1.07.00 – (LAA) – Negotiations Update,

PART I

Special APFA Negotiation Hotline Message for Thursday, January 6, 2000

Hello, this is Doug Elmore, IOR Base Chair and APFA Board of Director, with a special message concerning the negotiation contract surveys that have been mailed directly to all flight attendants. If you have not received a survey, please call APFA Headquarters Membership Department at 1-800-395-2732, ext. 8153 with a current mailing address so that we may send one to you immediately. Please take note that the total postage required is fifty five cents and your completed survey is due by January 21, 2000. Your input is valuable to your new APFA Negotiating Committee. We would like to hear from every one of you. Once again, the postage to mail the survey is fifty five cents. Stay on the line for more negotiating news.

Hello, this is Jennifer McCauley, BOS-I Base Chair and APFA Board of Director with a Negotiations update for Friday, January 7, 2000.

By now, you should have received your contract survey in the mail. If you have not received a survey, please call the APFA Membership Department at ext. 8153 with a current mailing address so that we can send one to you immediately. TAKE NOTE: fifty-five cent postage is required to mail your completed survey back to APFA. The due back date is January 21, 2000. Your Negotiators would like to hear from EVERYONE. VOICE YOUR OPINION! Fill out your survey, add the fifty-five cents postage required, and send it back by January 21, 2000.

This week the APFA 2000 Negotiating Committee, Professional Negotiators, and the Special Advisory Committee met in Dallas Ft. Worth. A comprehensive retirement seminar was conducted by IMA flight attendant and former APFA National Officer, Jill Frank. She was joined by retired IDF flight attendant and former union Vice President, Peggy Sutherlin, as well as former benefits sub-committee member, Lynn Heaston. The Negotiating Team was subsequently briefed by the APFA National Coordinators to discuss issues pertinent to their specific areas: scheduling, contract, health, safety, communications, and hotels.

The APFA 2000 Negotiating Team subcommittees also met to cover preliminary proposals prepared during the holiday hiatus. The table committee consists of domestic and international appointed and elected permanent negotiators consisting of: Chairperson, Laura Glading, John Ward, Alexis Boilini, and Dan Richardson. Subcommittees were formed for: Economics, Scheduling, Retirement and Benefits, Flight Service, Corporate Research, Economics and Cost-outs, Administration, Strategic Campaign, and Strike Preparation. You can find a complete listing of the members of each committee on the APFA website at www.www.apfa.org.

To emphasize once again, your APFA 2000 Negotiating Committee would like to hear from all of you and asks that you fill out your survey, add the fifty-five cents postage required, and return it by January 21, 2000.

Thank you for calling the APFA Hotline and stay on the line for more APFA and Industry News.

APFA HotLine for January 7, 2000 final Hello, this is Marcus Gluth, Miami International based Flight Attendant, with more HotLine information for Friday, January 7th, 2000.

Well, the crossover into the year 2000 occurred with nary a bite from the much anticipated “Y2K bug.” American Airlines was among the thousands of corporations worldwide reporting no problems over the holiday weekend. Bob Baker, Executive Vice President of Operations, thanked the many American Airlines employees in various operational departments who remained on duty over New Year’s Eve to help ensure a “bug free” entry into the year 2000. The same was true here at the APFA and a thank-you from the leadership and membership of our Union is due to those representatives who remained on-call and in touch with the AA departments and our Flight Attendants. They remained available throughout their holiday in case you needed assistance with any operational troubles.

Despite the calm over the dawn of Y2K, some industry consultants are looking at the year 2000 to be a year of labor unrest. As just one example, they point to the recent restraining order sought by American Airlines against the Transport Workers Union for an alleged work slow-down in the final days of 1999. American claims the TWU was illegally protesting the millennium benefits paid to other work groups at AA.

After implementing increases in passenger fares, American joined other passenger and cargo carriers in setting a rate hike for cargo shipments beginning February 1st. American’s VP of Cargo Sales said “the cost of crude oil has almost doubled over the past year with no relief in sight.” In fact, Aviation Daily reported last Friday that fuel prices were up almost 7% from the beginning of the week while the increase in fuel prices year-over-year were a whopping 141%.

