3.23.07 – (LAA) – Executive Bonuses, Membership Online Survey

This is Leslie Mayo, National Communications Coordinator, with the APFA Hotline for Friday, March 23, 2007.

APFA ALERT: An important message is on its way to your home address on file with APFA concerning the impending April bonus payout in the form of $200 million in stock to American Airlines’ “elite” senior executives. Soon, you will be asked to participate in lawful activities by your Union to demonstrate our objection and serious concerns over the significant amount of money set to be awarded to less than 1% of AA’s employees on the backs of each and every one of us who sacrificed to save this company from bankruptcy in 2003. All AA employees stepped forward for their share of the sacrifice; it’s time for all AA employees to share in the gains. Stay close to your phone, the Hotline and our Web site at www.www.apfa.org for important messages on how each member can participate.

Over 12,000 responses have been registered at www.apfa.org to the public poll question relating to where $200+ million in bonuses scheduled for an April 19th payout would be better spent. Of the more than 13,000 responses received in the past four weeks, over 12,000 have elected to split the money between all employees.

Another public poll question has been uploaded at www.apfa.org and addresses the Executive Compensation dollar difference from 2002 to 2007 to the top five AMR Executives. Take a moment to register your response to this question. Last week’s public poll question inquiring over the amount of 2007 net profit AA would have to earn before profit sharing pays out in 2008 received 62% correct responses. $500 million in net profit would have to be earned before the profit sharing threshold is met, generating a systemwide payout based on the dollar amount beyond the $500 million for all AA employees.

The APFA Membership Online Survey has been available via www.apfa.org for two weeks and we want to thank all of you for your participation as well as your comments. This is the fourth membership opinion survey of this administration and it is designed to help formulate the position APFA will take with AMR, on the Hill and at the Bargaining Table in 2008. As a reminder, rest assured that all individual results will remain confidential and only percentages of each response will be made available to the APFA Leadership. Keep in mind that even though you are able to visit the survey site more than once, only your first response will be recorded.

Based on suggestions from Flight Attendants the company has agreed to enhanced procedures for processing Domestic Mutual Transfers. You will find a letter addressing the changes on the Contract Department page of the APFA Web site. In addition to the current procedures for pairing Flight Attendants into a pool for Domestic Mutual Transfers as outlined in the Letter of Understanding dated July 17, 2006; the company will add a group of alternate, or ‘buffer’ Flight Attendants to serve as a back-up ‘pool’ should someone more senior on the mutual transfer pool not accept the opportunity to transfer. It is important to note that the Flight Attendants who appear as alternates on the list are not in the actual pairing pool, rather they would only be paired if an imbalance occurred based on the Flight Attendants in the original pairing. Flight Attendants listed as alternates should respond by the preliminary posting period deadline if they would accept the transfer should their seniority be reached. It is our hope this new procedure will result in a successful pairing for all mutual transfers thereby allowing a maximum number of our members to transfer to their desired base.

APFA strongly encourages all members to review their current transfer requests to ensure it accurately reflect transfers you would be willing to accept if offered. Please remove any requests you are no longer interested in accepting. Keeping your name on a list when you are no longer interested could prevent another Flight Attendant from being offered the opportunity to transfer.

Secondary vacation bidding closes at 0800 Central Daylight Time on Friday, March 23. Bids will be posted no later than 6pm on Friday, March 30.

Beginning April 1, 2006 crewmembers will relocate to a new layover property in Rome. Details of the new layover property can found at on the Hotel Department page of www.apfa.org. For the month of May only, please be advised that JFK and IOR crews will layover near the airport for 1/2 the month since the new hotel was nearly sold out for May when this contract was signed. APFA hopes you will be very pleased with this hotel.

Some more good news: we will be moving to a new long New York layover property in the heart of Manhattan beginning May 1st. Visit www.apfa.org for details on this great new hotel.

And finally, the current Frankfurt hotel’s contract has been renewed for two more years. Beginning in May and lasting through September of this year, the hotel plans a multi-million refurbishing project. Please continue to contact the APFA Hotel Department with all of your comments and suggestions at [email protected]. If you would like to receive updates from the Hotel Department, please send an email and your name will be added to these updates. Include your full name, employee number and email address to verify your ID.

From the APFA Archives: As we announced last week, APFA’s current archivist, Cilla Golas (RDU) is preparing to retire and as a result, is assisting APFA in searching for a Flight Attendant interested in archives and her/his union to assist part-time in the APFA Archives. An article contained in the next issue of Skyword includes details of the position. If you are interested, please contact Cilla at [email protected].

Industry News: Virgin America (VA) was granted tentative approval this week by the Department of Transportation to fly within the US. This tentative approval appears linked to the US/European Union (EU) talks over Open Skies. The EU has been demanding that the US raise the percentage of foreign ownership allowed from 25% to 49% . Congress has been unwilling to make that change, so the DOT’s approval of Virgin America could be their way of giving the EU some of what they want. Although the DOT has required that more US citizens become Virgin America directors and that UK CEO Richard Branson be replaced, many feel that Branson will still be controlling the carrier. Labor groups in this country see this as the first act in aviation that allows the foreign camel’s nose under the tent. Please remember that we still have 2,366 Flight Attendants on furlough.

That’s it for this week. Thank you for calling the APFA Hotline.