7.08.07 – (LAA) – Status of Active Lawsuits Filed Against Our Union, Non-Reving, Seniority List, Skyword Issue, Chicago Security Badges

You have reached the APFA Hotline for Sunday, July 8, 2007. This is Tommie Hutto-Blake, APFA President.

Periodically, during the last three years, I have reported out to the APFA membership via the Skyword and Hotline the status of active lawsuits filed against our union – the APFA. There presently remain two primary active claims in the federal courts that are all on a potential dismissal track. The courts have ruled in APFA’s favor on many of the claims, but others are still being litigated, at great expense to us – the AA FAs and APFA members. Ultimately, the judges in these cases will either rule to dismiss these federal district court suits or will set the stage for the next phase of the complaints which is a federal court trial. All of these cases are a long way from any formal trial. If the federal judges assigned to these cases rule that a trial is warranted, the final outcome will be further delayed and again extremely costly to our union.

The purpose of my addressing these lawsuits is to pass on to each of you accurate and factual accounts of these disputes. Though historically the APFA “galley communication network” is very active, it DOES NOT always pass on correct information. In order to set the record straight, our APFA Communications Department is presently working toward a fact based active litigation page to be published on our website with both summaries of these different cases as well as the actual court decisions for you to review. I also plan to address these lawsuits yet again in the Fall Skyword. APFA will ultimately print the full judicial opinions in all these cases at the point the various district courts render formal conclusions.

Again, as review, these complaints stem from either the AA acquisition of TWA or the 2003 Restructuring of our 2001 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). One case has already been completely dismissed with no appeal filed. This is the Anthony lawsuit that was decided in the IL Federal Court regarding initially sex and age discrimination claims. The case known as Cooper has completed the discovery phrase (the collection of evidence), with one claim (seniority integration) already dismissed in the Eastern District Court of NY, with the remaining issue regarding the restructuring of our 2001 Contract currently scheduled for the summary judgment motion phase. The final deadline of this three part process in Cooper concerning APFA’s written arguments to dismiss concludes on September 28th. The case known as Marcoux has completed both the discovery phase and the dispositive motion phase. The last written briefs were filed with the judge on June 29th. Many of the original claims in Marcoux have already been dismissed by the court. Thus, the judge’s ruling at present will be to either dismiss this complaint or to find that trial is warranted. Both the Cooper and Marcoux cases are in the same NY federal court.

A few of you have called APFA asking us to stop fighting these lawsuits and just give in to these claims. That simply is not an option. It makes no difference under which administration the suits were filed, or who was in various leadership positions when the relevant events occurred. The suits are against APFA – our union. It also makes no difference that the plaintiffs are a small number of our members. They represent only a tiny fraction of our membership, and what’s important is that APFA did not violate any of its obligations to represent the best interest of the AA FAs under the particular facts and circumstances of the events leading up to these lawsuits.

It is essential that your leadership continue to defend APFA against these unjustified legal attacks. Again, in the weeks ahead APFA will keep our membership updated with accurate information regarding these lawsuits filed against us – the APFA – via the Skyword, our Hotline, and on APFA.org.

And now please stay on the line for the remainder of this week’s hotline. Leslie,

– Thanks Tommie.

This is Leslie Mayo, National Communications Coordinator, with the rest of this weekís Hotline.

From the Vice Presidents Department: Flight attendants commuting or non-reving should not be boarding flights or operating the EGR due to the absence or late arrival of the full working crew. If you are asked to board a Flight, you should explain to the agent that you are not on duty and promptly contact APFA with all information concerning the incident.

It has come to APFA’s attention that there have been instances of crews being forced to fly when illegal or making deals with Crew Scheduling to fly illegal, thus violating the Contract. Please contact your Base Chair or APFA’s Scheduling Department via email or phone if you have been involved in such a situation. All contact information can be found at the top of www.apfa.org’s main Web page under “CONTACT.”

APFA would like to make very clear that it neither endorses nor agrees with the Company’s latest campaign encouraging Premium passengers to send text messages to the Company to report catering, aircraft cleanliness and other issues passengers experience with their flight. Rather than respond to daily FA write-ups on these very same issues, management has decided to offer yet another empty bag to our passengers in an attempt to deflect attention from AA’s (mis) management.

From the Contract Department: The Flight Attendant Occupational Seniority List has been posted on www.apfa.org. Go to Departments – Contract – and click on the link to download the .pdf file containing the updated seniority numbers for 2007.

From the Communications Department: The Summer Skyword should be hitting your mailboxes soon. You can download the latest issue online at www.www.apfa.org – Skyword. The issue includes Willingness To Serve notices for elected negotiators for the APFA Negotiating Team. Please read this issue carefully as it contains a lot of good information on the negotiations process.

Chicago security badges must be replaced before September 1, 2007, in anticipation of the new Guard Post One opening. Those employees whose badges expire by September 30 should renew your badges Monday through Friday from 0700 to 1600 as you normally would. Those with expiration dates from July 9, 2007, to August 9, 2007, will be able to access the OCC Facility. After this date, the OCC Facility will open to all employees, vendors and contractors, which means a longer wait time.

Flight Attendants must first fill out the appropriate paperwork, which can be found in the FYI Center in Chicago. You will need your driver’s license. Non-US citizens will need to complete your alien registration number.

As of September 1, 2007, the current yellow/green badges for ORD employees will become obsolete.

We still have 2,104 Flight Attendants on furlough from American Airlines.

Thank you for calling the APFA Hotline.