11.03.12 – (LAA) – Hurricane Sandy, WINGS FADRF, Me Too Again, Merger Talks, LBFO Implementation, Staffing Changes, Scheduling Changes, Known Crew Member Program

 

Hurricane Pay Protection, Me Too, Implementation  

Daylight Savings Time Ends 

Sunday, November 4th at 0200, Daylight Savings Time Ends. Don’t forget to turn your clocks back one hour. 

Hurricane Sandy
APFA has reached agreement with the Company and achieved several methods of pay protection for those Flight Atttendants whose trips were affected by Hurricane Sandy. The agreement also protects Flight Attendants from being issued any chargeable attendance occurences during the relevant time period. Highlights include full pay protection for entire sequence cancellations that were not eligible for last five day pay protection, as well as full pay protection for mid-sequence cancellations attributable to Hurricane Sandy. Please read the Letter of Agreement for full details.

WINGS FADRF
APFA has heard from several flight attendants affected by the Hurricane this week. We extend our deepest sympathies to those who have suffered damage to or lost their homes as a result of the hurricane. WINGS is here to help FAs who are in need of assistance through the Flight Attendant Disaster Relief Fund (FADRF). Please email [email protected]. WINGS is also accepting tax-deductible donations to the FADRF. If you would like to donate, please send a check to:

WINGS Foundation
ATTN: Flight Attendant Disaster Relief Fund
P.O. Box 610563
DFW Airport, TX 75261-0563

Remember one easy way to help FAs is to recycle all used aluminum cans on every flight and tag each cart containing recyclables. JFK has recently begun recycling as well. All money from these efforts goes to WINGS for Flight Attendants in need.

NY-Based Flight Attendants: Two daily crew shuttles have been added through Tuesday the 6th between Newark, LaGuardia and Kennedy.

• Van 1 leaves Newark at 1300 arriving LGA at approximately 1430. It will return to Newark immediately upon arrival.
• Van 2 leaves Newark at 1300 arriving JFK at approximately 1600. It will return to Newark immediately upon arrival.

AA’s Agents Have A Date
The NMB has set the date for a union representation vote by AA’s agents. The vote will begin on December 4th and conclude January 15th. CWA is the union attempting to organize the agents.

Me Too, Again.
There still seems to be some confusion over the Me-Too Clause that was secured by APFA more than two months ago. The letter of agreement outlining the Me-Too clause continues to be available on the APFA Website. As APA and AA management continue bargaining, APFA and TWU have a Me-Too agreement in place. This agreement ensures, among other things, that any improvements secured and ratified by APA in the midst of bargaining will be proportionately credited to the other two workgroups as well. APFA continues to keep track of any potential savings the pilots may enjoy while they continue to negotiate. The Me-Too includes any savings realized by management and non-management groups alike and continues until all groups have reached deals, or six months after the company exits bankruptcy, whichever comes first. Click here for the full text of the Me-Too Letter of Agreement.

Merger Talks Still Ongoing
Confidential talks between US Airways and AA continue under the Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). No public updates relating to a potential merger will be made until the NDA expires, talks break down or a deal is made and ready for announcement. This a long and obviously frustrating process for everyone due to the required silence of this undertaking, but APFA remains confident that the only viable option for AA’s success is a merger with US Airways inside Bankruptcy.

LBFO Implementation Update
Changes to Transfers, Proffers and Mutual Transfers/Laterals
Changes to transfers, proffers and mutuals as provided by the tentative agreements reached with management during regular Section 6 bargaining became effective on November 1. These changes were made as a result of flight attendant feedback. Highlights of these changes include:

• FAs will no longer have the ability to rescind a domestic transfer or domestic/international mutual transfer, once awarded.
• FAs will no longer be able create self-pairings for international mutual transfers.
• FAs will be able retain a transfer or proffer even if they are in a non-flying status on the effective date of the transfer/proffer provided they can report to the base prior to the 15th day of the month the proffer is effective.

