3.10.00 – (LAA) – Negotiations Update

March 10, 2000

Hello, this is Thelma Dodson, MIA Vice Chairperson, and APFA Negotiator, with a Negotiations update for Friday, March 10, 2000.

New York reported an excellent turn out for the first special APFA Info Rep/Base meeting that was held on March 6. The meeting was hosted by all local Base Chairs and Vice Chairs, and also attended by members of the Negotiating Team, including President-elect John Ward, Chairperson Laura Glading, Peter Day, and Art Cline. Tommie Hutto Blake, member of the Special Advisory Committee, was also present. Information regarding membership survey results and the profit-sharing proposal was shared by the team, and other issues of concern were discussed. Trice Johnson, a Miami Based Info Rep, highlighted the importance of building a strong Info Rep program. During the base meeting immediately following, many members volunteered to join our Info Rep program. Watch for the new recruitment posters to be posted on all APFA bulletin boards. Your Union is looking for new volunteers to become a part of our field activist program.

The next scheduled Info Rep/Base meeting will be held in Los Angeles on March 27, at the Embassy Suites Hotel in El Segundo, California. The meeting will be open to Info Reps at 10AM, followed by a meeting for all members in good standing at 11AM. The meeting will be hosted by local base representatives and will also be attended by members of APFA TEAM 2000 and the Special Advisory Committee.

Info Rep/Base meetings are being planned system-wide. Meetings will begin with a closed meeting for Info Reps only, and will be followed by Base meetings open to members in good standing. This will be an excellent opportunity to speak to your negotiators.

On the Negotiations front, APFA TEAM 2000 will make a formal presentation to the APFA Board of Directors at the outset of the APFA Annual Convention to be held in Dallas next week. All members in good standing are welcome to attend the awards dinner, and open portions of the meeting. However, negotiations discussions will be considered confidential strategy sessions. The convention will be held at The Marriott Solana Hotel in Westlake, Texas. For more information, please call 1-800-395-2732.

The Union and the Company have scheduled mutually agreed upon bargaining sessions. Dates are listed on the APFA website at www.www.apfa.org. Thank you for calling the APFA hotline, and stay on the line for more APFA and industry news from Marcus Gluth.

Part II

Hello. This is Marcus Gluth, Miami International based Flight Attendant, with more APFA HotLine news for the week ending Friday, March 10th.

In a recent letter to President Denise Hedges, American Airlines has agreed to provide additional trigger training above the contractual requirement in order to accommodate the increased training requests by our Flight Attendants. In addition to the months of January, May, and September, the months of April and August will also be available for trigger training during the year 2000. Call the APFA Contract Department at headquarters extension 8171 if you have questions regarding trigger training.

In the area of crew rest, the Company has agreed to exceed current contractual requirements for crew rest facilities on the Atlantic version of the Boeing 777 for flights over eight hours but less than twelve. The Triple-7 Atlantic configuration will be introduced in May of this year. Four newly designed crew rest seats will be installed, two on each side of the forward part of the main cabin, and they will be curtained off by a non-detachable, full length privacy curtain. This agreement means no ‘high-comfort’ jump seat on this aircraft!

In industry news … the pilot, several passengers, and a driver on a nearby roadway, were slightly injured on Sunday, March 5th, when a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 aircraft on a flight from Las Vegas ran off the 6000 foot runway at the Burbank airport and stopped just short of a gas station. Luckily, the 137 passengers, two cockpit, and three cabin crew members escaped serious injury. Investigations into the cause of the mishap are ongoing.

Delta Airlines maintains its position as the least unionized of all major carriers after the failure of the Transport Workers Union to organize the almost 11,000 ramp workers at the nation’s third largest airline. Only 1,858 ballots were returned in the representational election, of which 1,780 gave the nod to the TWU. Certification of a union requires ratification by fifty percent plus one of all members of the work group. TWU officials charge that a recent pay increase by Delta management was timed to dissuade the employees from unionizing. Delta still faces an active organizing campaign aimed at its 20,000 Flight Attendants.

The National Mediation Board has informed both US Airways management, and the AFA, representing 10,000 US Airways Flight Attendants, that super-mediation will begin on Friday, March 17th, in Washington, DC. The talks are currently in a thirty-day cooling off period, which is set to expire at 0001 on March 25th, leaving both parties free to seek self-help at that time if no agreement is reached. US Airways management has promised to shut the airline down to counter any attempts by the union to enact CHAOS, the AFA style of random mini-strikes affecting individual flights. A major sticking point in the talks remains the company’s insistence that the union accept a ‘parity plus one percent’ pay proposal, which management has begun to promote by use of a video mailed directly to each Flight Attendant.

The Teamsters union, representing Northwest Flight Attendants reports that tentative agreements have been reached in the areas of duty limitations, scheduling, and reserves, in their mediated talks with Northwest management. Meantime, Flight Attendants at Frontier Airlines have received ballots in a representational drive by the AFA. Ballots will be counted on March 31st.

Flight Attendants based at both IDF and LAX-I are currently being polled regarding exceptions for high time pure trip selections as permitted under Appendix I, Article 7.A. of the APFA/AAL Agreement. The deadlines for responding to the polls are Monday, March 13th for IDF, and Saturday, March 25th for LAX-I. Contact your base chair- or vice-chairperson if you have any questions or you need a polling form.

The APFA Annual Convention will take place from March 13th through the 17th at the Marriott Solana in Westlake, Texas, near DFW. Members in good standing are welcome to attend all open portions of the meeting. Click on the link on the HotLine page in the APFA web site for driving directions, or call the Marriott Solana at 817-430-3848.

APFA base meetings will be held for IDF on Tuesday, March 14th, and SFO / SFO-I on Wednesday, March 29th. Check your local base bulletin boards, or the APFA web site, to verify meeting places and times.

Hotel reviews will be conducted during March in: Vail, San Jose (California), Washington Dulles, Kingston, Caracas, and Rome. Please direct your comments regarding these or other layover facilities to the APFA Hotel Department at headquarters extension 8306, use the hotel debrief form in operations, at the APFA website’s hotel section..

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 to always wear your APFA pin proudly as a sign of our independence, unity and strength. And thank-you for calling the APFA HotLine. the APFA HotLine.