Region 10 Member Update | 1 April 2025
| Brothers & Sisters of Region 10: The last couple of weeks has been hectic, but very exciting for our Region. NATCA in Washington (NiW) was held the week of March 24th, where over 400 members of our NATCA Family, from all our Regions, charged the Hill and met with leaders in both Houses of Congress. This year our NATCAVISTs were asked to tell our stories and share how the work we do as aviation safety professionals impacts the safety and operations of the National Airspace System, giving Region 10 the unique opportunity to frame this year’s ask – staffing – within our individual bargaining units. We all believe that this NiW was a huge success and must give many thanks and recognition to our NRX National Legislative Committee member Jason Holland for all his hard work in helping make this year’s NiW the most successful in many years! Thank you, Jason! By now most of you are aware there is a second wave of the Deferred Resignation Program (DRP). As you also should be aware, all federal agencies were required to submit a plan on how they can reduce their workforce. The recent DRP is the latest attempt to reduce numbers through a voluntary process. Compared to the initial wave of DRP emails, there is much more clarity to what is being offered: the offer comes from the DOT and all the pertinent information can be found on the FAA web site. NATCA was not included in any discussions relating to the second wave of DRP emails, and we still do not have any information on any other plans to reduce the workforce. NATCA has sent an Article 7 briefing request to understand how the DRP may impact members’ pay, benefits, retirement calculations, etc. NATCA cannot recommend or discourage anyone from participating in this program. This is a personal choice. If it works for you, do your research and make the right decision for you, your family, and loved ones. NATCA is still waiting for information and the briefing for what the return to office will look like for those members on a Reasonable Accommodation (RA), Remote Work status, or individuals where suitable space is unavailable. The original briefing was scheduled to occur April 7th, but has been moved back to April 14th. As with the change in briefing date, there should likewise be no expectation of these members to return to the office until after April 14th. If you fall into one of the above categories, and have been instructed otherwise, please reach out to your representative for assistance. For those members who have submitted RA documentation and are awaiting a response from the Agency, we are aware of a significant delay due to a backlog, and of course inadequate staffing, to complete RA requests in a timely manner. Please continue to work with your manager to get updates on where your request is and when you can expect a decision. This week some of our members in AIT had their dues withholdings changed by the Agency. In addition to requesting an Article 7 briefing on this situation, we were notified of the general circumstances surrounding this issue. NATCA sent a message to the affected members with additional information on what is being done. NATCA is also taking steps to ensure that these members will still be able to remain current with their dues, as well as exploring other options to prevent this from happening in the future and make the dues paying process as painless as possible. Regarding these options, we want to make sure that if this begins to affect other members from other bargaining units, we will be prepared to have them move to another system of dues collection as quickly and easily as possible. As we continue to move forward, we need to recognize that the Agency is often learning about many of these issues shortly before we learn of them. The direction and intent of many of these policies, as we well know, is coming from outside the FAA. We engage early and often with the Agency to get a better understanding of what is being done and how to best remain collaborative and work together to accomplish the mission in these challenging times. As we are seeing, often the time between notification and our ability to collaborate effectively before new policies are rolled out is very short. Just know that we are all working very hard to stay in front of what is being done and when we get more information that needs dissemination, we are sharing it. Our collective voices are being heard. Please continue to communicate with your representatives and share your concerns so that we can stay on top of the issues and work to resolve them as quickly as possible. Try to tune in every Sunday to get the NATCA National Update from President Nick Daniels. The invitations should be in your email weekly. Finally, thank you for all that you do for our Union each and every day. Staying strong, in solidarity and being the most professional aviation safety employees in the world. Stay engaged, continue to support one another, and remain united! In Solidarity, Mark Rausch, RVP NATCA Region 10 Region X National Contact Information Region X National Leadership Mark Rausch Regional Vice President Bob Aitken Alternate Regional Vice President Nicole Wysong Alternate Regional Vice President Allen Casey Alternate Regional Vice President Gwendolyn Kimbrough AFN National Representative Felicia Reeves Airports National Representative Patrick Massie Aircraft Certification National Representative Karyl Schaeffer AIT National Representative Freidy Lazala Drug Abatement National Representative Ralph Pagington Field Automation Support Team (FAST) Kevin Hammond Operations Support Facilities (OSF) Team Region X National Committee Representative Don Schmeichel – National Safety Committee Bob Aitken – National Training Committee Lisen Minetti – National Communications Committee Freidy Lazala – National Drug & Alcohol Committee Samantha Giberson – National Safety Committee Mike Martin – National Constitution Committee Anthony Barksdale – National Organizing Committee Jefferson MacDonald – National Organizing Committee Homer Benavides – National OSHA Committee Quang Nguyen – National Benefits Committee Don Schmeichel – National Historical Committee Jason Holland – National Legislative Committee Dawn Forde – National Legislative Committee Corey Glaze – National Pay Team & Collaboration Facilitator Ed Szczuka – Finance Committee, Onboarding Corey Glaze – Finance Committee (Mentee) Allen Strah – IT and Regional Communications Homer Benavides – National OWCP Committee Brittan Smith – Union Synergy Committee Nicole Wysong – National Reloaded Committee |
