8.13.04 – (LAA) – DOL Will Count an Additional 16 Uncounted Ballots in APFA Presidential Election, FA Fatigue, Retirement Made Easy, APFA Voluntary Optional Insurance, AA Agrees to pay $3 Million in Fines to Settle Antitrust Charges

Hello everyone, This is Michael Truan, DFW InfoRep Captain with the APFA Hotline for Friday August 13, 2004.

Due to the current weather situation in Florida, American Airlines has had to cancel several flights. If you lose your entire sequence due to a cancellation or illegality, you have an obligation to call crew schedule. Please reference Article 9.P. of the APFA Contract for further information.

As was previously reported on this hotline, the Department of Labor determined that, as part of its ongoing investigation into election complaints filed in connection with the recent national officer runoff election, it would count an additional 16 ballots that were previously cast but not counted in the election for APFA president. That count took place on Thursday, August 12th and the results were as follows:

Of the 16 additional ballots counted, Tommie Hutto-Blake received 14 votes and John Ward received 2 votes. When combined with the previous totals, Ms. Hutto-Blake has received a total of 7,407 votes and Mr. Ward has received a total of 7,400 votes.

The Department of Labor has confirmed that this additional ballot count does not trigger an immediate change in office holder. It is anticipated that the APFA will, in the near future, be receiving additional information from the DOL with respect to its findings with regard to all the pending election complaints. Following that, the APFA Board of Directors will formulate an appropriate specific response to the DOL that will outline its intended course of action. APFA will continue to fully cooperate with the DOL in its conduct of the ongoing investigation into the pending election complaints.

On Wednesday August 11th, ballots for the proposed constitutional changes were counted and certified. The referendum did not pass.

There were 2,728 YES Votes and 5,032 NO Votes. There were 23,995 ballots mailed and only 8,021 ballots returned. You may view the base-by-base breakdown on the opening page of the APFA website under the “Proposed APFA Constitutional Changes” icon.

The National Ballot Committee would like to remind Flight Attendants at JFK, LGA, MIA, and SFO that Willingness-to-Serve Notifications for position of APFA Vice Chairperson at those bases are due by 1000 Central Time on August 25th, 2004. Questions regarding the Willingness-to-Serves should be directed to the APFA National Ballot Committee at APFA Headquarters, extension 8311.

Washington D.C. Update: Have you contacted 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 at this time. 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.

Senator Boxer will also be introducing a Bill in the Senate on flight attendant security training and making it MANDATORY that TSA develop “detailed guidance” for this very important training. This language makes NO distinction between a basic and advanced training program, which means that the carriers would have to pay for flight attendants to be trained for the basic elements and the advanced hands-on. We will soon be posting an additional “ACTION ALERT” on the Capwiz feature of the APFA website.

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: Representatives from the safety department, along with representatives from the following bases will be attending a prototype class for Advanced Crew Member Self Defense training during the week of August 30. Those bases are Chicago, Dallas Fort Worth, Washington D.C., Los Angeles and Miami. This is an exciting opportunity for our representatives to participate in and offer feedback to the TSA on the development of this program.

From the Contract and Scheduling Departments: Due to the reduction in flying for the fall, the company will be offering September bid leaves for most domestic bases. Bid leaves must be requested by August 16 at 0830 CDT. In your personal mode you may enter your request by typing HIPVD and following the prompts.

The “Retirement Made Easy” book has been updated. Log onto the APFA website under the retirement section to view this information.

Although your intentions may be in the right place, please be respectful of other work groups duties on our aircraft. The TWU fleet service group is facing more furloughs and if we clean the airplanes when not scheduled, this could increase the number of their members who get laid off.

From the Health Department: The enrollment period for the APFA Voluntary Optional Insurance has been extended to August 31st. Benefit Counselors will return to DFW Flight Service Operations, from August 9th thru August 20th, to conduct additional Flight Attendant meetings. As a reminder, with the exception of Long Term Disability all benefits are portable when you leave American. In other words, the benefits that you choose now can be taken with you in the event you were to ever leave American. American’s LTD is not portable likewise the APFA Optional LTD is not portable. Please refer all questions to the Benefits Call Center at 888- 219-9459 and speak with the Benefit Communications Counselor. The Call Center is there to address your questions. The Health Reps at APFA Headquarters as well as representatives at American are not authorized to provide you information regarding APFA Voluntary Optional Insurance.

From the Hotel Department: The Company has finalized the long layover review for Paris for the week of August 23rd. We will keep you informed as to the results of this hotel review.

In Industry News:

American agreed this week to pay $3 million in fines to settle antitrust charges. The airline was charged with violating an agreement that prohibited airlines from using a central ticket information system to signal price increases.

On Monday, Delta announced it would dip into its cash reserves to pay certain expenses. Airline management reiterated that it would be forced to file bankruptcy if it could not get costs under control. Delta Management, currently in talks with their Pilots an effort to reach an agreement that would lower overall Pilot costs.

US Airways and its unions are in talks for yet another round of contract concessions. The airline this week said it would offer employees a profit sharing plan in exchange for additional concessions.

Remember, there are 5,527 Flight Attendants on furlough. Once APFA receives an updated seniority list, which includes retirements and resignations since the annual system seniority list was published in June, we will update the number of those on furlough and post the updated list on the web site.

That is it for this edition of the APFA Hotline. For more information, please visit the APFA Web site at www.www.apfa.org

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