8.23.23 – APFA CLT Base Brief – August 2023 Update

August 2023 Update

Wednesday, August 23, 2023

Good day,

As you well know, the company has focused on reliability and is obsessed with metrics over actually managing or motivating a workforce. Management has become robotic and has lost the human element. Most of their shortcomings have been placed on the flight attendants to carry the burden through discipline levels as the company has no accountability for their actions or technological shortcomings.

Computer-based management based on algorithms may look like the future of management from a statistical perspective, but from a front-line employee, it translates in more separation between departments and a lazy approach that is singularly focused on finding a goat and placing blame than on improvements to how we run this airline.

This approach has led to a drastic uptick in mandatory meetings, no matter your record or years of service. If you get blamed for a small or large infraction, you will be called in for a comprehensive investigative meeting. The events you may be called in for may be from months ago, but you will be asked to remember every detail. Many times, the outcome of the meeting is predetermined as the algorithm has already plotted the best path for statistical improvement. Fifty years, or 50 days of seniority, this is a one size fits all management approach and lacks the respect we deserve for being the front-line employees that share the most time with our passengers. The motivational theories have been rewritten by the logic of the new management approach and our workgroup has become the catch all for the frustrations of our passengers and the failed expectations the company has promised them.

If you are swept up in one of these incidents and are called into a mandatory meeting, know your contractual rights. If you are on reserve, you are entitled to 12 days off. A mandatory meeting is a duty period, and you would be entitled to getting days off back if the meeting takes place on a day off. Any meeting should be compensated and does count as part of a duty day for legalities. You should also call the local union line at 704-665-7474 well before the meeting date to check our availability. Should you not receive a reply within 24 hours, please call back or send an e-mail. The increase in meetings has placed a strain on our ability to answer calls as quickly as we have in the past. If you are asked to attend a meeting, document, document, document. Bring every screenshot, copy or documentation you can concerning the event. We work in an environment where everything we do is witnessed by multiple people, yet a complaint by a single person is taken over the multiple witnesses to the event. It is as if we are trapped in a bad John Carpenter movie, surrounded by people, yet all alone. The frequent flyer who handed you their business card, save that card, this is the meeting to pull out that card.

We have expressed dissatisfaction with this approach, but it has fallen on deaf ears. Management has established unrealistic expectations for our work group and an unrealistic travel experience for the passengers.

Need Help Casting Your Strike Authorization Vote?

This shift in managerial approach will not end any time soon. It should serve as a reminder of how we are valued by the company. We are encouraging everyone to vote yes in our strike authorization process by August 29th. We have representatives at the airport that can assist in password resets and other obstacles that may be preventing you from casting your ballot.

Help with password resets to access the APFA website and other voting-related questions is available. APFA Representatives will be available at the following times to assist you:

5:00am- 8:00am ET (password resets only)

• send a text to 806-4STRIKE (806-478-7453) for password resets only, or
• send an email to [email protected]

8:00am- 8:00pm ET (password resets and other voting-related questions)

• call or text 806-4STRIKE (806-478-7453) for password resets and voting-related questions.

8:00pm- 3:00am ET (password resets only)

• send a text to 806-4STRIKE (806-478-7453) for password resets only, or
• send an email to [email protected]

Join the Picket on August 30th!
CHARLOTTE
THE FREE SPACE OUTSIDE THE AIRPORT ENTRANCE ON WILKINSON
11AM TO 1:00PM

 

EAP Peer Committee Representative Recruitment

The APFA Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is looking for Flight Attendants to join the volunteer APFA EAP Peer Committee to provide support and assistance to Flight Attendants at each crew base. EAP Peer Committee Representative Recruitment.

Click Here for More Information

Take care of yourselves and each other.

The Charlotte APFA Team

In Solidarity,

Scott Hazlewood
APFA CLT Base President
[email protected]