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8 agree to meet at a mutually agreeable time and place. Section 7. At any meeting called by the Employer, the Union participants called by the Employer to attend shall be in a duty status. Section 8. Upon advance coordination, any Union official and/or designee shall be permitted to visit the Employer's air traffic control towers where NATCA is the exclusive representative to perform representational duties. Visits for other purposes shall also be subject to advance coordination. Section 9. Staffing permitting, the Facility Representative and/or designee shall be granted annual leave, leave without pay (LWOP), or any combination thereof, at their option, to attend Union activities provided overtime is not required to backfill behind LWOP. Vacation leave takes precedence over LWOP. LWOP provisions for employees elected or appointed to national or regional union offices are defined in article 3. Section 10. The Facility Representative or designee shall be allowed up to 30 minutes for orientation of new bargaining unit employees to explain the role and responsibilities of the Union. Section 11. Staffing permitting, with prior management approval, each Facility Representative shall, on request, be granted duty time to perform representational duties within the facility. Section 12. The Employer recognizes the right of a duly recognized Union representative to express the views of the Union, provided those views are identified as Union views. Section 13. The parties recognize that the individually certified towers constitute a merged unit for the purposes of collective bargaining. ARTICLE 3 RIGHTS OF UNION OFFICIALS Section 1. An employee who is elected or appointed to serve as a national or regional official representative of the Union shall be granted, upon request, leave without pay (LWOP) concurrent with the elected term of office or appointment. Each request by an employee for such LWOP shall be for a specified period and shall be certified by the national office of the Union. The Union at the national level will give a minimum of 30 days notice to the Employer at the corporate level. Section 2. Upon completion of a period of LWOP granted under Section 1 of this Article, the Union official shall be returned to duty at the facility to which the employee was assigned prior to assuming LWOP status if a position is available. If the employee is unable to return to his/her original facility the parties at the National and Corporate level will determine an appropriate return to duty location where a vacancy exists.

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