PATCO News & Updates

As you hear more and more about “health care reform,” from the news, from your doctors, from your employers, it can become confusing, and you want to be sure you’re making the right decisions for you and your family.

To help you stay informed, we now feature sections that contain a variety of information that you might be interested in.

With all the resources available, and limited time to devote to sifting through it all, we try to put together a good mix of information and resources that can help you move forward in our 21st century health care system.

If you have a topic you want to see posted, or would like to know more about, please contact lyndafpd@aol.com.

WELCOME!

PATCO/AFSCME welcomes

Wrangell, AK
Senior Weather Observers & Weather Observers
employed by

IBEX

Amarillo, TX
Senior Weather Observers & Weather Observers
employed by

ISG

The employees are immediately covered under the terms of the Master Agreement and negotiations regarding all economics will commence immediately.

FAA Contract Tower Awards

The following contractors won the awards to operate PATCO/AFSCME towers for the next 5 years:

Midwest ATC Areas 1 & 3

(These are basically what the contractors had geographically before)

RVA Areas 2 & 4

SERCO Areas 5, 6 & 7

With these awards came notices of contractual reductions of operational hours in some facilities, resulting in air traffic controller layoffs only at the RVA facility. In PATCO/AFSCME towers, layoff procedures must be strictly followed as outlined in the Master Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Agreement Reached for Technicians

at Gabreski Airport in NY

PATCO/AFSCME has completed negotiations for a first contract for the technicians employed by DSI, Inc. at Gabreski Airport in Westhampton, NY.

The contract guarantees wage adjustments as well as health and welfare adjustments above the current prevailing wage rates. It further guarantees a weekly payment for when assigned on-call. The contract also memorializes all terms and conditions of employment including enhanced vacation time and sick/personal leave time.

This is the first PATCO/AFSCME Agreement for technicians! Anyone interested in additional information, please feel free to call.

THE TOP 10 IMMEDIATE BENEFITS YOU’LL GET

The new health care reform law will immediately:

·	Prohibit pre-existing condition exclusions for children in all new plans;

·	Provide immediate access to insurance for uninsured Americans who are uninsured because of a pre-existing condition through a temporary high-risk pool;

·	Prohibit dropping people from coverage when they get sick in all individual plans;

·	Lower seniors prescription drug prices by beginning to close the donut hole;

·	Offer tax credits to small businesses to purchase coverage;

·	Eliminate lifetime limits and restrictive annual limits on benefits in all plans;

·	Require plans to cover an enrollee’s dependent children until age 26;

·	Require new plans to cover preventive services and immunizations without cost-sharing;

·	Ensure consumers have access to an effective internal and external appeals process to appeal new insurance plan decisions;

·	Require premium rebates to enrollees from insurers with high administrative expenditures and require public disclosure of the percent of premiums applied to overhead costs.

OTHER RESOURCES:

The New York Times has a great interactive summary.

CLICK HERE

Politics Daily gives a “Year-by-Year Rundown of What Happens & When”

CLICK HERE

“Republicans Set for Last Ditch Senate Assault on Reform.”

CLICK HERE

Investopedia.com lists “10 Ways The New Healthcare Bill May Affect You.”

CLICK HERE

CNNMoney.com reports “What health care reform means for your business.”

CLICK HERE

Health care reform has now been signed into law - What will it actually mean for you? Don’t feel like reading the more than 2000-page bill yourself?

We’ll help you sort it all out.

In short, the new law puts us on a path to provide health care coverage for all Americans, empowers consumers over insurance companies and ensures we are moving to reduce health care costs in the long run. Now that the bill has passed the reconciliation process and will now be law, sweeping new policies will be ushered in. Many outlets are trying to tease out what this will mean for the average consumer. We’ve put together some information that will help you to understand it all. We will continue to sift through the many resources that have been providing information about this historic reform so you don’t have to. Check back often for updates.

Income Protection Has Arrived

with our new Short & Long Term Disability Benefits Programs!

Available NOW for members only*

* Membership will be verified before you can take advantage of this benefit, so if you’re not a member in good standing, rejoin today and put your membership dues to work right away.

Have you ever stopped to think what would happen if your income stopped should you suffer a disability?

Expenses would continue ... probably greater than ever when you consider insurance deductibles and uncovered medical bills. Your income is your most valuable asset and without it your savings can quickly be turned into debt!

You insure your other valuable assets, like your home and your car. But you may not have thought to insure your income in the event you suffer a disability that prevents you from working - which is much more common than you think.

We want our members to be protected! Disability Income Insurance Protection plans are now available! These products are specifically designed to replace lost income due to a covered accident or illness, and both Short Term and Long Term disability products are available. For more info, click on the link above.

