I also stop here every day or two to see what's new and get your (and some of your commenters) take on things that come up in the FAA. We've had some very insightful posts/comment threads here and I'd hate to lose that!

"Research by CAMI has shown that people with less than five years FPL experience are at an increased statistical risk of having an error. "

I find it interesting that that research went up to 2006. I wonder how much the likelihood of OEs by controllers with 5 years or less is going to be for controllers who were brought on and trained after the research for that survey was done. From what I hear, the likelihood of an OE is going to be even higher. Anyway, I found this thread very informative, thanks to everyone who posted insightful comments about ATSAT.

Attachment 3 of the "mediated solution" looks like it might be the first thing people look for.

From the "Opinion of the Panel" section:

"Predictably, the years since the birth of the White Book have been characterized by a steady drumbeat of protest from the Union, which has sought, in many venues, to voice its claim that the White Book, as an operating document, is void ab initio. In that vein, the Union has vigorously urged this Panel to compensate affected bargaining unit members for White Book reductions of money and prerogatives, by “reinstating the Green Book and by making whole members affected by the imposed rules, including full retroactivity on all economic losses”.

Management, for its part, took a markedly narrower view of the issues in dispute; advocating from the outset that any future movement must be premised on the proposition that one takes the validity of the White Book as a starting point.

We reject both these backward-looking assumptions. This Mediation to Finality process began with and proceeded throughout on the premise that the parties and the Panel were working from a clean slate with an eye toward constituting a new, bargained relationship that will enable the parties to move forward as joint stewards of a bona fide labor agreement. As such, that process and this Award are designed and intended to set to rest any remaining questions of White Book/Green Book vitality."

I. PAY BANDS
1. Effective Jan. 1, 2010, new pay bands shall be established, in
accordance with the schedules set forth in Attachment 3.
2. Pay Bands are to be adjusted upward on an annual basis in
January 2011 and 2012, in a manner equivalent to the
adjustment provided to employees covered by the FAA Core
Compensation Plan.

III. EQUITY ADJUSTMENT
A designated group of some 1440 Controllers who were hired prior to October
2006, to be identified by the parties, shall receive, in June of 2010, a 1-time 8%
upward adjustment to Base Pay, in accordance with Article 108, Section 8
[Attachment 2].

I'm interested to hear what everyone thinks about this.

FYI, the items were posted a little after 2 PM EST.

Tentatively agreed upon articles subject to ratification: https://employees.faa.gov/org/linebusiness/ato/me...
Mediated solution not subject to ratification: https://employees.faa.gov/org/linebusiness/ato/me...

The MyFAA site closed with: "The TAU articles are subject to member ratification; the arbitrator's award is not subject to ratification. Neither part is effective until a later date. The 2006 NATCA contract is still in effect."

I just saw it this morning on employees.faa.gov and am not a controller nor did I have any juicy inside information. I swung by here to see what the reaction was, but it was probably a bit early to expect anything considering that it sounds like no one even has the runoff ballots yet. Mostly it was just a slow Monday so I thought I'd ruminate to myself on someone's blog... thanks for the information though!

Oh man, Paul's not here and NATCA's in a runoff election. News is breaking and there is no one around but poor Um to report it. What to do, what to do.

Is there any potential for the FAA to get Lockheed's equipment and facilities free or at a severely reduced price as a consideration? I'm trying to think about how the FAA would get flight service back under its control. Is the Lockheed equipment sufficient to do the work, provided that staffing was adequate and whatever poor controls there are were removed?

You know that your PR department is in bad shape when they're getting shown up by TMZ.com of all places.

No 2 letter usernames?! I had to improvise. That aside, I like the new format. Using trees for comments and being able to show other people what the most useful comments are is a good system.