10.30.22 – APFA 2022 Fall Board of Directors Meeting Recap

Sunday, October 30, 2022

APFA 2022 Fall Board of Directors Meeting Recap

The APFA Annual Board of Directors Convention was held at APFA Headquarters on October 26th-27th, 2022. The meeting opened on Wednesday with the National President’s remarks, which included:

• A recognition of the chaotic summer operation and the effects on Flight Attendants. While our competitors addressed staffing inadequacies and removed flying earlier in the summer, American forged ahead with a much larger schedule. While we were encouraged by the uptick in travel demand, Flight Attendants faced justifiably irate customers while facing repeated reschedules and losing pay.APFA was able to secure pay protection for staffing issues caused by these issues, secured contractual improvements to our holiday pay, and negotiated incentive day pay for future staffing issues.
• Discussion of the abrupt announcement from management on the closure of the San Francisco Flight Attendant base and the disruptions caused to our 403 SFO Flight Attendants and their families.
• Information and discussion about APFA’s attendance at Labor Notes 2022, where APFA joined over 4,000 Union Leaders and Activists to build power within the Labor Movement to fight against corporate greed.

click all images to enlarge

Labor Notes 2022

• Update on the struggle for implementation of the Federal Aviation Regulation (FAR) legislation, which increases Flight Attendant FAR rest from eight hours minimum rest hours to ten hours. Implementation will occur no later than early 2023. When we legislate, we do not have to negotiate, so provisions that increase our rest and enrich our pay protections are of utmost importance to all Flight Attendants. Thank you to everyone across the Labor Movement who moved this legislation across the finish line.

10-Hour Rest

• Section 6 negotiations continue, and our Contract ACTION Team, supporting the APFA Negotiating Committee, continues to grow. One goal of this administration is to increase transparency and accountability across the Union, an example of which is located on the negotiations page of the APFA website. Instead of the old approach of forcing Flight Attendants to make rushed decisions after reaching a complete tentative agreement, we are giving a front-row seat to the process by letting everyone view both APFA and management proposals in every section open for negotiations. The feedback on the new negotiations approach has been overwhelmingly positive, and we will continue to make frequent updates to the website with the latest information.
• The need to build power at Delta Air Lines, where Flight Attendants are working around the clock to secure Union representation through AFA-CWA.FACT: Delta pays millions per year less than United and American for Flight Attendant costs like pay, benefits, and working conditions. In turn, having a large group of non-Unionized Flight Attendants creates a drag on contract negotiations throughout the industry. That is why Delta spends unlimited amounts of money to keep Unions off the property by hiring union-busting firms. Every Flight Attendant group has a stake in Delta’s Flight Attendant organizing campaign. Earlier this summer, APFA passed a resolution in full support of the efforts of the Delta Flight Attendants.

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

APFA 2022 Fall Board of Directors Meeting, APFA Headquarters

---

National Officer’s Update: ‘The Power of Collaboration’

Collaboration across APFA remains strong. Weekly Board of Directors virtual calls continue, along with monthly all Union virtual calls, to ensure all of your Union Representatives have the most updated information. This collaboration helps ensure Flight Attendants receive accurate answers to questions.

During the update, resolutions passed include:

• Updating certain grievance guidelines and procedures.
• Updates to the in-house APFA Legal Department.
• Wings Foundation Collaboration and Training.

• A commitment to APFA presence at all future Labor Notes Conferences.

• Mutual Respect Policy.

Modernizing Headquarters

APFA Fall Board of Directors Meetings are now held in the new Unity Pays room at APFA Headquarters, resulting in a significant cost savings.

Old vs New Upgraded Space

Headquarters Modernization Costs

SBA Department Update

As mentioned in previous communications, American management refuses to settle or hear disputes according to JCBA Sections 30 and 31. They refuse to fix the problems. At American Airlines, over the last decade, we have seen a fraction of arbitrations that we find at other unionized carriers. That only benefits management. We are aggressively pushing to change the process, but management is resisting.

