7.29.22 – APFA Reaches Summer Pay Protection And Improved Holiday/Incentive Pay Letter Of Agreement (LOA)

Friday, July 29, 2022

APFA Reaches Summer Pay Protection and Improved Holiday/ Incentive Pay Letter of Agreement (LOA)

Last week, American Airlines entered a large cancellation package into FOS, which affected August sequences without notifying APFA or the Membership. During the recent “State of the Airline,” CEO Robert Isom stated that they were removing some flying from the schedule to increase reliability within the operation.

Each month, APFA Leadership participates in staffing and allocations calls with American management before the finalization of the bid sheets. Consistently, APFA has pointed out to management that staffing is inadequate for the scheduled flying. The monthly PBS bid award summaries paint a clear picture of the problem: double minimum constraints appear in nearly every base, and in some bases, the constraint begins with the number one bidder.

Our closest competitors have addressed their staffing inadequacies and removed capacity earlier in the season. American continued to assure Flight Attendant and Pilot Union Leadership that they would be able to operate the robust schedule with the current staffing. The company’s Workforce and Network Planning departments’ decisions have negatively impacted our quality of life and paychecks. Flight Attendants have faced justifiably irate customers while being repeatedly rescheduled, only adding to the frustration and uncertainty of an already long, hot summer.

Part I: Pay Protection Exception for June – August 2022 for XI-coded Removals

APFA has reached agreement with American management on a Letter of Agreement (LOA) that will offer affected Flight Attendants pay protection over and above the pay protections included in our JCBA without any Flight Attendant obligation. The pay protection portion of the LOA includes:

• Pay protection for Lineholders awarded sequences originating in the bid months of June– August 2022 and Reserves awarded sequences originating on days off that the Company has cancelled or will cancel with an XI removal for reasons other than weather, maintenance, and air traffic control cancellations.
• Pay protection for all XI-removed full sequence cancellations, for both line holders and reserves as described above, that were included in the August critical ops packages issued on 7/21/22, and the critical ops package anticipated on 8/21/22.
• Lineholders may conduct TTS/UBL/ETB transactions that would result in flying on day(s) pay protected by this LOA, and such time flown will be paid in addition to any applicable pay protections in this LOA. Reserves may conduct ROTA/ROTD/ETB transactions that would result in flying on day(s) pay protected by this LOA, and such time flown will be paid in addition to any applicable pay protections in this LOA.Please note: For the purposes of XI-removed full sequence pay protections in this LOA only, using all of the system tools (TTS/ROTA/ETB) to fly on a pay protected calendar day will not negate pay protection. For all JCBA pay protections (for example: XR, LS, DC, FI, removals shown on your HI1), using ETB to fly over a pay protected calendar day will negate your pay protection.
• There is no obligation for Flight Attendants to receive this pay protection and filing a Direct Connect will not be necessary.
• For the month of August 2022, American may use mass CCI notifications for any modifications and/or reschedules to a sequence that occurs more than two (2) days prior to the origination date of the affected sequence.

Part II: Improved Holiday and Incentive Pay

In addition to the pay protections for full sequence cancellations, the LOA also includes a permanent contractual improvement to the holiday pay contained in the JCBA, which will be paid to all Flight Attendants working on a Holiday or an Incentive day, regardless of how you obtained the trip. This holiday and incentive pay has no ‘perfect attendance’ components; you just need to fly on the applicable holiday or incentive day.

Yesterday, at the second quarter 2022 APFA Executive Committee meeting, the Executive Committee unanimously approved the improved holiday and incentive pay changes to the JCBA. As a result, the holiday and incentive pay will become a permanent replacement for JCBA Section 3.J. The holiday and incentive pay portion of the LOA includes:

• Holiday Days, which will pay a premium of 100% over the Flight Attendant’s base hourly rate based on the greater of scheduled or actual hours flown (including reschedules) on a holiday day(s), paid above guarantee for Reserves, including flying that crosses midnight Local Station Departure Time and touches a holiday day(s). The following nine (9) days are designated as holiday days:

• Wednesday before Thanksgiving Day
• Thanksgiving Day
• Sunday following Thanksgiving
• Monday following Thanksgiving
• December 24th
• December 25th
• December 26th
• December 31st
• January 1st

• *New: Incentive Days, designated by the company at any time, will pay a premium of either 50% or 100%, as determined by the company, over the Flight Attendant’s base hourly rate based on the greater of scheduled or actual hours flown (including reschedules) on an incentive day(s), paid above guarantee for Reserves, including flying that crosses midnight Local Station Departure Time and touches an incentive day(s).

• Incentive day pay of either 50% or 100%, as determined by the company, will be in addition to any applicable Red Flag sequence pay.

• Holiday and incentive day pay will not apply to JCBA premiums such as Lead, Galley, International, Speaker, etc.
• Flight Attendants serving airport standby or who have a report/no fly event will be eligible for holiday and incentive day pay.
• Holiday and Incentive Day pay will need to be programmed for both Pilots and Flight Attendants, and until programming is complete, crew members will be paid as soon as practicable. Once programmed, these incentives will be paid out in our normal pay cycle. APFA made it clear to management that ‘as soon as practicable’ is not an acceptable timeline for payment.
• Hours flown as a scheduled On-Duty All Nighter (ODAN) in a single duty period that touches a holiday or incentive day will be eligible for the holiday or incentive day pay.

To secure these improvements, the APFA System Board of Adjustment (SBA) Department reviewed all the outstanding Presidential Grievances, agreeing to the following changes to active grievances and securing dates for several Presidential Grievances that are taking far too long to hear.

APFA has agreed to withdraw certain Presidential Grievances that largely have had their issues resolved but have remained open, including:

• Inclusion of Non-Recurrent Training in Recurrent Training 2019 (SS-108-2019-APFA-3).
• Purser Training (Recurrent) 2019 (SS-107-2019-APFA-2).
• Crew Accommodations 2018 (SS-133-2018-APFA-6).
• 767 Staffing 2015 (SS-85-2015-APFA-7).
• Airbus A321 Galley (SS-28-2014-APFA-1).
• Implementation of ROTA/ROTD (SS-187-2018-APFA-8).

Upcoming arbitration dates for Presidential Grievances:

• Transoceanic International Pairing Construction- SS-89-2018-APFA-5- November 9th and 10th, 2022. 
• Family and Medical Leave Caregiver Leave- SS-13-2020-APFA-1- December 6th and 7th, 2022.
• Crew Accommodations and Transportation- SS-76-2021-APFA-1- February 21st and 22nd, 2023.

We are in the process of scheduling dates for several of the remaining Presidential Grievances in early 2023, including our Reduction in Staffing Levels Presidential Grievance. Securing arbitration dates has been challenging due to the limited number of arbitrators available. APFA has a backlog of grievances that were unable to be heard during the height of the pandemic.

This summer continues to be a challenge, to say the least. Thank you for doing the best job possible for our customers despite these continued challenges.

In Solidarity,

APFA National Officers
APFA Executive Committee
APFA Base Presidents