11.17.00 – (LAA) – Negotiations, Information Picketing, Comprehensive Counterproposal

This is APFA President John Ward with a special hotline message for Saturday, November 18th.

From Los Angeles to New York and from Boston to Miami, APFA was out in force today taking our message to the public. We’ve been in contract negotiations for two years, and two years is too long! “It’s about time”… for American Airlines to deal fairly with its Flight Attendants.

From all accounts, today’s informational picketing which took place at 36 airports around the country, was a huge success. It’s been seven years since APFA members have been on a picket line, so it was great to see the incredible level of participation today. Flight Attendants from 40 years seniority to probationers joined their fellow Union members in today’s membership action. We had people on days off and on vacation. We had people on layovers and sit time. People before their trips and after their trips. And many people had to deal with some pretty bad weather, too.

Thanks go to the Base Chairs and Vice Chairs, the Info Rep Coordinators, the APFA Communications Department, all the individual city coordinators, and to all of you who were able to participate.

Should American Airlines continue to resist making the improvements we are seeking, we will be out there again very soon. APFA has more events lined up for the remainder of November and for December.

Thank you for your continued support. Please stay on the line for the rest of this week’s message.

Hello, this is JFK Flight Attendant Peter Day, member of the APFA Negotiating Team with a negotiations HotLine update for Friday, November 17th.

The negotiating team met with the Company on Thursday of this week after a brief recess, which had been ordered by the Federal Mediators. The Company presented what it called a “Comprehensive Counter proposal” to the Negotiating Team. The Company contends that this proposal, taken as a whole, would place American’s Flight Attendants at the top of the industry. The negotiating team will be reviewing this proposal in depth; however, a preliminary analysis indicates that the company has proposed pay increases that are only marginally exceeding the rates that were contained in the failed Tentative Agreement. In many instances, the company’s proposals are inferior to the failed Tentative. In fact, this latest in the long line of management proposals simply rearranged the pieces of management’s offers — giving back certain items retrieved in the failed 1999 Tentative Agreement. In addition, taking away current contractual work rules much favored by our Flight Attendants in our current contract.

In a press release on November 15th, APFA President John Ward stated that “although Senior Management claims it wants to change the corporate culture here at American, the proof is in the paycheck.” President Ward went on to say that “from what we’ve witnessed at the bargaining table, nothing’s changed.”

Mediated sessions between American Airlines and APFA have been recessed until further notice awaiting notification from Federal Mediator, Linda Puchala. Negotaitions that were scheduled to be held during the week of November 27, 2000 are now tentative as we await a heads up from the NMB.

Informational picketing activities will take place at every base city and select commuter cities tomorrow, November 18th. Hopefully, the company’s latest proposal gives true meaning as to why our members must come out to show their support . Remember November parties will be held following the day’s events commemorating the seventh anniversary of our strike. We strongly encourage your participation.

Thank you for your continued patience, support and encouragement and thank you for calling. Now, please stay on the line for more news.

This is Leslie Mayo, National Communications Coordinator, with more APFA HotLine news for the week ending November 17, 2000.

Saturday, November 18th is our big day to let the Company, the AMR Board of Directors and the flying public know that we’ve gone two years without a contract and it’s about time we had one. Flight Attendants system-wide will be out in full uniform with pins and wings only, from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. local time at 38 base and commuter cities. Come join us for a day of Informational Picketing. If you’re on sit-time, come outside, grab a picket sign and join your co-workers. APFA will be picketing at the following base cities: SEA, SFO, SJC, OAK, LAX, SNA, ORD, DFW, Dallas Love Field, BOS, LGA, EWR, JFK, DCA, BWI, RDU, MIA, PBI, and FLL. APFA will also be picketing at the following commuter cities: ALB, MCO, PHL, ROC, TPA, ATL, BNA, CVG, HOU, MCI, MEM, MSP, OKC, SAT, DEN, PHX, PSP, SAN and SJU. The following cities will be holding Remember November Parties for anyone who wants to come: BOS, DCA, DFW, LAX, SNA, MIA, MSP, New York, ORD, PHL, RDU, SEA and SFO. Please remember to bring civilian clothes for the post-party. Check out APFA’s web site at www.www.apfa.org for details on the cities in which you can picket and the places to party afterwards. For picketing, you should meet your picket captain curbside in front of the main terminal. All members will be required to sign in and review the rules for picketing before grabbing a sign and taking it to the line. Picketing, in most cases, will take place outside the terminal and, if it is bi-level, on the upper level.

It seems that we aren’t the only Flight Attendants who are fed up º our colleagues at United, represented by AFA will be Informational Picketing on Monday, November 20th.

Your latest Skyword magazines are full of negotiations news and other Union information as well as some projects in which you can participate. In issue eight center section, you will find six postcards addressed to the AMR Board of Directors. Please fill these out and drop them in the mail as soon as you can. In issue nine, center section, you will find an “Unannounced Desk Ride Form”. This is for you to fill out, at your leisure, to ensure your Flight Service Manager is doing the very best job he or she is trained to do. Please send the finished copy to APFA Headquarters, attention: Communications at 1004 West Euless Blvd., Euless, TX 76040. We’ve already received a number of reports on these FSM’s and it’s making for some good reading down here at Headquarters. If you lost your center section or they were inadvertently not included in your magazine, please contact APFA, extension 8100, to order another one. Leave your employee number, first and last name, and please be specific about which Skyword issue you are referring to: issue 8 with the AMR Board tear-out cards, or Issue 9 with the Unannounced Desk Check Ride Form. You can also go to www.apfa.org and request a copy of each of these items.

As we reported last week, due to the questionable status of the Citrix server required when utilizing SABRE through AA’s WEBPCFOS and the AA Flight Service web sites, APFA has decided to remove ALL Citrix servers from its computers at Headquarters. The Citrix server is the downloaded program that enables you to communicate directly with SABRE. It is uncertain whether or not AA is accessing any information from outside computers with this program, however, in this time of intense negotiations, we felt it was best to alleviate the possibility. It is evident from any computer that when you are logged in to webpcfos.com or AA Flight Service, your modem becomes overly-active during these sessions.

That’s it for this week. Don’t forget it’s pins, wings and nametags only on the plane, and for those of you attending Company training, don’t forget your Union Pin! Thanks for calling the APFA HotLine.