1.31.21 – APFA PHX Base Brief – January 31, 2021

Sunday, January 31, 2021

PHX Flight Attendants,

The saying, “The Winds of Change,” has never been more accurate. This past year has, and continues, to challenge our industry, our airline, and especially our PHX base. The pandemic has rocked the global community decimating our industry and directly affecting our job security. This has resulted in furloughs and displacements of hundreds of our co-workers.

As we move forward, your base leadership will test and put into place communications for more timely and updated hotlines, as well as establishing online/virtual base meetings. A global pandemic does not mean less communication; in fact, it demands we find improved and more efficient ways to communicate with our base.

My goals for our base are simple:

• Contract Education
• Enhanced Communication
• No Less Than Three (3) Base Meetings per Year
• Utilization of BCRs in Their Areas of Expertise/Interest
• Encourage and Mentor Flight Attendants in Union Work
• Transparency with How Your Dues Dollars are Spent
• Acknowledge and Learn from Our Errors

Beginning today, January 31, Gene Labat will serve as interim PHX Base Vice President through March 31, 2021. Gene brings well over 30 years of experience working within the Union structure and has long been a service to this base.

We will be meeting with all Base Council Representatives (BCRs) on a bimonthly basis as they will have an active role in our base. This includes the two candidates for PHX Base Vice President: Secorra Flowers and Michelle Wentworth. Both will be invited to work within the Union’s structure as BCRs beginning in February. The two-year term for the newly elected PHX Base Vice President starts on April 1. We will hold our first meeting with the BCRs on February 2 and a PHX Base Brief to the PHX membership will follow.

We want to take this opportunity to thank outgoing PHX Base President Mischel Babi for her service to our base. Mischel began her Union work early in her career at America West Airlines and then US Airways by volunteering at the AFA office, answering phones, helping Reserves, and then onto mobilization. Mischel stepped in as acting Vice President in 2016 and in 2017 was duly elected as the new PHX Base President, where she served two terms until her displacement on 1/31/21. We send best wishes to Mischel in her new base of DFW.

To those displaced and furloughed Flight Attendants, please know you are in our hearts. The PHX base will always be waiting to welcome you back with open arms.

In closing, it is vitally important that our base remain engaged and informed. We cannot allow ourselves to be or perceived to be victims. No longer should we utter the words, “Forgotten in the desert.” We are not victims. We are PHX Strong!

In Solidarity,

Robin Agee
APFA PHX Base President
480-238-2303
[email protected]