1.21.00 – (LAA) – Airlines Earnings, Balloting for National Officers, Leaves of Absence, National Mediation Board, Hotel Reviews

PART I

Hello. This is Marcus Gluth, Miami International based Flight Attendant, with the APFA HotLine news for Friday, January 21st.

This past week, several major airlines reported their earnings figures for the final three months of 1999, and as expected many results are below the record profits of a year ago. On Wednesday, January 19th, American Airlines reported a fourth quarter profit of: $105 million, a 37% decrease from the $167 million earned in the same period in 1998. This brings the total 1999 profits to $737 million, which is 43.3% less than the 1998 profit of $1.3 billion. Despite the lower earnings, American Chairman and CEO Don Carty commented that, ‘Financially, we had a decent quarter, although higher fuel costs and lower bookings due to the millennium celebration and the Y2K issue did impact it.’ According to American’s press release, profit sharing to be divided among employees totals $204 million, the fourth highest payout since profit sharing began.

Other airlines reporting fourth quarter earnings this week were: United, $230 million; Continental, $33 million; Southwest, $94 million; and US Airways, an $81 million loss.

On Wednesday, January 19th, the National Ballot Committee announced the results of the balloting for APFA National Officers. A total of 9172 Flight Attendants returned valid ballots for APFA President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer. The four-year terms-of-office will begin on April 1st. The results of the balloting, broken down base-by-base, can be found on the official APFA web site.

If you are planning on proffering for a Leave of Absence and/or Part Time for the fiscal year beginning May 2000, proffer forms are now available at your base. Read the proffer instructions carefully, and review the information from the APFA Contract Department, which is forthcoming in the January issue of Skyword now in the mail. The deadline for turning in your LOA or Part Time proffer is February 15th at 8:30 a.m. local base time. Please call the Contract Department at headquarters extension 8171 with any questions.

American Airlines has applied for rights to fly between Chicago O’Hare and both Shanghai and Beijing. In a Jetwire transmitted on January 19th, American is requesting that employees and the general public support its application to the Department of Transportation by accessing: AACHINA.com on the Internet. Check this out if you want to add your comments to American’s application.

In labor news: There seems to be some disagreement between government agencies over the Flight Attendant contract talks at Northwest. The Teamsters, representing Northwest Flight Attendants, and Northwest Airlines company management, are scheduled to attend what is termed a ‘status conference’ to be conducted by the National Mediation Board on January 25th in the hopes of returning to the bargaining table. The NMB had called an indefinite halt to talks in December. Meanwhile, a U.S. district court judge, who had granted a temporary restraining order forcing the Flight Attendants to end their alleged sick-out, ordered the two sides to select a private mediator. In response to this, NMB Chief of Staff, Stephen Crable, sent the judge a letter this week citing a Supreme Court ruling that ‘courts have no business interfering in major disputes’ under the Railway Labor Act.

The pilots at Midwest Express, represented by ALPA, are now one week into their 30-day cooling-off period which began on January 14th. Eighteen months of contract talks between the union and management have failed to yield an agreement. The cooling-off period will end at 12:01 a.m. on February 12th, after which time a strike can legally occur. According to an ALPA representative, pilots at Midwest Express earn from nineteen to forty-four percent less than the industry average for pilots who fly the same DC-9 and MD-80 equipment.

An APFA base meeting is scheduled for SFO and SFO-I on January 26th. Check your base bulletin boards to verify the place and time.

Hotel reviews ongoing in January are: Seattle, Barbados, Portland, Austin, Guadalajara, and Tulsa. Please direct your comments regarding your layover facilities to the APFA Hotel Department at headquarters extension 8306, use the hotel debrief form in operations, or onine at the APFA website.

That’s it for this week. For those of you on the Internet, be sure to 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.

 

January 20, 2000

This is Peter Kent from the APFA National Ballot Committee.

Today, January 19, 2000, the National Ballot Committee, in conjunction with Whitley, Penn and Associates, our outside election agency, certified the following results for the APFA National Officer election for the four-year term starting April 1, 2000.

For President:

• Dano Bosch: 896
• Judy Ladislaw: 826
• John Ward: 7365

The elected APFA President is: John Ward

For APFA Vice President:

• Jeff Bott: 7743
• David Chambers: 1269

The elected APFA Vice President is: Jeff Bott

For Secretary:

• Linda Lanning: 7610
• Kitty Solder: 1398

The elected APFA Secretary is: Linda Lanning

For Treasurer:

• Juan Johnson: 7486
• Michael Parker: 1549

The elected APFA Treasurer is: Juan Johnson

The total number of valid ballots cast was: 9172

Stay on the line for the remainder of the APFA HotLine.