7.08.15

July 8, 2015

This Hotline is a re-send from the July 6 CLT Base message – at the request of the CLT Base President – which contains a few edits.

Scheduling

It seems as if our problems with the PBS related programs, ISAP, ETB, and the Reserve scheduling issues, on the crew portal, will never end. The union was only responsible for the actual PBS programming and the Crew portal systems are the responsibility of the Company. After months of complaining, the Company is now working with our JIRC team and listening to our concerns. We also now have flight attendant Beta testers to insure the improvements work before being tested on our line flight attendants.

Speaking of the JIRC team, I would like to thank them for coming out with their weekly updates on the changes we can expect to see in PBS. Our JIRC team consists of Scott Barnes (PHX), Laura Albert (PHL & DCA), and our newest member Emily Arner-Brown (CLT).  Emily has been a PBS trainer in CLT since its inception and is well versed in PBS. We again thank the JIRC team for providing us with this weekly newsletter.

Conference Call

At the request of our Charlotte flight attendants, we have been imploring the Company, Scheduling, and the IT team to attend a base meeting to address your questions and concerns. Logistically they could not get everyone in the same area at the same time. We have just been informed the Company will instead conduct a series of conference calls that will allow the Flight Attendants to discuss our real-time concerns and their plans as we go forward. We believe that while they can’t be in CLT or any other base this will be a “next best” solution. This will also give the flight attendants that cannot physically be in CLT, to call in and participate. The days and contact numbers will be provided by the Company sometime during the week of July 6, 2015.

PBS/Crew Portal Training

The Company has agreed to keep the PBS trainers in the crew rooms through the month of November. According to data received from the first few months of PBS awards, there are very few program errors, and the majority of our problems are user errors. While we still have these trainers at our bases, it would be a great time to set up an appointment to have them look over your bids and to help avoid mistakes in the future. CALL – 480-693-8232 or [email protected] (As a reminder, if you feel you have a PBS computer program error, you only have until the 23^rd of each month to file a claim in order to be protected under the contract language).

Charlotte Base Meeting

Charlotte will be conducting a local base meeting July 22, 2015 @ the Charlotte Douglas Auditorium (above the food court) from 10am – 4pm. Because the CLT meeting rooms are extremely hard to get and off site rooms are very expensive, we will be splitting the time between a general base meeting and a special period of time for new hire/reserve Q&A’s. Official times will be posted soon.

APFA Retirement Chair in CLT – September 2015

Looking into retirement? Patrick Hancock, APFA Retirement Chair will be in Charlotte September 9, 2015 to provide you with retirement information. I have also asked Catherine Sharp Health National Chair to join us September 9th, to discuss the various health plans available under the LAA program that we choose in 2016.  Stay tuned for further information.

EAP/Professional Standards

PLEASE DO NOT go directly to the Company if you have issues with fellow flight attendants. We have an EAP/Professional standards committee that you should contact first. Punishing your fellow Flight Attendants by going to the Company is not the answer.

Please also consider calling your EAP if you just need to talk. There are many changes we are all experiencing during the last year with this merger and our EAP reps are here to listen. These are your EAP reps in CLT:

• Charles Buck (BCR) – [email protected]
  980-275-0659
• David West (BCR) – [email protected]
  317-525-2874
• Eloise Dean (BCR) – [email protected] 
  910-352-9020
• Melissa Anthony (BCR) – [email protected]
  704-909-8822

Finally… Union Representation – Weingarten Rights – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NLRB_v._J._Weingarten,_Inc. 

This is a quick link to a user friendly review of your rights to having a union representative with you if you believe there is a disciplinary issue. You can also directly link to this at NLRB v. J. Weingarten, Inc., 420 U.S. 251 (1975) this will direct you to the case law and legal reviews of the case by leading law schools and scholars. We have seen some FSM’s not giving Flight Attendants the opportunity to seek union representation with the New American Policies. Please take the time to review this particular case just for your future references. 

In Unity,
Charlotte Base Representatives