The nation’s biggest banks helped create the current financial crisis that required a $700 billion taxpayer bailout. In return, the backs cut back on lending to consumers and small businesses and then paid out $145 billion in bonus bucks and spent $24 million lobbying Congress, where tough financial reform legislation is under consideration. Take action to prevent banks from killing financial reform, find information on obscene corporate pay and more at www.PayWatch.org.

The Associated Press reported in the New York Times (3/22/2010) that the Senate voted to approve a bill that would speed the modernization of the nation’s antiquated air traffic control system by replacing radar with GPS technology. The $34.5 billion bill, which passed 93-0, requires key elements of the FAA’s NextGen program be in place as soon as 2014. The new system is expected to ease airport congestion and delays by allowing planes to take more direct routes and fly closer to each other. The bill also contains several safety measures developed in response to the 2009 crash of a regional airliner near Buffalo, which took 50 lives. Differences between the Senate legislation and a House-approved bill must be worked out.

“Voluntary Recognition” for Maintenance Technicians in West Virginia

PATCO/AFSCME has received “Voluntary Recognition” for the Maintenance Technicians employed by Dynamic Science, Inc. at Martinsburg ANG Base, West Virginia. Contract negotiations will begin immediately with the expectation that much of it can be modeled after other PATCO/AFSCME contracts with DSI.

We welcome the technicians at Martinsburg who join their colleagues from Gabreski on Long Island!

PATCO/AFSCME Controller at Stuart Airport is to be Commended

FLORIDA - On May 15, 2010, a light aircraft that departed Stuart Airport, FL crashed into the Atlantic at approximately 11:45 am eastern standard time. The pilot allegedly was flying a photographer around to take pictures of other aircraft that was flying “Young Eagles” club members around in order to instill their interest in aviation. The controller was notified by a helicopter pilot who said he observed a plane crashing into the water. The controller immediately coordinated emergency assistance and called 911. Unfortunately the crash involved two fatalities.

The PATCO/AFSCME controller appropriately provided an Aircraft Accident/Incident Preliminary Notice and has listened to the tapes. On advice of PATCO/AFSCME, any interviews will be with representation. The aircraft was outside of Stuart Tower airspace at the time of the incident.

It should be noted that at the time of the incident the controller was alone and facilitating separation and flight advisories for a number of aircraft. The shift normally has two controllers assigned for this period of time, but one controller was on vacation and the Tower Manager who allegedly was assigned to work that shift left early. The controller on duty was therefore functioning as the Controller-In-Charge (CIC), Local Controller, Ground Controller and Flight Data Position. While the combined positions probably had nothing to do with the crash, it certainly flags the on-going problem of the FAA putting safety last, emanding that contractors cut corners by cutting staff.

The controller and PATCO/AFSCME member is to be commended for his professionalism in dealing with this incident while also maintaining his composure in continuing to safely expedite and control all other aircraft under his supervision.

For years, studies and reports have come out supporting the use of Automated Surface Observing Systems (ASOS) and the need to implement them nationwide in the future. ASOS has been hotly debated over the years because it replaces human weather observers with automated systems at many airports across the United States.

Despite many studies that conclude there is little difference between observations made by human and those made by sensors, and regardless that the FAA has certified ASOS as a “sufficiently reliable, accurate weather system” (according to a U.S. DOT memorandum to the FAA dated 7-26-01), PATCO/AFSCME continues to dispute the implied lack of value in human observations.

At present, automated airport weather stations are still unable to report a variety of meteorological conditions, including:

Shallow or patchy fog Tornadoes
Volcanic eruptions Depth of new snowfall
Falling ash Total snow depth
In-cloud and cloud-to-cloud lightning Cloud type
Clouds that are not directly above the station Blowing dust
Clouds that are more than 12,000 feet above ground level Smoke
Multiple forms of precipitation falling at the same time

Precipitation that’s not in the form of rain or snow, such as hail, ice pellets and snow grains

Since many of these can pose dangers to aircraft, and to those in the aircraft, PATCO/ASFCME continues with the stance that nothing can exactly match human observations and it will continue fighting to keep our “human” weather observers in their seats! To see the latest in our attempts to do this, CLICK HERE

PATCO/AFSCME has been updated by the Department of Labor (DOL) in regard to our Request for Reconsideration of contract controller prevailing wage rate and benefits.

We have been advised that the DOL is not taking the request lightly and that they have commenced an overall evaluation. The DOL has advised that they have already contacted the FAA and the appropriate contractors. The DOL did not indicate how long the evaluation would take and only said that it would be similar to what had transpired with respect to the AFSS personnel.

As always we will keep you updated as information becomes available to us.