August 15th, 2025 New England Bi-Monthly Regional Update
August 15th, 2025
From Kevin Curtiss, NATCA New England RVP
Hello, NATCA New England. We are in the final leg of summer, and as you do every year, you all have been exceptional in ensuring the safety of The NAS. If you were afforded good weather during your limited time off this summer, I hope you were able to make the best of it. I wish management knew how to make the best of a situation. What do I mean by that? Well, NNE controllers have done their best to make things work with the staffing situation the Agency has put the workforce in. It goes without saying that you all have gone above and beyond more often than not without any mitigations in place. The Agency should be proud of its workforce and offer praise and awards. Instead, they would rather blame the controllers for the times when the workload is too great and the staffing too little to support it. Sad stories of Operation Managers that have whined on social media or that have told their front line supervisors that controllers are making their jobs harder because they are using their rights to take care of themselves. Having one guaranteed weekend off a month and being subject to hold over at a whim’s notice wreaks havoc on the immune and nervous system. NATCA New England controllers should not hesitate one bit to take care of themselves and ensure that when they come to work, they are nothing less than rested and healthy to take on the workload. Your regional leadership has and will continue to defend against any kind of bullying measures by The Agency to dissuade you from doing so.
Please keep taking care of yourself. If you find yourself needing resources to do so, timing worked out well yesterday. NATCA sent out a Member Update with information on the Employee Wellness Toolkit. Our Communications team will also put it on our social media platforms. Take a minute to bookmark it and spend some time going over it when you have the opportunity. A lot of work by various NATCA Members went into providing that resource for our members.
Last week, met with Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander at Boston Center. She specifically took time out to visit with NATCA despite being there for a meeting with the FAA. If you didn’t see the recap on social media, I think I can summarize our visit with the three action items she asked me to give her. Legislation passed would impact NATCA members when it comes to new buildings, technology, and equipment, and it’s important that NATCA be involved every step of the way. Next, I said, please support and pass the mental health in aviation bill so that we can be afforded better means to take care of ourselves. And lastly, I said air traffic controllers and the safety professionals who help us do our job deserve a raise this January for the hard work and sacrifices that they make.
Those issues aren’t just important or exclusive to New Hampshire air traffic controllers. Earlier this week, our Massachusetts Legislative State Coordinator, Matt Morgan from Boston Tower, echoed those same sentiments at a congressional facility visit.
Each summer has its issues, and NNE is afforded a reprieve, if you will, in the off-season to address those. I finished up the fourth summer facility visit at A90 last night. While normally, I’ve lined up my facility visits there each time we have our quarterly PAR, yesterday afternoon and evening, I was there specifically to be in the operation. This was so I could better understand some of the issues A90 controllers face. For those same reasons, I visited BOS in the aftermath of a shift where the expectations of controllers became too great when TMU initiatives were piled on. During both visits, things were relatively calm and manageable, but it was important to see it up front. These visits were important to give perspective as our region’s safety team is going to be having discussions with the FacReps and then Local Safety Councils to make strides to improve things for next summer.
Please check out the information below regarding our participation in the Milford Labor Day parade and our Discord Server raffle. I will be having my quarterly membership call in mid-to-late September, so look for details on that, as well as a quarterly Discord hangout. Lastly, I look forward to giving our membership details on our first member camaraderie event that’s being planned for November.
As always, NATCA New England, reach out anytime, and we’ll talk soon.
ARVP Update
From Jake Detwiler, NATCA New England ARVP, ZBW
Mid-August is here, and most people associate this time of year with increasingly shorter days, cooler nights, and kids heading back to school. For your NATCA representatives, August is the time to start thinking about the next year. In the next few weeks, your FacReps will begin negotiating Article 24 (Annual Leave) and Article 32 & 34 (Basic Watch Schedule) MOUs. These are the locally negotiated agreements that act in addition the the CBA for all things related to annual leave, schedule bidding, and shift assignments.
Now is the time to reach out to your FacRep and communicate any ideas or suggestions you have for schedules. The parties collaborate on the shift guidelines, and once those shift guidelines are established, you can use them as a framework to create schedule lines. Talk to your co-workers, you might find that there is interest in shift rotations and schedules that your facility has not routinely worked in the past, but still meet the anticipated collaborated guideline numbers. While the NAS-wide staffing shortages and FAA’s failure to hire adequately over the past decade continue to impede optimal shift scheduling, there is still room for creativity and change as long as the overall shift needs are still met. If you want help with schedule ideas, feel free to reach out to Kevin, Steve, or me for guidance.
