9.10.04 – (LAA) – National Coordinator Confirmations, Remembering 9/11, Coordinator Summits, Short-Term Manning Problem, TWA Seniority Integration

This is Leslie Mayo in APFA Communications.

We would like to welcome the following Flight Attendants who were confirmed by the APFA Executive Committee as National Coordinators to serve the remainder of the term ending April 30, 2006:

Safety Coordinator – Lonny Glover (ORD)
Contract Coordinator – Brent Peterson (JFK)
Health Coordinator – Patty French (IOR)
Hotel Coordinator – Dane Townshend (JFK), and
Scheduling Coordinator – Jamie McNeice (DFW)

We would like to thank all of you who participated in APFA’s first National Coordinator Summit these past few weeks and appreciate all of the input that was provided.

Please stay on the line for the rest of the Hotline.

Good evening, APFA, this is Tommie Hutto-Blake, APFA President with a hotline message for Friday, September 10, 2004.

It hardly seems possible that Saturday marks the third anniversary of 9/11. I know each of us observes this tragedy in our own special way and we will never forget our lost crewmembers, family members, community members and friends. I am proud to be associated with such an outstanding group of women and men – the American Airlines Flight Attendants – and I know that you will continue to keep those we lost that Tuesday morning in September only three years ago in your hearts this weekend whether you are in the air or on the ground.

And just as those of you in Florida are attempting to clean up after Hurricane Frances, Ivan, a Category 4 storm is rearing its ugly head – scheduled for U.S. landfall as early as Sunday. Please do not hesitate to let the Company or your Union know what you need to take care of that which is most important – the safety of you and your families.

Three APFA Representatives met in Chicago this week with three members of management in an attempt to have impact on the AA FA Attendance Control Policy. The Company had been prepared for yet another revision to this unilateral policy effective October 1st with no input from APFA prior to my taking office. However, AA has agreed to consider APFA’s request to review these new changes, providing our feedback prior to the implemention of any changes. We will keep you posted on the progress of these discussions. A full report will be given of this progress during the APFA Executive Committe Meeting next week at APFA HDQ. As a reminder this policy is not a negotiated item it is a unilateral corporate policy that APFA is attempting to enhance and affect a more positive change for our members.

APFA held three separate Coordinator summits this week that proved invaluable in not only providing an opportunity to meet with eager and experienced candidates for the positions of Safety, Scheduling, Contract, Health and Layover Hotel department heads, but also in gathering a number of excellent ideas to make APFA more proactive and efficient within these departments. I would like to thank all of you who participated in this first Coordinator Summit, and special thanks also to those who assisted me in facilitating these summits.

Candidates from each of the five departments will be invited to present their ideas to the Executive Committee at our Quarterly Meeting scheduled for this Tuesday, September 14th at APFA Headquarters beginning at 10:00 a.m. An announcement will be made on this Hotline on Wednesday the 15th with the names of the five Coordinators confirmed by the Executive Committee to serve for the remainder of the term ending April 30, 2006.

You should receive my letter to each of you in the mail shortly. Accompanying this letter is your new APFA Membership Card. Please remember to carry it with you and keep it safe. It can come in handy in the event of a Company investigation with regard to your rights as an APFA member, and it may also secure other benefits from union-friendly businesses.

Finally, as my team and I forge ahead with our plans to reunify this membership, you can track our progress beginning next week on the APFA web site by clicking on the “First One-Hundred Days” icon on the main page.

Thank you for calling and now, please stay on the line for the rest of the APFA Hotline. Leslie…

Thanks, Tommie.

This is Leslie Mayo in APFA Communications with the remainder of the APFA Hotline for Friday, September 10, 2004.

None of us will ever forget where we were the morning of September 11, 2001. As we remember this day privately or with friends, family or at work, there are events scheduled throughout the country to mark this anniversary. Each one of us as American Airlines Flight Attendants will forever be tied to this day on so many different levels. Whether you’re in New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., Dallas, or San Francisco, please check the APFA Web site at www.www.apfa.org if you would like to commemorate this day with some of your fellow crewmembers.

As Tommie mentioned, all members should be receiving the President’s Letter via first class mail soon. If you do not receive this letter by Monday, September 20, 2004, please email [email protected] with your full name, address, employee number and birth date for identity confirmation, and in the subject line, please write President’s Letter. This will allow APFA to update your information on file, and trigger the President’s letter to be sent to your correct address along with your new APFA membership card.

With Ivan on its way and a short-term manning problem resulting from the aftermath of Frances, APFA and the Company have agreed to extend the Hurricane Frances Letter of Agreement signed September 3, 2001, for 72 hours after the current LOA expires on Saturday. As a reminder, this letter provides for International volunteer flight attendants to proffer for Domestic Make-Up and Option II flying only after all Domestic Make-Up and Option II flying has been granted. This letter will remain in effect through Tuesday, September 14th.

After having spent the past two weeks in the Communications Office following a more than two-year hiatus as the Northeast Division Rep researching facts and presenting Flight Attendants’ cases in front of the System Board Department, I am surprised at the amount of time and money APFA spends responding to individual phone calls and emails regarding rumors without foundation. These rumors are damaging and are based on nothing but fiction. They spawn from a specific group of people who appear to have a lot of time on their hands and a divergent agenda designed strictly to cause harm to the unity of APFA.

As you know, your Union has an uphill battle to fight and falling into the bottomless pit of galley gossip will not make this a stronger organization. Please don’t tumble into the rut of perpetuating these rumors. Check the APFA HotLine and our Web Site’s rumor control page to confirm or deny any rumor you hear. If it’s not addressed there, please email us at [email protected] so that we can add your rumor to the page along with a response as quickly as possible.

Primarily, the rumor that seems to have a life all its own is the TWA Seniority Integration rumor and Tommie’s position on this issue. No, Tommie is not altering the TWA Seniority Integration Agreement in any way. No, Tommie will not be mediating a settlement on behalf of the TWA Flight Attendants to gain some of their seniority back. As Tommie has stated since day one when these rumors began at the onset of the National Officer Elections in 2003, as well as in her first Hotline as APFA President on August 25, 2004, her Letter to the Membership on its way to your homes, in several individual emails and phone calls to our members, and I’m sure in her sleep, I quote: “The fear campaign is over – or will be shortly – because I am here tonight to assure you, the APFA members, that along with all of my other responsibilities as president of our union – I remain fully committed to the APFA Board Resolution regarding the Seniority Integration Agreement. I will vigorously protect, enforce, and defend the standing Integration Agreement as it was passed by the APFA Board of Directors in April of 2001.”

Please allow this administration the time it will take to prove their stated position on this very important issue. You will not see a change of course on this topic. End of story. Thank you.

Flight 2573 from White Plains to Chicago flew as the final Fokker 100 flight September 8, 2004. American purchased 74 Fokkers, and they have all since been retired.

USAir is on the brink of filing for Bankruptcy protection this Sunday after talks between ALPA and the airline over more concessions broke down. If they file, it will mark USAir’s second bankruptcy filing in as many years. We wish our fellow union members at USAir every good wish throughout their struggle.

That’s it for this week. Thank you for calling the APFA HotLine. This HotLine will be updated Wednesday to announce the new National Coordinators who will fill the remainder of the two-year term.