5.14.22 – A Message from Your APFA Leadership- May 14, 2022

Saturday, May 14, 2022

Yesterday, APFA National Officers Julie Hedrick, Larry Salas, Josh Black, and Erik Harris attended a portion of the Forty-Ninth AFA-CWA Board of Directors Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada. In the past, APFA Leadership attended this meeting but has not joined since 2011.

Your Leadership took this opportunity to address the delegation and build on the power of collaboration and solidarity that helped us navigate through the past few years, which can only be described as the worst shock in the history of commercial aviation.

APFA Leadership along with leaders from American’s wholly-owned subsidiaries of Envoy, Piedmont, and PSA.

Together, APFA, AFA-CWA, and TWU-556 (Southwest Airlines)- represented Flight Attendants spearheaded the fight to secure a $63 Billion financial lifeline that kept airline employees connected to pay and healthcare. The Payroll Support Program and its extensions would not have come to fruition without the collective unification of airline employees, and Flight Attendants across the industry playing a leading role.

APFA and United Airlines leadership.

Speakers joining the meeting via video to thank unions for their work to save good union jobs included:

• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
• Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
• Representative Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, who stood behind airline employees every step of the way.
• Airline Pilots Association Int’l (ALPA) Captain Joe DePete.
• Richard Johnsen, General Vice President, Air Transport Territory, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW).

All four National Officers took this opportunity to connect with Flight Attendants leaders across 19 AFA-represented airlines. These conversations included but were not limited to:

• United Airlines Negotiating Committee, and plans to meet with them soon to ensure support for one another at the bargaining table.
• Continued support for our colleagues at American Airlines’ wholly-owned subsidiaries Envoy, Piedmont, and PSA. For example, during the pandemic, APFA was instrumental in approaching management to reverse their decision not to extend Pandemic Leave provisions to Piedmont Flight Attendants.
• Talking with Delta AFA activists present at the meeting, and offering APFA’s unwavering support for the organizational drive at Delta Air Lines.

Over the past few years, we have seen Labor collaborate on everything from enhanced onboard safety protocols to lobbying Congress to protect our healthcare and mitigate the massive layoffs that faced the industry as the pandemic took hold.

APFA and Alaska Airlines leadership.

We will continue to focus on securing contractual gains within the entire industry. APFA, TWU-556 (Southwest), and several AFA carriers are in Section 6 negotiations. We discussed the importance of supporting each other as discussions at the bargaining tables intensify. Flight Attendants across the industry are demanding major improvements after getting the industry through the COVID-19 period. By working together we will strengthen all of our bargaining.

We look forward to extending invites to fellow Flight Attendant leaders to attend portions of our Board of Directors meeting this fall. Everything we do will be solely focused on improving the work lives of Flight Attendants at American and industry-wide.

In Solidarity,