5.21.04 – (LAA) – AMR Annual Stockholders Meeting, Fatgue Survey Team, 420 Look-Back, SSI Website, Informational Picketing

Hello everyone. This is Liz Geiss, APFA National Communications Coordinator, with the APFA Hotline for Friday, May 21st, 2004.

The AMR Annual Stockholder’s meeting was held May 19th at the Training and Conference Center. Many shareholders, who also happen to be union members, were on hand to voice their concerns to American Airlines CEO Gerard Arpey. Arpey stated that the “great progress” and “significant accomplishments” at AMR is due to the employees. He continued by saying, “While much work remains to return AMR to financial health, we have nonetheless made tremendous progress during the past year”. A new initiative under the turn-around plan was also unveiled which consists of modifications to the former TWA MD80’s to make them consistent with the rest of the MD80 fleet. It was also announced that CEO Gerrard Arpey, will now take on the role of AMR Chairman of the Board as well.

Washington D. C. Update:

It’s time to contact your Senators and urge their support! On May 12th, APFA members, along with various Flight Attendant unions, visited Capitol Hill and urged Members of Congress to sign on the House and Senate letters to TSA Administrator Stone urging him to develop a mandatory security training program for flight attendants. As of yesterday, over 150 House Members had agreed to sign onto Rep. Peter DeFazio’s letter. We will continue to collect signatures onto a similar letter sponsored by Senator Ernest Hollings until the middle of June.

On the issue of fatigue: As previously mentioned on the hotline, Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) sponsored a fatigue letter for House members. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) is also coordinating signatures on the issue of Flight Attendant fatigue in the Senate. Please go to the Government Affairs page of the APFA web site and click on “108th U.S Senate” for phone numbers, or you can e-mail your request through Capwiz asking your senators to sign Senator Hollings letter regarding security training for Flight Attendants, and Senator Boxer’s letter on Flight Attendant fatigue. Participation from our members is a must!

Taking you around APFA:

• The Contract/Scheduling Department would like to remind Flight Attendants returning from Overage Leaves that many Flight Attendants have yet to sign up for LOA and/or EPT training. Please call the Training Support Desk to sign up at 1-800-999-3632. Although there is no requirement to complete training prior to returning to work July 1st, there are several repercussions for not doing so:
• 1. All training must be scheduled by June 15th, and must be accomplished prior to the end of the leave if the Flight Attendant wishes to hold a July bid.
  2. The company will plot training dates on your schedule once you return without your input.
  3. Once you are deemed “qualification insufficient” (QI), you could immediately begin to lose bidding seniority.
• From the Health Department: The Fatigue Survey Team from the University of Denver was at APFA Headquarters this week briefing the Health, Safety, and Communications Departments on the preliminary results of the web based survey of employee fatigue that was completed by APFA members. Following the briefing, it was decided that follow-up questions regarding fatigue would be made to the members who originally completed this survey. Once the additional research is finalized, we will post the complete survey results on our web site.
• Also from the Health Department, the 420 look-back threshold from May 2003 to May 2004 will be conducted by the company in June. If you did not maintain the 35-hour AVERAGE per ACTIVE month during the previous 12 months, you will be charged the FULL amount of your monthly health benefits (your contribution and the Company’s contribution) monthly, until you have once again reached the 35-hour AVERAGE on any 12-month look-back. You may view your eligibility hours and your threshold requirements in your personal mode in DECS by accessing your HISK (for the current year) and your HISK/L (for last year).
• The APFA Safety Department would like to encourage Flight Attendants to visit the SSI Web site for the very latest safety and security information. The web site has recently been updated. The SSI Web site can only be accessed through the Flight Service Web site. Also from the Safety Department, please be aware that the FAA is currently conducting observations aboard our aircraft. As always, it is important to ensure that your manuals are up-to-date, you are in possession of your FAA required equipment, and continue challenging all individuals for proper identifications. We have been notified that the FAA is issuing individual fines to Flight Attendant.
• The Hotel Department would like to remind you that the APFA continues to meet with the company to discuss the issue of both the Paris and Rome long layover hotels. At this time, no decision has been made on these hotels. We will continue to update date you with any new information via the hotline and the APFA web site.

In Industry News:

AMR American Eagle Flight Attendants will conduct informational picketing at Terminal B at the DFW International Airport on Friday, May 28th. The picketing will take place between the hours of 1300 and 1600. American Eagle Flight Attendants have been in contract talks with AMR for several years. APFA members are encouraged to join our fellow Flight Attendants in this picketing event.

While Retiree Representatives continue to negotiate with United Airlines on reducing medical benefits for retiree’s, an agreement has yet to be reached. United faces a deadline of Friday, May 21, 2004, to ask a bankruptcy judge to impose benefit changes under Section 1114 of the bankruptcy code.

Air Canada reached an agreement with the last of its unions on wage concessions and other cost cuts totaling 1.1 billion Canadian dollars in annual labor cuts. The airline is will transition to a new business model in hopes of returning to profitability.

That’s it for this edition of the APFA Hotline. Please visit the web site at www.www.apfa.org for more information.

There are currently 5,760 Flight Attendants on furlough.

Thanks for calling.