4.9.19 – Speaker Letter of Agreement – DFW, ORD and PHL Bases

Last week, the Company informed APFA of a shortage of speakers in specific languages and bases. The Company had concerns that they could not staff the routes of ORD-ATH, DFW-AMS, PHL-ATH and PHL-DBV (start-up June), with even one speaker.  The Contract allows for American to determine the staffing level of speakers on required flights under JCBA 15.A.1. Due to the shortage, these markets would not have been able to staff the routes with even one speaker.

To protect these speakers, APFA worked with the Company to come up with a solution for these markets.  APFA did not want the flights to go without speakers, especially since ORD-ATH is an inaugural route starting in May. This would have brought harm to both the speakers and non-speakers by not having a speaker on board.

There was also concern having a speaker designated position without the correct number of speakers needed to cover the one position. This would have resulted in a negative impact on the percentage of Open Time for both daily and monthly limits at the base. The unfilled speaker position would have fallen into Open Time under JCBA 15.F.1., The open trips would have had to follow the speaker designated position up until the day before/day of, before it would be offered to a non-speaker.

A designated speaker position is processed is in the following order:

1. TTS Speaker
2. UBL Speaker
3. ROTA Speaker
4. ROTD Speaker
5. UBL Non-speaker

 

Late Sunday afternoon, the APFA reached an Agreement with the Company regarding the flights the Company could not adequately staff with speakers for the month of May. These are the three (3) routes mentioned above.

The Company agreed to a base exception for ORD, DFW and PHL. This exception will allow the speaker to be an “add-on” position for the month of May only. This means the speaker is not part of the crew complement but an extra position. June moving forward until the end of this seasonal flying in 2019, ORD and DFW will staff with one speaker as part of the regular crew compliment.

Example:

DFW – AMS market is flying the 777-200. It will be staffed with ten (10) non-speakers and one (1) “add-on” speaker totaling eleven (11) Flight Attendants in May 2019. 

We will have further discussions on the PHL staffing for ATH and DBV for June forward. There are currently GR and CR speakers in new hire training scheduled to graduate mid-May.

Understaffing pay, as described in JCBA 3.E., will only apply if a flight departs with fewer Flight Attendants than required for the normal crew complement. Meaning, if the normal crew complement is ten (10) and the flight has an add-on speaker, understaffing would kick in if the flight departs with nine (9) Flight Attendants.

In Unity,

Becky Lydecker
APFA National Scheduling Chair
[email protected]Michael Truan
APFA DFW Base President
[email protected]Susan Wroble
APFA ORD Base President
[email protected]Kim Kaswinkel
APFA PHL Base President
[email protected]