3.18.22 – APFA Annual Board of Directors Convention Recap – Part I

Friday, March 18, 2022

APFA Annual Board of Directors Convention Recap Part I:

-National Officer’s Update
-Negotiations Update
-Distinguished Service Awards

The APFA Annual Board of Directors Convention was held at the Westin Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas on March 8th-10th, 2022. The meeting opened with the National President’s remarks, which included information about the state of our Union, current issues facing our members, and an acknowledgment of the worsening humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.

To view the final agenda for the meeting, click here.

Presenting the National Officer’s Update (click photos to enlarge):

Top Left: Josh Black, National Secretary.
Top Right: Julie Hedrick, National President; Erik Harris, National Treasurer.
Bottom: Josh Black, National Secretary.

Top Left: Government Affairs Representatives Allie Malis (DCA) and Lori Glattly (DCA).
Top Right: National Vice President Larry Salas; National Treasurer Erik Harris.
Bottom: National Secretary Josh Black, National Contract Chair Jeff Petersen (LGA), National Scheduling Chair Marti McMillan (CLT).

National Treasurer Erik Harris and National President Julie Hedrick address the Board of Directors

Julie Hedrick and Erik Harris address the Board of Directors. Seated from L to R: John Nikides (LAX), Susan Wroble (ORD), Amber DeRoxtra (DFW), Christian Santana (LGA), and Robin Agee (PHX).

National Officer’s Update

This year’s focus: CHANGE! In our update, we walked through how we have changed, updated, and modernized APFA. We talked about the importance of changing APFA to meet the needs of our membership and our plans to make this Union more effective by changing how we care for our members.

Topics included (click all photos to enlarge):

• Modernizing our Union through upgraded technology- moving to Microsoft Teams as a hub of collaboration for the entire Union, allowing Leadership and Membership to connect virtually. To date, over 40 Virtual Town Halls have been held on topics ranging from Retirement to Reserve Refreshers, as well as local virtual meetings held at LGA and PHX. The virtual Town Halls have proven incredibly popular, so stay tuned for more to come!
• Microsoft Teams used to conduct internal APFA Leadership meetings, from Weekly Leadership Meetings to All-Union Leadership Briefings.
• Microsoft Teams allowed APFA to conduct the first Quarterly Membership Meeting, which was an opportunity for each Department to educate and inform the Membership on current events with their respective Departments. The next quarterly membership meeting is planned for Tuesday, June 14th, 2022, from 1230CT-1430CT.
• Microsoft Teams is used as the central hub for our Contract and Scheduling Representatives to monitor and interact with Base Leadership during irregular operations to help crews with contract questions faster and more efficiently.
• Microsoft Teams serves as a central communication hub for the Safety and Security Department during any incident in which the ‘Go-Team’ is activated. Teams also allows National Safety and Security Representatives to communicate in real-time with Base Leadership during a critical incident.
• Updates to modernize APFA Headquarters, including an expanded Negotiator Room and a much larger 1,425 square foot meeting space which will allow more meetings to be held at headquarters, thereby reducing expensive hotel meeting room charges for trainings, arbitrations, Board briefings, and other APFA meetings. Headquarters updates also include a larger Vice President conference area. Former Regional Representative and National Ballot Committee offices are now repurposed as flex spaces for out-of-town Leadership and Committee Members to work when visiting DFW.
  
  
  Note: For the 2021 Fall BOD numbers in the image above, it is important to note that the contracts for room blocks and meeting space often include a minimum food and beverage charge that requires us to provide those meals through the hotel. Using the newly created meeting space at APFA Headquarters for more meetings (such as the Board Briefing in the image above) will help us avoid extra costs incurred when using meeting space at hotels.
• Desk Representatives are working remotely, which has not only saved APFA thousands of dollars in hotel costs but has allowed departments such as Contract and Scheduling to expand desk and live messaging hours to be more available to the Membership.
• An update on the Archives Room Project, where over 35,000 files dating back to 1962 are being digitally scanned into Unionware, APFA’s internal database, for quick retrieval.
• A major overhaul of the Negotiations section of the APFA website allowing for increased transparency and visibility into the negotiations process.
• Increased financial transparency, including an increase in documents* available to Flight Attendants as part of your Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (LMRDA) and APFA Constitutional Rights. This is in addition to the Financial Reform Initiative at the March 2021 Annual Convention which included seven resolutions to further ensure the responsible use of your Union dollars.
  *HI1’s are property of American Airlines. APFA does not have permission to share HI1’s with the Membership.
• Continuing financial reform with APFA, including collaborative budgeting, department representatives working remotely, replacing the expensive APFA Mitel phone system with Microsoft Teams phones, and the use of PA/AR removals (flat rate of 5 hours per day) to ensure equity and responsibility with trip removals for pre-planned Union meetings.
• What’s Next? It’s all about the data! APFA will improve the ability to store and analyze data across all bases, including red flag and reserve utilization data, to name a few. Future data collection will be housed in Memberlink, a centralized digital data system allowing easier access and analysis by APFA Leadership to recognize trends and collectively address issues more efficiently.
  
• Continuing to move towards a website where you are able to access the tools you need while you are working. While the navigation reorganization and the negotiations section of the website are complete, there is still much work to finish. Future enhancements and updates include Base Pages, System Board of Adjustment, Forms, Resources, Polling, a new ‘On the Job’ section, and a homepage redesign.
• Current Union finances.

Negotiations Update

Your APFA Negotiating Committee presented a comprehensive update to APFA Leadership. The update included a presentation on the opener for all remaining sections, including Sick, Vacation, Benefits, Expenses, Compensation, and the Scheduling/Reserve and related sections. As communicated in the most recent Negotiations Update, once this opener on the remaining sections is presented to the Company, it will be distributed to the APFA membership for review. For an update on the negotiations status of each section of the JCBA and past communications from the Committee, please visit the updated Negotiations webpage on the APFA website.