7.09.04 – (LAA) – BOD Passes Resolution that NBC Will Expiditiously Prepare Balloting Materials and Ballot Membership of Proposed Changes to the APFA Constitution

Hello everyone. This is Michael Truan, DFW InfoRep Captain, with the APFA Hotline for Friday, July 9th, 2004.

The APFA Board of Directors passed Resolution #2 at a Special Board of Directors meeting on May 4th and 5th 2004. This resolution states that, “The National Ballot Committee shall expeditiously prepare balloting materials and commence balloting of the membership on the proposed changes to the APFA Constitution”. A packet has been mailed to all members in good standing for review. In this constitution booklet, items in red print are the proposed changes to the current APFA Constitution.

Ballots for the APFA Constitutional changes will be mailed to all Flight Attendants on July 12th, 2004. Ballots must be returned by, 0900 Central Time on August 11th, 2004. To view this resolution, please refer to the EC/BOD meeting dated May 4th and 5th, 2004 on the APFA web site.

The Flight Attendant Seniority List was released on July 1, 2004. Per the AAL/APFA contract, the company shall post this list on its bulletin boards at all stations where Flight Attendants are based system wide. The APFA has posted the seniority list on the APFA web site. To view this list log onto, www.www.apfa.org and the list can be found under the current issues icon. Please refer to Article 14 of our contract for more information.

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 you 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 -16th, 2004 at LAX, LGA, JFK, BOS and STL
• Beginning July 19th, at SFO, SJC, DCA, BWI, IAD and RDU-I

Washington D.C. Update: Time is running out to contact your Senator on the issue of Flight Attendant Fatigue. 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. 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. You may also obtain a list of senate 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 website and start sending those letters and making those calls.

Taking You Around the APFA

From the Safety Department: Local FAA will be out in Boston this weekend checking flight attendant manuals. As always, it is important to ensure that your manuals are up-to-date, you are in possession of your FAA required equipment, and that you continue challenging all individuals for proper identification. Manuals MUST be up to date when a crewmember reports for duty. The FAA can check your manual at trip origination or termination, and if found non compliant, they CAN fine you for each leg flown.

From the Hotel Department: The APFA met with the company today to continue talks on the issue of the Paris long layover hotel. As a result of this meeting, another long layover hotel review will be conducted in August 2004. We will keep you up to date as more information becomes available.

From the Health Department: There has been a great deal of interest generated by the announcement of new APFA sponsored Optional Insurance Benefits. Please log onto the APFA web site to learn more about them. On the home page there is an icon that will link you directly to the elect benefits web page. For specific questions, please direct your call to the Benefit Counselors at 1-888-219-9459 and speak with a qualified representative who will answer your questions.

From the Scheduling Department: The scheduling department has received several reschedule reports without proper documentation. Some information is not accessible through SABRE after a certain amount of time, and because of this, some of the reschedule reports cannot be processed. It is imperative the scheduling department receive all documents listed on the green reschedule report in order to research your issue.

In Industry news: American announced June traffic results this week. The load factor for the month was 79 percent. For June, traffic increased 8.2 percent over last year, while capacity increased 7.9 percent. International traffic increased 18.2 percent on a capacity increase of 19.3 percent, while domestic traffic increased 4.0 percent, with a capacity increase of 3.1 percent.

American reported that fare prices remained relatively unchanged despite rising fuel prices.

American Airlines boarded 8.2 million passengers in June.

Delta Air Lines might land in bankruptcy if it can not get over $1 billion a year in concessions from it’s pilots union. CEO Gerald Grinstein was quoted in a memo to employees stating that, “last year’s estimated cuts would not be enough to survive”. Delta is seeking to cut an additional $2.5 billion a year in expenses.

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

There are currently 5,527 flight attendants currently on furlough.

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