9.22.00 – (LAA) – APFA Website, Las Vegas Hotel, APFA, United FA’s Union, SFO Base Meeting

This is Robin Madison, Negotiating Committee member, and this is the Negotiations Hotline for Friday, September 22nd.

On Tuesday, September 29th, the Negotiating Committee will meet in Dallas-Fort Worth for its next scheduled mediated session with American Airlines. The Company is expected to present a comprehensive counter-proposal to APFA.

Members of the Negotiating Committee, along with the National Communications Coordinator and the Regional InfoRep Coordinators met this week with our professional advisors to discuss upcoming membership action plans. Specific details will be provided in future HotLines.

The results of the Reserve Survey have been tallied. Future proposals presented to the Company will be consistent with the survey results. In response to membership inquiries about the reserve rotation, the membership has clearly indicated that a change in reserve rotation is not desired at this time.

For a complete overview of the mediation process, please read the “President’s Report” in the September edition of Skyword. President John Ward provides a synopsis of the negotiations process leading up to mediation, as well as a question and answer format for frequently asked questions about mediation. Thank you for your continued support, and thank you for calling the Negotiations Hotline. Please stay on the line for more Industry News.

This is Leslie Mayo, National Communications Coordinator, with APFA HotLine News for the week ending September 22, 2000.

www.apfa.org, APFA’s new web site is quite active now with dozens of Flight Attendants signing up every day. Your user name is your last name and your initial password is the last four digits of your Social Security Number. You may change your password once you log in, to anything you like. There is a special section for InfoReps to get up-to-date information on Negotiations, a section for New Hires, AA News, Base Pages, and F/A Bulletin Board/Chatroom and even Skyword online. If your Social Security is not on file with APFA, please e-mail us at [email protected] or call HDQ, ext 8153 to update your information.

From the Hotel Department, stay tuned to your next Skyword for an updated hotel in Las Vegas. This will change as of September 30th!

American will begin nonstop service to Telluride from DFW beginning December 15th and continuing through April 1. This will be served by the 133-seat Super 80. Departure from Dallas is 11:00 a.m. and from Telluride, 1:30 p.m.

AA took advantage of United’s struggles this summer and is now expected to enjoy better earnings than anticipated following high passenger loads. United canceled as many as 190 flights per day because of their pilot’s action. The Wall Street Analysts are citing labor disputes, soaring fuel prices and flight delays as the reason behind most airline’s lack of success lately, however, AA is still a month their top picks.

American’s Pilots rejected their Tentative Agreement Wednesday with a 66% no vote. Approximately 80% of their pilot’s members voted. The T/A would’ve given the pilots a one year extension to their current contract and a 3% pay raise. This paled in comparison to United’s recent contract giving pilots immediate pay raises of 21.5% plus four yearly raises of 4%. Analysts report that despite United’s industry leading contract, APA’s pilots will more than likely have to trade higher pay and benefits for a more liberal regional jet agreement. On a side note, the US 5th District COurt of Appeals, immediately following the downed T/A vote, issued an order to the pilot’s Union that they must pay that $45.5 million dollar judgment handed down last year. APA President LaVoy reported that the Union “is now reviewing its legal options with counsel to determine our next steps”.

Some of United Airlines Flight Attendants are trying to get rid of their Union. Emma Donnely, president of a steering committee called “Flight Attendants for Independent Representation” or FAIR announced that “the membership has been used and abused enough. We’re not going to take it anymore”. FAIR is on a mission to secure 50% of United’s 26,000 Flight Attendants signatures in order to hold a representation election. They are currently represented by AFA.

San Francisco will be having their regularly scheduled Base Meeting on September 27th at 10:00 a.m. Please call your local Base Chair for more details.

Don’t forget about the enrollment period for Registered Companions. The company has announced the registration dates for the year 2001 to be from September 15th through the 30th. Please review N*REGISTERED COMPANION in RES for more information.

In other news…
Recently, at one of our bases, a ghost rider observed what she believed was a Flight Attendant putting company property into her bag. The company had security do a full crew bag search. The search turned up left-over delay snacks. A 31R investigation was conducted and one of the Flight Attendants was issued a Career Decision Day. The position the company took during the investigation was that it does now want Flight Attendants to remove food from the airplane other than company provided snack packs.

That’s it for this week. Remember, it’s Union Pins, name tags and Wings ONLY. Thanks for calling the APFA HotLine and stay unified!