10.20.07 – (LAA) – Health Benefits Selection

This is Leslie Mayo, National Communications Coordinator, with the APFA Hotline for Saturday, October 20, 2007.

October is Health Benefits month at American. APFA members have until October 31st to make benefit selections for the year 2008. Go to JetNet and click on benefits. Be sure to review the changes made by the company to next year’s plan before making your selections. If you do not want insurance through American, you must access JetNet and indicate you are declining insurance. If you have any questions, please contact APFA’s Health Department during hours of operation – M-F, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

With the recent furlough recall announcement, increased headcount and base transfers come into play. With that comes an unprecedented challenge for APFA and AA regarding base assignments for our recalled members reporting to base on either November 13th or December 18, 2007. APFA has worked with AA to ensure that seniority prevails when our recalls receive their base assignments. This solution was reached following extensive discussions between various departments at AA, the APFA Contract and Scheduling Departments and the Base Chairs and Vice Chairs of the base representing the FAs while on furlough and the bases representing the FAs upon their return.

The following will apply to a small number of recalled FAs reporting to LGA or DCA on December 18, 2007: A limited number of bid lines will be included on the December bid sheet that contain Reserve days from December 18th through January 16th and days available for the remainder of January. The FAs holding these special selections will be a small number of those recalled FAs reporting to base on December 18th. This process will allow for a greater number of FAs from the first wave of recalls to be able to report to their first or second base choice in seniority order, as well as allow for efficient coverage of Open Time for AA during the critical manning period in the last two weeks of December. Further details will be posted on APFA’s Recall page at www.www.apfa.org. While this has been a challenging issue for APFA, we are pleased that the challenge is due to our finally having some recalls returning to the line! Thanks to all parties involved in finding a resolution to this unique situation.

Several airlines reported 3Q earnings this week. Southwest Airlines reported $162 million net profit compared with $48 million in the same period last year. This was SW sixty-six (66th) consecutive profitable quarter. Delta reported a $220 million profit, compared with a profit of $52 million a year ago. AMR reported $175 million in income for the quarter ending September 30, 2007, compared with $15 million in the same quarter last year. The highest quarterly revenue in Continental’s history brought it to a 3Q net profit of $241 million, compared with $237 million earned in the 3Q last year.

In their press release following the report, Continental’s President Jeff Smisek calls Continental employees his “co-workers.” On the other hand, when asked about the upcoming negotiations on the property with all three unions during AMR’s earnings call Wednesday, our CEO told analysts that what he needs to do is “educate” the unions and the work force about AMR’s competitive position and the parties will come to an agreement that helps everybody. APFA would like to remind the CEO of our company that the unions have been educated on AMR’s competitive position for the past two years as we were forced to watch hundreds of millions of dollars land in senior executives’ pockets. That was not a gesture intended to benefit everyone. Bargaining will certainly be an education, and there is no doubt what AMR’s position is.

Section Six bargaining begins in March ’08 as APFA “notices” AMR of our intent to open. With that, it is the American Airlines Flight Attendants’ turn to educate management on our position. We will be the first FA union to enter negotiations under the RLA since the bankruptcy cycle began following 9-11. The Southwest FAs are scheduled to begin bargaining shortly after us, in June of ë08. It is APFA’s goal to reverse the downward bargaining spiral of the past five years and move forward on behalf of the FA corps. The direct involvement of our members will be key to the success of this effort.

Crew Resources has posted changes to the master bid sheet for November for the following bases: BOS-D, BOS-I, LAX-I and SFO-D. Please go to www.apfa.org and click on Scheduling on the right side of APFA’s main page for details of these changes.

We still have 1,460 APFA members on furlough waiting to be recalled. Visit www.apfa.org and click on the link entitled “Extend Recall Rights for Furloughed AA FA’s” to let the Senate know you support the extension of recall rights for our furloughed Flight Attendants.

Thatís it for this week. The APFA Hotline (800) number should be up and running next week as we transition to an upgraded version of this recorded message. Thank you for calling the APFA Hotline.