11.13.03 – (LAA) – Flight 587 2nd Anniversary

This is Jeff Bott, APFA Vice President, with an APFA Hotline Update for Thursday, November 13, 2003.

Yesterday marked the second anniversary of the loss of our colleagues from Flight 587. Our thoughts are with their families today. To Barbara, Joe, Carol, William, Debbie, Michelle, Wilmer, Ed and Sten, we miss you terribly.

On another topic, APFA has good news to announce: we have consistently voiced our concerns to the Company that the current Attendance Policy does not provide Flight Attendants with a reasonable means to clear their record, in addition to the fact that the policy is viewed as punitive by not taking into account the prior good attendance record a Flight Attendant may have had. The Company has listened. Today I am pleased to announce the settlement of three Presidential Grievances on the Attendance Policy. The settlement, reached with AA’s Flight Service and Human Resource Departments, marks a culmination of efforts to resolve some of the fundamental problems with the Flight Attendant Attendance Policy.

APFA Representatives from the System Board department, specifically Susan French, Patt Gibbs and Patrick Hancock, IDF-based, and Lenny Aurigemma, Boston I-based, assisted me in discussions with the Company for several weeks – leading to this resolution – and I wish to thank them publicly for their assistance.

Specific details will be posted on the APFA Web site, but a brief overview is as follows:

In order to monitor the effectiveness of these enhancements, three trial periods have been set. Our goal is to provide our members with valuable improvements while reducing the negative impact of absenteeism on Flight Attendants.

Trial Period 1 will run from November 15, 2003 through January 15, 2004
Trial Period 2 will run from January 16 – June 30, 2004
Trial Period 3 will run from July 1 – December 31, 2004

If the pre-determined lost time limitation goals are met system-wide both daily and at the end of each of the test periods, the new enhancements will allow our members who do not incur a disqualifying instance during each separate period to either move back a step if they are beyond the Attendance Policy’s Base Level; or if at base level, accumulate flexibility points (up to four) which may be redeemed for a reserve day off or a non-chargeable, non-progressible PO. The reserve day for which a Flight Attendant requests release must touch an existing duty free period on the Flight Attendant’s schedule. Those Flight Attendants requesting PO’s will have the option to be paid or not paid for this PO using accrued vacation days from the following year’s vacation.