As a result of these changes all transfer and proffer preferences were purged at 0900 on November 1, 2012. If you desire a future transfer, proffer or domestic/international mutual you must reenter you preferences. Keep in mind you must keep your preferences up to date and remove any preference you are no longer willing to accept as there is no opportunity to decline once any of these are awarded. Mutual pairings for both domestic and international will be made from the regular standing transfer and proffer lists. Notice of transfers and proffers will be made at least 7 days prior to the close of a transfer or proffer giving FAs the opportunity to add or remove their preference. Both domestic and international mutuals will be paired every month on the dates indicated on the Mutual Transfer pages on the Crew Resources page of Jetnet. Since mutual pairings are made from the regular transfer/proffer lists you also need to make sure your preference is current by the date of each month’s mutual pairings.

Staffing Changes
Changes to our contractual staffing language went into effect on November 1, and as a result, the company has made changes to staffing for both domestic and international. These changes are reflected on the November bid sheets. While APFA no longer has the ability to file a presidential grievance as a result of the change, APFA retains the right to monitor unreasonable workloads and marginal service conditions as a result of the changes assigned by management. As with past staffing changes, APFA continues to rely on feedback from the membership to monitor any unreasonable workloads on board the aircraft.

If you are unable to complete work assignments per standard practices within the allotted times due to staffing or service changes, email [email protected] and include as much detail as possible. The details of an unreasonable workload will be important for APFA to be able to affect changes to staffing and service levels implemented by management.

Scheduling Changes
Scheduling changes implemented November 1st include the renaming of our current scheduling maximums of Option I and II to No-Option and Option.  A No-Option FA will have a scheduling max of 100 hours while an Option FA may exceed 100 scheduled hours.

Availability changes for Reliefs (RL) and Open Replacement (RP) now provide for one set of rules for both and those FAs may fly into or out of AVBL days in day before coverage, MU, and when pre-plotting/self-plotting (will require a phone call for the time being). No more restrictions on plotting turns; they can now be plotted anywhere within a block of AVBL days. Scheduling may only schedule AVBL FAs up to 85 PROJ hours while a FA may self-plot up to 100 SPROJ hours now.  GTD (actually flying the hours before release) requirement has been eliminated and FAs can now be released from their AVBL obligation once their PROJ has reached 80:01 for those not AVBL on the last day of the month and 82:01 for those that are AVBL on the last day of the month.
 
New domestic on-duty limitations allow for scheduling up to 14 hours with an operational on-duty max of 16 hours between 0600-2059.  Night time duty days are capped at a scheduling max of 12 hours with an operational max of 14 hours  Please note that those flying a West to East all nighter leg (departing after 2100 Local Base Time) and/or transcon leg will be limited to the nighttime duty max.

Known Crew Member Program (KCM)
An HI6 message was sent to all Flight Attendants regarding the Known Crew Member (KCM) program and our involvement. APFA has been an advocate for AA flight attendants securing access to the KCM portals since the program’s inception when it was first tested for pilots. APFA President Laura Glading had numerous meetings with the TSA Administrator’s office in Washington, DC, to advocate our inclusion, and APFA’s Safety & Security Department worked with AA’s Joint Security Committee to push our inclusion into the program.

AA Flight Attendants have yet to be entered into the database system governed by AIRINC, the company contracted by TSA and A4A to manage the KCM database system for all airlines. AA is currently working with AIRINC on entering AA FAs’ info so that we can take advantage of this program.

Details on KCM procedures will soon be available on the APFA web site under the Safety & Security Department, the Crew Security web site and the Flight Service web site. APFA encourages FAs to visit the Known Crew Member web site to access more information including the airports that provide a KCM portal as well as its specific location at each of the participating airport terminals. Contact [email protected] with any questions.

Daylight Savings Time Ends
Sunday, November 4th at 0200, Daylight Savings Time Ends. Don’t forget to turn your clocks back one hour.

AmericanAirlines + US Airways 
“Our Future Depends On It”

Leslie Mayo
APFA National Communications Coordinator