Date: 201906
Local time of day: 0601-1200
Location: ZZZ.ARTCC, US
Flight conditions: Marginal
Weather elements / visibility: Rain; Turbulence; Thunderstorm
Light: Daylight
Aircraft: Any Unknown or Unlisted Aircraft Manufacturer
Operator: Other ALL
Operating under: Other ALL
Flight plan: IFR
Mission: Other ALL
Flight phase: Climb; Cruise; Descent
Airspace: Class A ZZZ
ATC / advisory: Center ZZZ
Reporter organization: Government
Reporter function: Enroute
Reporter qualification: Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Human factors: Situational Awareness; Workload
Anomaly: ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Detector: Person Air Traffic Control
When detected: In-flight
Result: Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; General Flight Cancelled / Delayed
Contributing factors: Company Policy; Human Factors; Airspace Structure; Procedure; Weather; Staffing
Primary problem: Company Policy

Narrative: XA:45 local TMU (Traffic Management Unit) was told that weather was developing and will need to be looked at; of course their response is you only have one aircraft right now. TMU was told by the Operations Manager in charge that it will be a problem in 15-20 minutes. I was working R68/67 and sectors R57; 58; 75; 76 were still combined like they usually are at this time in morning. The watch supervisor had to get me off R67/68 to be D-side and Tracker at R57; 58; 75; 76 since all the [area] departures were deviating for the same spot. The aircraft would not go west; or even southwest they all wanted to go up and then back on course. At approximately XB:30 R57; 58; 75; 76 had I would say about 30 tracks and aircraft were stepping on each other due to a couple frequencies being used. There was no way the controller was going to be able to call weather to anybody. To make matters worse the aircraft deviating to the northeast were all even altitudes as per the LOA (Letter of Agreement) with adjacent areas. The south area works traffic southbound even; northbound odd so these aircraft would be in conflict with anybody coming south; luckily at this time in morning there wasn't many southbound aircraft. I think TMU put out maybe 15 miles in trail to ZZZ but this doesn't help when 3 aircraft get off ZZZ1 side by side with the ZZZ departures and all of the other satellite airports.The southwest bound departures were all deviating the same way as well. During the session the controller was not able to call the weather one time. If one of these aircraft had got into severe turbulence I wonder who they would try to blame? The controller was put into a very unsafe situation. When I plugged in on his D-side he told me he had no idea what was going on. After this happened and some questions were asked it seems that TMU is trying to defend themselves by saying the Operations Manager only said stuff about the ZZZ2 arrivals and nothing about ZZZ. They have 10 million dollars worth of equipment in TMU and they can't see the number of departures that flush out early every day. I hear a Traffic Management Review is going to be conducted; but that really does no good as the head of TMU is the one doing it. I feel someone from outside this building should be looking at what happens with TMU here. We have people from towers that come to [this Center]; check out on 2 D-sides in an area then go to TMU and we expect them to know traffic flows; warning areas etc. These TMU people don't know even where half the areas are much less how to help.I feel the controllers are just going to have to start doing their own sector traffic flow restrictions as TMU can't be trusted to even know what to do. You should have to be a Certified Controller in a Center for a certain amount of time before you can be trusted to know how to help every area in the building with traffic flows. The last week has been the worst for weather and unsafe situations I have ever seen. They keep driving people towards the warning areas due to weather deviations and [Military ATC] would not take point-outs; aircraft were told to squawk emergency. This is just ridiculous when 30 minutes prior the controller working the sector told management that it was only going to work for another 15 minutes. I really have no faith in our TMU and I feel that is the thoughts of a lot of controllers. I'm hearing this from seasoned controllers with 20+ years. I feel TMU needs to be way more proactive; and issue restrictions to keep controllers from unsafe situations.




Synopsis: A Center Controller reported a lack of Traffic Management Unit action during known weather deviation conditions caused unsafe workloads for controllers.