1.28.16 – Snow Storm Jonas/Grievance-NOD Update/Elections

Thursday, January 28, 2016

• Snow Storm Jonas
• Grievance/NOD Update
• Elections

Snow Storm Jonas

It was almost three (3) years ago, shortly after I took office, that a snowstorm quite like Jonas occurred in Charlotte. Jonas, similar to that particular storm resulted in scheduling nightmares. Trips were cancelled and rescheduled without calls from Scheduling, Contract violations were made, hotel rooms were not scheduled or crews in hotels were being forced out of rooms because they could not get authorization to remain in those rooms. We even had new hires left out for extra days with no money for food. Hundreds of calls came into Charlotte and I am sure thousands throughout the East Coast. With all the calls going into scheduling, no one was answering these calls and no one got answers. The Union still has the same phone numbers to get issues addressed. We were all fighting for the same phone lines and the same people. I had requested a separate phone line for the Base Presidents and Vice Presidents during that earlier storm so we could streamline calls to get emergency issues corrected immediately. As of today, there is still not a number that we can call to address Flight Attendants in urgent need.
 
I would like to thank Base Council Representatives – Nicole Darak, Gabby Harty, Thomas Houdek, and Wanda Sarnacki, for their help and dedication to the Flight Attendants in helping to field these calls. I would also like to thank Management for allowing commuters to have space positive transportation and hotel rooms in advance of the storm and help provide transportation once Charlotte opened again. I would lastly like to thank all the crewmembers for being patient with us as we tried to get their issues resolved. 

Grievance/NOD Update

We had three (3) base Grievances that were filed last July for premium pay, vacation/vacation matrix, and crew portal. Of course none of them were able to be resolved at the base level and were turned over to our Regional Representative Glenda Tally. As of today premium pay has been resolved, vacation is in the works as I write and nothing yet on crew portal. Individual Notice of Disputes (NODs) are being taken care of with each Flight Attendant. For clarification, NODs are listed by Base, Group, and Individual. When more than several Flight Attendants are affected, BASE NODS are filed, more than one and up to several, a GROUP NOD is filed. If it is an action that involves 1 Flight Attendant, it is an INDIVIDUAL NOD.
 
Today, APFA and the Company are meeting regarding the PBS violations that occurred in December. When a critical need is to be assigned to a Flight Attendant, it is my personal opinion that it needs to be started from the bottom up and not the top down. Four days to one days – bottom up. We are still attempting to get the Company to off the 3% rule since that allows no flexibility in our schedules. Flight Attendants live on being able to flex their schedule and roadshows promised that we would still be able to do that. Wrong!

Elections

I was personally disappointed at the results of the number of people who did not elect to vote for the National Leaders that will be in office for the next 4 years. I understand that we have had pretty much everything taken away that we all coveted here at LUS but not voting will never help to get those things back. The failure to vote means you’re okay giving these items up and not willing to fight to get them back, it takes a village to do that and every vote counts even if who you voted for does not win. With your vote you voice your concerns. Not voting means you could care less. PLEASE VOTE in the Run-off. Ballots are due by 10:00 CT February 18, 2016. Please contact the National Ballot Committee (NBC) at [email protected] or 817-540-0108, ext. 8311 to receive your access code if you have not received ballots and instructions. Any questions you may have can be answered by the committee. Candidate information is available at www.www.apfa.org. Please note: you cannot change your vote once it is cast.

Thank you,
 
Cathy Bossi
APFA CLT Base President
[email protected]
704-941-7356