On Wednesday, August 13, we held the 4th Quarter, 2025 NCEPT Panel. This was the 2nd panel held using the new NRP changes that incorporate the implementation of the CRWG numbers. There were 69 selections, moving CPCs from 31 facilities into 48 facilities. Although NCEPT vacancies exist at ~91% (282) of our facilities, 129 potential moves were not used on this panel due to the lack of outbound demand from the 53 releasable facilities. Unfortunately, this becomes not an NCEPT problem but a staffing problem. Maintaining adequate CPC staffing at facilities while also offering reasonable movement can be somewhat antithetical. We will continue to track the data panel to panel to provide the NEB with the information they may need to help set the direction for future employee movement. As always, please reach out to me for any questions on NCEPT or staffing/movement.
Labor Relations Update
From Lisa Fulford, NATCA New England LR Coordinator, A90
The New England Region LR team is hard at work researching and building our presentation for Quarter 3 PAR (Pre-Arbitration Review). On Wednesday, September 24th, the LR team will be presenting several cases before the Agency and a neutral. After hearing both sides present their case, the Neutral will write their opinion on whether an arbitrator would side with the Union or Management. Based on the opinion given, NATCA may withdraw the grievance or get the Agency to agree to the proposed remedy.
Depending on the nature of the grievance and the neutral’s decision, the grievance may be elevated to the National Grievance Review Team (GRT) and may be submitted for arbitration.
Do you know how a grievance is heard at PAR?
Once a grievance is filed and submitted to the Agency, both parties must follow the timelines set forth in Article 9 of the CBA. A Step 1 grievance that is filed may be elevated to a Step 2 grievance, depending on the Agency’s response. The Facility Rep is usually the designated representative for presenting the grievance to management and will help the employee with the filing process. If the Step 1 grievance is denied and the Union wants to take further action, it is then elevated to a Step 2 grievance. The Agency then must respond to the Step 2 grievance, in writing, within a certain timeframe. (The process is laid out in Article 9 of the CBA in much greater detail, if you are interested in learning more about the grievance process)
Depending on the response of the Agency, a Step 2 grievance may then be elevated to PAR. As the NE Region LR Coordinator, it is my job to elevate Step 2 grievances and communicate with the Agency’s LR Manager. Once a FacRep informs me that a Step 2 grievance has been denied and they would like to bring it to PAR, I will send a memo to the FAA Manager, Employee and Labor Relations requesting it be added to the next quarter PAR. Due to the timelines sometimes being extended and the scheduling dates for PAR, it may sometimes be several months for a grievance to be heard at PAR.
The deadline for grievances to be elevated to Q3 PAR is August 13th. Grievances that are filed and/or denied after that date will be added to quarter 4 PAR.
As of writing this, the LR Team has 6 grievances that will be heard at PAR. There are 3 out of A90, 1 out of BTV, 1 out of ZBW, and 1 out of BOS. The grievances include an employee who requested to return to their shift after canceling annual leave, which was denied, two employees who were issued PROC’s for approving Article 19 while CIC with no management in the building, a disciplinary case in which an employee received 7 days unpaid, failure to compensate TMC’s for CIC pay who were working without an STMC, and failure to provide an employee CIC training within 30 days of certifying.
Look for the outcomes in the October update!
FacRep Focus
From Robert Hernandez, Yankee Tracon (Y90) Facility Representative
My name is Rob Hernandez. I’ve been a controller for 15 years. I’ve been at Y90 for 5 years. I took over the FacRep position after some local restructuring.
I was previously a ProStands and Local Safety Representative. Currently, I am the New England Regional Safety Mentee.
My main goals as FacRep are to advocate for my coworkers, protect their rights, and improve the quality of their work-life
Milford Labor Day Parade
New England Members! Please join us this year, as we once again raise the flag of organized labor over the streets of Milford! We will meet at 12:15pm at Milford High School for a 1:00pm parade start. Following the parade, we will gather at the Milford VFW for refreshments.
If you plan to march with us (or are even just interested), please fill out this form so we can plan appropriately.
The deadline to sign up is August 17th!
NATCA Meet & Greet in BGR
At the end of this month, the NATCA National Executive Board will be meeting in Bangor, ME for their monthly in-person meeting. After their meeting is completed on August 27, the NEB will hold a Meet and Greet from 6:30-9:30pm at Paddy Murphy’s. All NATCA New England members are invited to attend!
Discord Sign Up Raffle
NATCA New England is running a raffle in conjunction with signing up for our Discord Server! The winners will be determined on the morning of Labor Day!
The facility (or area within a facility) with the highest percentage of members signed up to the NATCA New England Discord Server will have earned breakfast for their respective coworkers on behalf of the region.
Additionally, one member will be selected and awarded a $50 gift card!
Click here to join our server!
Upon requesting to join, New England members will be prompted to submit their full name, facility, and NATCA member number.
If you are planning on attending the 2025 Communicating for Safety, this is your reminder to ensure you are registered!
Register, book your hotel room, and get your Archie League Medal of Safety Awards Banquet tickets by visiting https://www.natca.org/events/cfs/
