation (RNAV) and Required Navigation Performance (RNP)
• May 13, 2009:Senate Hearing to Discuss FAA Reauthorization
• March 18, 2009: ATC Modernization and Next Gen
• February 11, 2009: FAA Reauthorization Act of 2009 Video
• More Testimony