6.02.07 – (LAA) – AA Issues HI6 Message Regarding Passenger with Tuberculosis, FAA Reauthorization Act, Executive Bonuses, Skyword Express, 30th Anniversary of APFA

This is Leslie Mayo, National Communications Coordinator, with the APFA Hotline for Saturday, June 2, 2007.

AA has issued an HI6 message with information on the health risks associated with the passenger with Tuberculosis who traveled on Air France earlier this week. If you have further questions, please contact WEBMD via Jetnet, or call AA Medical or the APFA Health Department at 817.540.0108, ext. 8290.

APFA News: Earlier this week, APFA sent a message to all members with email addresses on file to contact their Senators and Representative in an effort to urge Congress to include OSHA coverage of Flight Attendants in the upcoming FAA Reauthorization Act. For those of you who are not familiar with OSHA, it is an agency created under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 designed to prevent work-related injuries and illnesses by issuing and enforcing workplace standards. Please go to the APFA Web site and click on the link: OSHA Protection to send an email to your State Senators of Representative regarding this very important issue.

The Associated Press released a news story on June 1, 2007, entitled: “AMR Defends Executives – Stock Sales.” To read the text of this article go to www.apfa.org and click on Executive Bonuses. As you know, APFA filed a “Request For Investigation” with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on May 16, 2007, accompanied by supporting documentation for the SEC’s investigation. APFA has received no information to date from the SEC regarding its investigation.

Last week, AA announced that 146 furloughed Flight Attendants accepted the notice of recall. This week, AA announced base assignments for our returning members. Ninety-four returning furloughed FAs will report to LGA, 25 to BOS and 20 to DCA. We welcome our APFA members back to the line and ask each and every Flight Attendant to welcome and assist our returning co-workers in every way possible. Remember we still have 2,121 furloughed members still awaiting recall.

Skyword Express will be mailed next week and contains information on the contractual furlough language, messages from APFA Base Chairs urging AA to recall our members, and a chronological editorial by former STL Base Chair Greg Bertolini of APFA’s efforts to persuade AA to recall outside of opening up our Contract. If you would like to discontinue receiving Skyword and Skyword Express via USPS and instead download your copy to read on your computer, send an email to [email protected] with your name, employee number and request APFA stop mailing Skyword/Skyword Express to your home. When a new copy is available, it will be linked from this Hotline.

APFA will be holding its Quarterly Executive Committee meeting next week beginning Wednesday, June 6, 2007. The meeting will be held at APFA Headquarters and all members in good standing are welcome to attend.

On Tuesday, June 5, 2007, APFA will host a small celebration in honor of the 30th anniversary of our Union. All members in good standing are invited. Festivities will begin at 4:00 p.m. and last until 7:00 p.m. and will be held at APFA Headquarters. There will be an open house with tours of the building, archives of our history displayed, hundreds of photographs, Wings, Airline Ambassadors and the 9/11 Memorial Foundation reps available as well as former and current APFA Representatives, union members, families and friends. If you would like to attend, please contact 817.540.0108, ext. 8200, or email [email protected] to RSVP. Please include your name and the number of guests so that we can plan accordingly. Hope to see many of you there.

Those of you who have ordered bricks in honor of APFA’s 30th Anniversary to be placed in Headquarters’ entryway and have not yet sent payment, please do so as soon as possible. The first round of bricks will be ordered soon and if your payment has not been received we cannot create your inscribed brick. You may arrange payment with APFA Accounting at [email protected]. We accept Paypal, checks or credit cards. Also, you should designate which fund you would like the proceeds to go to: Wings, Airline Ambassadors or the APFA 2008 Negotiations Fund. If you haven’t ordered a brick and would like to, visit www.www.apfa.org.

Last week marked the 27th anniversary of the crash of AA Flight 191. 191 took off from Chicago O’Hare airport on May 25, 1979, and crashed just a few minutes later killing all 271 people aboard including 13 crewmembers. If you would like to know more about this tragic accident go to wikipedia.com and enter “American Airlines Flight 191” in the search window.

Industry News: The Northwest Flight Attendants ratified their Tentative Agreement this week by a less-than-one percent margin. This was the third T/A they have voted on since NW declared bankruptcy. The FAs were operating under imposed work rules in bankruptcy. Of the 6,442 members eligible to vote, 90.5% cast their ballots. The Associated Press reports that FA pay now tops out at $35,400 as opposed to $44,190 before the company filed bankruptcy. To read the full text and/or highlights of the new Contract, go to www.nwaafa.org.

A few days after the ratification of the NW FAs’ contract, Northwest emerged from bankruptcy. Northwest was the last bankrupt network airline to emerge from bankruptcy following the attacks on September 11, 2001. NW has cut its debt by $4.2 billion including $1.4 billion in labor costs.

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