A few weeks ago we reported on the progress and or rather the lack thereof ñ in the talks between the Teamsters, representing Northwest Flight Attendants, and management at Northwest Airlines. Well, as if things couldn’t get any worse, the National Mediation Board has now placed the talks on indefinite hold. Billie Davenport, the president of Teamsters Local 2000, reported to the rank-and-file Flight Attendants that Northwest management told union negotiators that they will “never have an industry-leading contract” and refused to continue talks until either the Teamsters come down in their demands or the NMB forces them back to the table. To add to these difficulties, a report in Aviation Daily quotes an internal communication at the NMB which states that further talks “would be pointless unless and until the [Teamsters] ëgot real’.” The memo continued with a statement that the government board found “the proposals submitted by [the union] were unrealistic and unlikely to lead to an agreement.” In a letter to Flight Attendants, Northwest management said it was prepared to pay wage and pension benefits on par with other major unionized carriers. Northwest claims that the NMB supports the management position and will keep the talks recessed until the union modifies its position.

For those of you who may be placing uniform orders with your new points for the year 2000, please note that our uniform provider, R & R has changed names to: Uniform Solutions . Location, store hours, customer service hours, phone numbers and personnel will remain the same.

There are many deadlines approaching soon so all APFA members should mark these dates on their calendars:

* Willingness-to-serve notices for Vice Chairperson at DCA-I, RDU-I, and SFO-I are due on January 14th,
* Ballots for the National Officer positions are due on January 19th,
* Negotiations written surveys are due on January 21st. And,
* Willingness-to-serve notices for Vice Chairperson at DCA (domestic) are due on January 24th.

If you haven’t received your National Officer ballot or your negotiations survey, or if you are based at one of the afore-mentioned bases and you did not receive a willingness-to-serve, please call the APFA Membership Department at headquarters extension 8153 to verify that we have your correct address. A duplicate ballot or willingness-to-serve can be requested from the National Ballot Committee at extension 8311, while questions regarding the survey, including requests for duplicates, should be directed to the Special Advisory Committee to the Negotiations Team at extension 8721.

In response to a complaint by the National Officers over interpretation of Article 2 of the Agreement, a clarification has been made concerning aircraft cleaning. In a letter dated December 6, 1999 to President Hedges from Sue Oliver, Vice President of American Airlines Employee Relations, the Company confirmed that it will comply with the long standing practice that Flight Attendants are not required to perform cabin preparation duties ñ otherwise known as cabin cleaning ñ on any Customs flights, nor on any flight in the International operation. Customs flights are defined as flights where the Customs clearance occurs after passenger deplaning and not those flights where passengers are “pre-cleared” before boarding.

D.C. Enterprises and your Union are pleased to announce the new APFA domestic calling card with a rate of just 9.9 cents per minute anytime, anywhere within the continental U.S. This is a 33% reduction in the rate over your current APFA calling card. Watch your mailbox for your new card with a free 15 minute call. For complete details, call our plan coordinator, D.C. Enterprises at: 1-800-944-2544.

APFA Base meetings are scheduled for January at: IDF on Tuesday, January 11; DFW and LAX on Wednesday, January 12; and SFO /SFO-I on Wednesday, January 26th. Check your base bulletin boards to verify the place and time.

Hotel reviews for the month of January will be Seattle, Barbados, Portland, Austin, Guadalajara, and Tulsa. There are improvements coming up soon to many of our layover hotels. Check the January Skyword for more information on these hotel changes. As always, please direct your comments regarding your layover facilities to the APFA Hotel Department at headquarter’s extension 8306, use the hotel debrief form in operation, or go on line at www.www.apfa.org/index.php?&view=category&id=104.

That’s it for this week. For those of you on the Internet, be sure and check out the various links attached to this HotLine on our web site, at www.www.apfa.org. Remember that APFA 2000 means unity for 20,000. Wear your APFA pin proudly as a sign of our independence, unity and strength. Thank-you for calling the APFA HotLine.