9.28.04 – (LAA) – Recall Notices in the Mail, SAN Satellite Base Test

Today is Tuesday, September 28, 2004 and this is an important update for APFA members. This is Tommie Hutto-Blake, President of APFA.

AA and APFA are officially announcing on today’s date that recall notices are in the mail to 610 formally furloughed AA Flight Attendants. Foremost, I want to welcome back these APFA members who will soon be on active status. Secondarily, I want to take this opportunity to remind all of us the importance of being represented by a labor union. Being able to have the right to return to a protected job is due to our collective efforts of negotiating a contract that represents the interest of the bargaining group as a whole.

Over fifty years ago, the American Airlines Flight Attendants first won the right to be collectively represented with one voice. As an organized workgroup we have had our challenges down through the years, some really tough challenges. Certainly, in the last three years we have seen some of our most daunting hurdles, and we, without a doubt both as members of this union and employees of this Company, still have a difficult road ahead of us. But having a bargaining agreement in place that preserves the right to return to active status following a reduction in force and seeing that agreement work for us, first hand, is something to be proud of in a collective spirit.

To our members who will be receiving recall notices in the next few days, we look forward to welcoming you back to the line on November 17th. The most junior flight attendant receiving a notice of return to AA has a seniority date of March 22, 2001 with a seniority number of 20121. Following the clearance of the current base transfer lists, our recalled Flight Attendants should be assigned to the bases of LGA, BOS, STL and DCA.

In accordance with the terms of our contract the 610 recalled Flight Attendants will have 10 days following the post-mark on your recall letter to return in writing your acceptance or rejection of this recall. The Company must offer re-employment within 21 days following this post-mark date. Thus, by mid October we should know the exact number of Flight Attendant’s accepting the recall and the exact dates of scheduled recurrent training.

As a reminder the recall notices have been mailed to the address of record for each recalled Flight Attendant. If you are a furloughee make certain your current address is accurate.

I will close this Hotline update on another subject. Management has made us aware that they consider the SAN satellite base test a success and they give credit for that success to the Flight Attendant’s who fly out of the SAN satellite. And these Flight Attendants deserve the credit. They organized among themselves, volunteered their time, worked together and with LAX APFA and management representatives to make and keep the satellite cost effective for the Company and convenient for would-be commuters. Given this success, management is ready to discuss the possibility of the parties establishing other test sites for satellite bases. We have been given the numbers for possible test sites and are in the midst of reviewing these possibilities.

If you are a domestic commuter Flight Attendant living in one of the following cities and would consider volunteering your time in researching and participating in such a test please contact your local base management, your APFA Base Chair and/or the APFA contract desk and let them know you have an interest in this proposed project. Be ready to give your contact information for future follow-up. The possible satellite base test cities that are currently under review by APFA and AA are MSP-ORD, MCO-MIA, TPA-MIA AND ATL-MIA. We realize there are other cities with large numbers of commuters. If new satellite bases are created through mutual agreement and they are as successful as SAN, other satellites may soon follow.

Now, please stay on the line for the remainder of this week’s hotline.