12.02.14 – (LAA/LUS) JCBA Arbitration Prep, Q&As

   

December 2, 2014

APFA leadership, members of the Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) and APFA’s arbitration attorneys met in Washington, D.C., today for final preparations ahead of tomorrow’s interest arbitration. APFA is prepared to achieve the best arbitration award possible within the parameters of the NPA in order to deliver a mid-contract improvement of $112 million above the current combined contracts’ value.

APFA will provide updates from the arbitration throughout the next few days.
 
Q: Why were cuts only taken out of wages?
A: In order to equalize the joint contract and achieve parity between the two legacy work groups, the APFA leadership and the JNC took the value out of the wage scale alone. Any other cut (i.e. health care, 401(k), premium pay, sick or vacation) would have created an imbalance between LAA and LUS in the resulting joint contract.

As a reminder, the arbitration award must meet the following parameters in accordance with the NPA:

1. Equal to market based in the aggregate; and
2. Greater than the value of the LAA current contract as applied to pre-merger LAA Flight Attendants; and
3. Greater than the value of the LUS current contract as applied to pre-merger LUS Flight Attendants

 
Q: Why did the top-of-scale rates see proportionately more cuts than the lower pay steps.
A: 75% of the combined workgroup is at the top of the pay scale. Equal percentage cuts across the board would have lowered certain pay steps to below the current rates for some Flight Attendants.

Leslie Mayo
APFA National Communications Chair