6.25.04 – (LAA) – BOD Passes Resolution that Dues Will be 38 Dollars per Month, FA Fatigue, Quarterly EC Meeting, Supplimental Medical and Disability Plans, Domestic Mutual Transfers, OE Flexibility

Hello everyone. This is Liz Geiss, National Communications Coordinator, with the APFA Hotline for Friday, June 25, 2004.

You asked for it, you got it! The APFA Board of Directors passed resolution #3 at the May 4th & 5th BOD meeting. This resolution states that “as soon as administratively possible, through April 30, 2006, APFA voluntarily waives collection of $3.00 per month in required dues payments so that the required monthly dues payment will be $38 per month.” The resolution continues by stating that “effective May 1, 2006, the full regular monthly dues requirement of $41 per month will be reinstated.” APFA has the ability to open contract negotiations with American Airlines early in May 2006. The new amount of APFA Union dues will appear on your July 15th, paycheck in the amount of $19.00 per pay period. Please refer to the May 4th-5th BOD Resolution on the APFA Website under EC/BOD meetings to view this resolution.

Washington D.C. Update: Time is running out to contact your Senator on the issue of Flight Attendant fatigue. Senator Boxer’s office will continue coordinating signatures for several weeks. The Boxer letter is posted under the icon “ACTION ALERT” on the opening page of the APFA web site, which will take you directly to the Capwiz feature. This feature allows you to submit an e-mail to your Senator asking for his/her support and requesting that they sign on to this letter. Senator Boxer’s letter is asking the FAA to review and recommend changes to the flight attendant duty and layover rest regulations for flight attendants. Once you have sent your letter, click on TELL-A-FRIEND to send up to six flight attendant friends an e-mail message and allow them to respond with their own letter. Please pass the word to all of your flying partners, and ask their assistance in contacting congress on this very important issue. You may also obtain a list of phone numbers for the senate offices by going to the Government affairs page of the APFA web site and clicking on 108th Congress-U. S. Senate. We need our voices to be heard in Washington, so log onto the APFA web site and start sending those letters and making those calls.

Complaints regarding the recently conducted APFA National Officer elections were filed by Ted Bedwell, Sherry Cooper, Tommie Hutto-Blake, Juan Johnson, Linda Lanning and Sam Morales, first internally within procedures provided by the APFA Constitution, and then with the Department of Labor. The Department of Labor is required to investigate such complaints and it is presently engaged in that process. We will provide further information when we are informed of the results of that investigation.

The quarterly APFA Executive Committee Meeting will be held on Monday, June 28th at the Embassy Suites Hotel, Boston Logan Airport. The meeting will begin at 1000 ET. All members in good standing are welcomed to attend all open portions of the meeting.

The APFA Executive Committee passed resolution #8 on April 13, 2004, which calls for the rotation of Executive Committee meetings among the various base cities. Such rotations began in the second quarter of 2004. As meetings of the Board of Directors or Executive Committee are confirmed, we will continue to notify the membership via the APFA Hotline and post the information on the Calendar of Events on the APFA Web site.

The APFA is pleased to make available to you a number of various supplemental medical and disability plans. APFA Flight Attendants will have the opportunity to meet individually with non-commissioned Benefit Counselors to learn more about these voluntary benefits. Please remember, you must be an active Flight Attendant, on payroll, to apply for these benefits. Once your have enrolled, your payment will be payroll deducted. If you should go to an inactive status after your enrollment, you would be billed for the amount. Benefit Counselors will be available in Flight Service Operations areas beginning June 21st, 2004.The schedule for these educational meetings are as follows:

• Beginning June 21st, 2004 at DFW, MIA, and ORD
• Beginning July 12th, 2004 at LAX, LGA, JFK, BOS, and STL
• Beginning July 19th, at SFO, SJU, DCA, BWI, IAD, and RDU-I

Taking you around the APFA:

From the Hotel Department: The APFA has been notified by the company, that effective July 1st, the Paris layover hotel will be changing locations. The new hotel will be an airport location, with a short-term contract of three months. The APFA remains hopeful that during these three months, the parties will be successful in securing an acceptable downtown hotel.

From the Contract Administration Department: Domestic Mutual Transfers will be pulled at 0830 CT on July 1st, 2004, for an effective date of August 1st, 2004. Please remember to update your 3* information prior to this deadline.

From the Scheduling Department: The OE flexibility is up and running. Please visit the scheduling page of the APFA website for more information on trip trading with Optional Exchange Trips. Please remember that any trade with an OE will result in all trips involved becoming an OE. This will impact your monthly projection (PROJ) and your monthly schedule projection (SPROJ).

From the Health Department: We continue to get questions from Flight Attendants concerning the frequency of being drug tested. The Department of Transportation has very strict guidelines that the airline industry must adhere to. These guidelines are monitored by the DOT. For random testing, covered employees will be selected for random drug testing through a scientifically valid method. American uses a computer-based random number generator to randomly select employees for testing. Random tests will spread reasonably throughout the year and will be unannounced. The random selection formula generates a series of random numbers to compare with the employee numbers of employees in a DOT safety-sensitive “covered” position. The random selection process is run once a month and the employee is placed back in the “pool” every time a selection is run, regardless of whether or not they were selected previously. This means that an employee could be selected 12 times in a year. The computer then looks at each selected employee’s work schedule to see when the test can be scheduled during the month. Once the test is completed, then they should not be rescheduled during that month. American is required by FAA regulations to random test 25% of covered employees (all safety sensitive employees, not just Flight Attendants) for drugs, and 10% for alcohol each year and the DOT and the FAA monitor that data. If you are being tested MORE than once a month, please let us know.

In Industry News:

United Airlines revised its application to the ATSB for a federal loan guarantee after its second bid was rejected. The previous application request of $1.6 billion was lowered to a $1.1 billion request, in hopes of approval. United Airlines described in this new application the initiatives it has taken to cut costs further. Tilton didn’t specify where the additional cost cuts would come from. Dawn Deeks spokeswoman for AFA which represents 21,000 United Flight Attendants stated, “We’re watching it very closely because the flight attendants have already given $314 million a year (in concessions), so being asked for further concessions is a concern at this point”.

The American Arbitration Association has certified the results in the run-off election for APA National Officers. Newly elected APA President- Captain Ralph Hunter, Vice President – First Officer, Sam Bertling, and Secretary-Treasurer – First Officer, James Eaton will serve a three-year term starting July 1st, 2004.

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

Thanks for calling.