9.04.21 – APFA ORD Base Brief – October 2021 Allocations

Saturday, September 4, 2021

Happy Labor Day weekend ORD!

Retirement Seminar

The APFA Retirement Department is conducting a Retirement Seminar on Monday, September 13. Join us in the West Conference room (above the ticket counters) from 1100 until 1400.

• Important Checklist for VEOP Participants

 

Attendance

New COVID case numbers are rising at an alarming rate due to the Delta variant. During this uncertain time, Flight Service has announced a change in the attendance policy regarding sick calls. Since the start of the pandemic, the Company has not been assessing sick calls with points in the attendance policy. That came to an end on August 15th.

APFA was successful getting the Company to agree to restore any banked points deducted for sick calls during this period. An attendance audit is being conducted and is expected to be completed in October. Keep an eye on your MyView – Attendance/Performance and contact your FSM for any attendance discrepancies.

Representation

JCBA Section 35.R. defines your contractual right to have Union Representation present for all meetings with the Company. This includes your FSM, HR and Corporate Security. We are here to support you! If needed, reach out to local reps prior to these meetings.

Contract & Scheduling

It is no secret that the operation has been running on fumes and crew schedule/tracking has been getting very creative when covering open trips. APFA HDQ has been fighting this and so have you. The recent series of Contract/Scheduling hotlines was meant to arm you with a clearer understanding of JCBA language, helping you feel confident challenging any reschedules. Knowledge is power!

The July 31st hotline dealt with the Company trying to force Lineholders on additional flying in the form of a double up sequence. (tagging extra flying to the end of the trip). We have had Flight Attendants successfully challenge CS and not get the RS. Yeah! ORD APFA was successful getting all Missed Trips (TMs) brought to our attention in this time frame removed without a grievance.

ORD filed a Base Notice of Dispute (NOD) over Trip Trade System (TTS) incorrectly unsetting Red Flag pay on sequences in violation of the Red Flagging Open Time in TTS Letter of Agreement regarding JCBA Section 10.H.6 – Red Flagging Open Time. It is not a widespread problem but does need to be addressed. Because there are so few cases, we are asking for the Company to establish a manual process for pay through DirectConnect. Please complete an APFA Scheduling System Issues report if you have been impacted.

ORD filed a base NOD for the Company violating JCBA Sections 10.J.2a & b., 10.J.7 and 10.J.10 – Rescheduling and JCBA Section 10.L. – Last Sequence of the Month Pay and Credit by not pay protecting Flight Attendants for carry-over sequences that change in value from the original awarded/published sequences. ORD Representatives are compiling a list of effected sequences back into 2020. Moving forward, if you have a carryover sequence that loses time on the monthly change-over please fill out an APFA Scheduling System Issues report at APFA.org.

Staffing

No surprises in the October staffing numbers, which are similar to September. Systemwide Reserve percentage is 16.2%. ORD is at 15.2%, with 289 total Reserves. The expected line average at PBS opening is 82.3, a little higher than we prefer but close to the system number 82.4. We voiced our concern over the line average and the potential impact on having a minimum restriction in the PBS run. We should see more changes as the headcount increases when EVLOA Flight Attendants return, and hopefully ORD will see new hires soon as well.

Allocations

APFA leaders have not stopped fighting for better sequence build. We took our growing list of issues beyond the normal Company participants on the monthly allocations call. There have been a lot of changes in the Upper Management of Crew Resources, Crew Manning and Crew Planning. This is a good thing. We have Julie Hedrick and her team to thank for hearing base concerns and beating down the door to get these new Management leaders to hear us. We do see improvements in the October allocations. Small, but a step in the right direction. We remain cautiously optimistic more improvements will come.

ODAN starts per day increased to 15.7 versus September 6.5. We will keep an eye on this number which might be a little high. The good thing is many have the longer ground time, which is desirable.

Please be kind to each other, and stay safe out there!

In Solidarity,

Susan Wroble
APFA ORD Base President
(630) 802-2268
[email protected]

Dray Howard
APFA ORD Base Vice President
(630) 215-8410
[email protected]

Justin Patterson
APFA ORD Base Council Representative
(509) 720-0067
[email protected]