3.24.00 – (LAA) – Negotiations Update, Final Message from Denise Hedges

March 24, 2000

A Special HotLine Message from President Denise Hedges.

Hello. This is APFA President Denise Hedges, with my final HotLine message to all APFA Flight Attendants. Today is Friday, March 24th, 2000.

Soon I will be ending my eight years in the president’s office of the APFA. It has been an eight years full of many achievements by APFA Flight Attendants — achievements which have served not only to strengthen our careers here at American, but to better the profession for all Flight Attendants, present and future. We truly are a team of dedicated, professional leaders in on-board safety and service to our passengers. From our strike in 1993, to our many gains made since then toward improving the working conditions and the career potential for all in-flight professionals, we have proved ourselves to be an empowering force. Such is the legacy of the last eight years at the APFA.

Let us never forget, though, that a union is not a force of one, but a force of many. I am proud to be but one member of our strong, proud and independent union of over twenty-two thousand. I, along with the other out-going officers: Judy Ladislaw, APFA Vice President; Kitty Solder, APFA Secretary; and Michael Parker, APFA Treasurer, look forward to joining our fellow members on the line in the spirit of unity that has been the hallmark of the APFA, and we offer a heartfelt welcome to the new officers. And to all APFA members, I offer my sincerest gratitude. One could not ask for a finer group of professionals for whom to serve. Remember always that Unity Pays! See you on the line.

PART I

Hello, this is Linda Lanning, LAX-I Vice Chair and APFA Secretary-elect, with a Negotiations update for March 24, 2000.

This week, your APFA TEAM 2000 Negotiators presented APFA’s initial proposals to American Airlines Negotiators. Collective bargaining sessions are scheduled throughout March and April. Dates are listed in the March Skyword and can also be found on the APFA website at www.www.apfa.org under the Negotiation link.

Special Info Rep/Base meetings are being planned system-wide to share pertinent negotiations information with our Info Reps and membership. Along with local base representatives, the meetings will be attended by members of the APFA 2000 Negotiating Team and the Special Advisory Committee.

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. APFA Negotiators Rosie Trescott and Peter Day, and Special Advisory Committee Members, Vice President-elect, Jeff Bott and Patt Gibbs, will also be present to share information and discuss negotiation issues.

Last week, John Ward, APFA Negotiator and APFA President-elect, addressed both the Info Reps and the membership as to the status of negotiations and structural changes within the team. President-elect John Ward will be sending out a letter to the membership addressing the current status of APFA TEAM 2000 and an update concerning the APFA proposals presented to the Company during the week of March 20th.

Do you have a computer? Make sure to access APFA’s website at www.www.apfa.org and click onto the negotiations link for more negotiations news. We also encourage you to become a part of our interactive ‘question of the week.’ Answers are sent directly to your APFA TEAM 2000 negotiators and help to keep us in touch with top issues. If you have questions or comments regarding negotiations, you can e-mail us at [email protected]. The center section of this month’s Skyword contains a tear out card with voicemail extensions for Negotiators and Special Advisory Committee Members.

Thank you for calling the APFA hotline and stay on the line for Marcus Gluth with more APFA and industry news.

PART II

This is Marcus Gluth, Miami International based Flight Attendant, with more APFA HotLine news for the week ending Friday, March 24th.

By the time most of you hear this message, the deadline will have passed in the US Airways Flight Attendant negotiations super-mediation, which was set to expire at the end of a 30-day cooling-off period at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on Saturday, March 25th. If no agreement is reached by the deadline, US Airways Flight Attendants have promised to begin a campaign of ‘CHAOS,’ targeting specific flights or markets with sporadic work stoppages. Management, meantime, has threatened to shut the entire airline operation down rather than face such disruption. Regardless, if there is a shut down or a strike, US Airways crew members will be stranded along with passengers. The Association of Flight Attendants at US Airways has set up a phone number for those who wish to help out a stranded Flight Attendant with either housing or travel arrangements. The number is (412) 262-9223. Continental Airlines Flight Attendants have ratified their tentative agreement which they reached with management several weeks ago. The 54-month agreement followed six months of bargaining, and includes increased pay; improvements in retirement, vacation and work rules; as well as a domestic partner benefit package and companion travel.

Flight Attendants at all airlines have long complained that our compensation is inadequate in the face of increasing work loads that have come with the ever-increasing load factors. Along with the over-full flights has been a rise in so-called ‘air rage,’ reflected most recently in an incident on board an Alaska Airlines flight from Mexico to San Francisco. According to press reports, about fifteen minutes before landing, a 6-foot 2-inch 250-pound man began taking off his clothes. After pretending to shoot passengers with his finger, he battered his way into the cockpit and began struggling with the co-pilot. The captain yelled for help at which point several passengers wrestled the passenger to the floor. Police suspect drugs played a role in the incident and the passenger is facing a myriad of charges, including felonious assault.

Before you attend your EPTs this year, you might want to check out the special note to all Flight Attendants from the Safety Department on the APFA web site. It includes some useful information regarding the CPR/AED training and evaluation, including a copy of the evaluation form for your review. To access the information, go to the safety section on the APFA website..

This advice from the APFA Scheduling Department … beginning March 27th and running through March 31st, we will be in the last five days of the contractual month. Flight Attendants should review Article 9.P.6. or Appendix I, Article 9.P.6. for procedures regarding pay protection. To qualify, you must lose your last trip of the month due to cancellation or illegality, and subsequently must do no flying. An OE is not considered as a ‘last trip.’ Should this happen to you, you must put your name on the make-up list for all days originally scheduled to fly and up through eight hours after the arrival time of the original sequence, and you must make an effort to recover the time lost via the make-up system. Otherwise, you will forfeit the cancellation pay. Your obligation will appear in a header at the top of your HI1. After the obligation window has passed, the pay will be automatic following a search for your name on the make-up list by the computer. Please call the APFA Scheduling Department at headquarters extension 8161 if you have any questions.

An APFA base meeting will be held for SFO/SFO-I on Wednesday, March 29th. Check your local base bulletin boards, or the APFA web site, to verify meeting place and time.

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.