NATCA Bookshelf

THE DELEGATE WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2016 11 NATCA SENIORITY 2004 2006 2008 2008 2009 2010 At the NATCA Convention in St. Louis, the By-Laws are restructured and the former By-Laws become either (1) Standing Rules, or (2) Policy & Position Statements. Section A of the 2002 By-Laws becomes Section A of the Standing Rules. ✪ The Convention delegates approve an amendment to make "Cumulative NATCA Bargaining Unit Time" the primary basis for seniority and to use "NATCA Bargaining Unit Time" as the first tie-breaker, "EOD/FAA" as the second tie breaker, "SCD" as the third tie-breaker, and "lottery...determined at the local level" as the fourth tie-breaker. ✪ "Cumulative NATCA Bargaining Unit Time" is defined as "totaling all time together spent in each of the NATCA bargaining units and "NATCA Bargaining Unit Time" is redefined as "the total time in a given bargaining unit represented by NATCA and as defined by the FLRA petition for representation of that unit." ✪ Upon the conclusion of Convention, the NATCA National Office issues nine pages of guidance on implementation of the seniority changes enacted by the delegates. At the NATCA Convention in Boston, the criteria of the national seniority policy are moved from NATCA Standing Rule A-3 into the NATCA Constitution as Article XV. ✪ The provisions on the establishment of the national seniority policy at Convention, the role of seniority in leave bidding, and the National Office's responsibility for administering the national seniority policy and maintaining a national seniority list are renumbered as Standing Rules A1, A2, and A3. NATCA President Pat Forrey issues seniority guidance as part of the assimilation of the flight service unit. The guidance provides that only time spent as a flight service employee at a flight service facility in Alaska, as opposed to flight service facilities in other parts of the country, will count toward NATCA seniority dates. The guidance recognizes that: "NATCA's consistent practice has been to credit toward seniority time spent as a unit employee only at those facilities represented by NATCA (regardless of the effective date of that representation)." ✪ The guidance acknowledges that the same practice has been applied for bargaining unit employees at Department of Defense facilities represented by NATCA and Federal Contract Tower Program facilities represented by NATCA. At the NATCA Convention in Miami, the Convention delegates adopt a new Section 2 to Article VX to provide that re-employed annuitant NATCA bargaining unit employees shall have their initial seniority date adjusted to reflect the date they rehire into any FAA NATCA bargaining unit. ✪ The Convention delegates also adopt a new Section 3 to Article XV which provides that any bargaining unit member who accepted a supervisor or management job after June 6, 2006, and returns to the bargaining unit thereafter would have a cumulative seniority date set to his or her return date. This new Section 3 is largely in response to defections from the air traffic controller unit into management during a period of extreme labor unrest within the FAA over the FAA's decision to unilaterally impose non-negotiated work rules on NATCA bargaining units. Numerous unfair labor practice charges alleging a breach of the duty of fair representation are subsequently filed over the adoption of Section 3. On October 1, a new collective bargaining agreement between NATCA and the FAA for the air traffic controller unit replaces the work rules unilaterally imposed by the FAA in 2006. This new agreement also covers the traffic management coordinator/ specialist and the NOTAM specialist units. ✪ Article 83 of the agreement continues to provide that "[s]eniority will be determined by the Union." A new section in Article 83 provides that "[t]he Union may only change seniority one (1) time during the life of this Agreement." ✪ The new agreement also contains a provision in Article 108 (the pay article that had gone to binding arbitration) which creates an exception to NATCA's national seniority policy. The exception provides that bargaining unit employees who return to the unit from a temporary (but not permanent) promotion will have their seniority "reinstated as though the employee had never left the bargaining unit position previously assigned without accruing seniority for the duration of the temporary promotion." This exception imposed by the binding arbitration process is only applicable to employees in the air traffic controller, traffic management coordinator/specialist, and NOTAM units. In all other NATCA-represented units of FAA employees, individuals returning from temporary promotions that were commenced after June 6, 2006, continue to have their seniority date set to the date they return to the unit (in the same manner as all FAA unit employees returning from permanent promotions). At the NATCA Convention in Honolulu, the Convention delegates delete Standing Rule A-1 as unnecessary because the criteria for the national seniority policy had become Article XV of the NATCA Constitution in 2006, and the constitutional requirement that the NATCA Constitution can only be amended by the Convention delegates negates the need for the statement that "[t] he national seniority shall be established by the Convention." The seniority policy remains otherwise unchanged. continued on next page continued

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