Current SBA Disputes

These delays illustrate why improvements to Sections 30 and 31 of our JCBA are crucial. The ability to grieve any action of the Company is a long-standing contractual provision going back decades, which APFA is not willing to surrender. Our goal in opening these sections is to address the fact that very few grievances are being resolved at the base level, strengthen our processes, and have more control in protecting and representing our 25,000 members.

Cases awaiting November Quarterly System Board (QSB)

Presidential Grievances

Data Collection Tells the Story!

APFA continues to improve the ability to store and analyze data across all bases. Data paints a picture of many of the issues facing us today, from reserve utilization and staffing to the number of calls coming into APFA National and Base Representatives. 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. APFA will have access to trends related to absenteeism, attrition, CERS reports, financials, Flight Attendant calls, and PBS bid results, to name a few.

The company makes all of their decisions based on data and numbers. Gathering data gives us ammunition in the fight to protect our contract. Additionally, this information will help ensure that budgeting for your National and Base Representatives is allocated efficiently and appropriately.

New Website Coming Soon!

APFA’s IT department continues work on the rollout of the new APFA mobile-friendly website. Improvements include an updated interface, a new information structure, new menu navigation, and a mobile-responsive design. Some refreshed department pages are live but look for a complete website rollout soon.

Most interactions with the APFA website occur while Flight Attendants are on-duty, and most inquiries are from mobile devices. Improved mobile-friendly access coming soon!

Newly refreshed department pages

Financial Update

For Q1, APFA is on target for overall income, however, only 92% of current dues were collected, and the remaining 8% has come from dues collections. The goal is to receive 100% of the budgeted dues collected in addition to the dues arrears collection activity. Spending in the first quarter is 2% below budget.

Supporting the Labor Movement

APFA continues our support of the thriving Labor Movement environment across the country. We furthered our commitment to work collaboratively with Flight Attendant Unions across the industry to continue tackling Flight Attendant issues.

Lyn Montgomery, President of TWU-556 (Southwest), LaShaye Hutchinson, TWU-556 Negotiator, and Joe Skotnik, TWU-556 Negotiator, addressed the APFA Board of Directors to discuss strategies and issues related to their filing for federal mediation to facilitate contract negotiations. APFA will continue to support and collaborate with Southwest Flight Attendants as we work towards improvements across the industry.

TWU-556 addresses the APFA Board of Directors

Jonnie Lane and Christina Simonin, Delta Air Lines Flight Attendants, and Sara Nelson, AFA-CWA International President, addressed the APFA Board of Directors on the importance of organizing efforts at Delta. Discussion included the impact of having a large group of non-unionized Flight Attendants creating a drag on contract negations at all airlines. APFA reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the Delta Flight Attendants as their fight to secure representation.

Delta Flight Attendants and Sara Nelson address the APFA Board of Directors

As we have seen over the past two and a half years, collaboration across Unions has been tremendously beneficial. Together, we were able to mitigate furloughs during a never-before-seen decline in passenger revenue.

Interest in union organizing has never been higher. APFA will continue to support those who wish to organize. From Delta to Starbucks and Amazon, the fight against corporate greed continues.

Last month, APFA Flight Attendants linked arms with Southwest and United Flight Attendants at picketing events across the country. We look forward to their support as we ‘Turn Up the Heat’ on American Airlines on November 15th.

---

More details on resolutions, discussions, and new business agenda items will be in the official meeting minutes, which will be available no later than thirty (30) business days after the conclusion of the meeting per Policy Manual Section 4.A.7.b.(5).

Thank you to the Members who joined us in person for the meeting. Special thanks to Laura Bries (MIA) and Todd Smitala (MIA) for their hard work in setting up all of the audio/ visual aspects of our first Fall BOD meeting at headquarters.

Please commit to staying up-to-date with negotiations, consider joining our Contract ACTION team to support our negotiators at the bargaining table, and join us at picketing events at all bases on November 15th!

We are Ready!

In Solidarity,