8.15.24 – 2024 Tentative Agreement Update #8: Questions From the Road Part II

Thursday, August 15, 2024

2024 Tentative Agreement Update #8
Questions From the Road- Part II

In this hotline:

• Frequently Asked Questions
• Base Visit and Virtual Town Hall Schedule
• Virtual Town Halls 1-3 
• More Tentative Agreement Information

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: Why does the contract not include a snap-up if Delta gives an increase or United gets an agreement?

A: Management indicated they were unwilling to agree to such a provision because they don’t want their pay to be determined by another carrier. This is particularly true of non-union Delta, which can grant pay increases to avoid unionization but take away other provisions, putting money in one pocket and taking it out of the other.

While we fought for this provision, we put our energy into getting our wages and out-year increases where they needed to be. We have not historically had snap-ups on the property. We did have one in the merger JCBA, which was not a Section 6 negotiated contract but rather a merger contract with specific parameters, including a backstop of binding arbitration. The snap-up was not just for the wages but for the total contract cost in the aggregate.

Q2: Why did we not secure increases past the amendable date?

A: When we negotiate an agreement, we negotiate the terms and conditions applicable for the term of the agreement, in this case, a five-year agreement. Management is typically unwilling to agree to new provisions outside of the term of the agreement because they want to negotiate that with the total compensation at the time. In the rare cases where we have seen such provisions in the industry, they have been very meager increases which did not help incentivize management to get the new contract done.The underlying question is how do we make negotiations go quicker? We must aggressively push negotiations forward by targeting our proposals and moving to a strike vote in response to management delays. Throughout these negotiations, 28,000 Flight Attendants actively demonstrated that the threat of a strike was real. By repeatedly joining picket lines across the country, you pressured management to add the necessary money to conclude these negotiations. Strikes and the threat of strikes work.

Q3: Would a return to availability address the concerns in bases where the Reserve seniority is high? What can be done for these bases?

A: Availability was a system in the pre-PBS LAA contract, an intermediate step between lineholder and reserve. It was often called ‘Glorified Reserve.’ Many other pre-PBS Flight Attendant contracts had similar concepts. Under PBS, almost all open time is distributed into lines as conflict bidding is eliminated, so the time available to construct availability lines is almost non-existent. It would not solve the problem of high seniority serving reserve in some bases.

We fought to ensure that open time is distributed by seniority through PBS/TTS/UBL and Reserve bidding. The availability process restricted line holders from picking up open time until the day before the trip departed, which meant that availability Flight Attendants had super seniority access to all open time up until the day before the trip. Lineholders could only attempt to trade with trips in open time, which was also controlled by crew scheduling and coverage, making it difficult for lineholders to even trade a trip.

Since TTS was added to our system, Lineholders have access to open time after bids are finalized and that open time is awarded by seniority. A change to add availability would be considered concessionary. Additionally, a certain seniority of Flight Attendants could just bounce between serving availability and reserve, and may never hold lines until their seniority at the base changes.

Availability does not resolve the problem. Availability is another grouping of people without a line. It would simply create another category of reserve lines but not solve the underlying problem. The fundamental problem at high seniority reserve bases is there are not enough junior Flight Attendants in these stagnant bases. Simply reshuffling or renaming reserve will not fix that.

We also need to be clear that there are no simple solutions to this problem. The company has never and will never agree to staff bases in the contract at a certain level. Let’s be crystal clear: this is not something that will be resolved simply in contract negotiations but must be an ongoing priority of both the base leadership and national office and cannot be simply left to contract negotiations.

Q4: Did you make any quality of life and economic improvements to the Reserve system?

One of the major focuses of negotiations was securing economic and scheduling Reserve improvements. For Flight Attendants serving Reserve, the Tentative Agreement will directly boost earning potential by opening up more ways to be paid above guarantee, and will improve Reserve quality of life.

Some of the quality of life enhancements to the Reserve system include:

• The ability for Reserves to pick up flying on TTS/UBL on days off or after calling out of time. This includes red flag flying.
• The ability for Reserves to bid a block of days off anywhere in the month. This allows greater flexibility for Reserves who plan to fly ETB or TTS/UBL trips on days off above guarantee or just like to count on one longer block of days off.
• Reserve Out-of-Base pickups. The ability for Reserves on days off or after calling out of time to pick up out-of base, after all in-base Flight Attendants.
• Automated Reserve Day(s) Off Trade with the company, a “set it and forget it” ballot system- instead of repeated phone calls to crew scheduling.
• Guaranteed Flex Day/Golden Day (FD/GD) slide. New guaranteed day off replacement at the end of that block of days off when flown into a FD/GD, if crew scheduling does not mutually agree to the Reserve’s request for a different day. If a Reserve has Wednesday-Friday off and is flown into Wednesday, they are guaranteed Saturday off.
• No more blind Standby bidding. Specific identifiers when bidding for Standby shifts, which include start/end times, required days of availability, crew base, and terminal.
• ONLY Aggressive hours credited. Credited aggressive hours will now be based on the first forty (40) awarded aggressive hours. Any other credited time (vacation, jury duty, ROTA, etc.) will no longer eat up those first 40 aggressive hours.
• Transferring Trips Out of Base Limitations. If crew scheduling is going to redistribute open time in one base to another base, this must be done by 1200HBT. This will prevent Reserves from bidding on ROTA trips only to find they’ve been transferred to another base when ROTA processes.

In the Tentative Agreement, we addressed certain issues impacting reserve seniority, including having new hires serve two years straight versus the current one year. We also secured language to continue the discussion regarding high-seniority bases.

Economically, pay above Reserve guarantee was a major focus of the committee.

Currently, per diem, position premiums, Voluntary Extension pay and training pay are paid above Reserve guarantee. All of these were increased under the 2024 Tentative Agreement. In addition, picking up ETB on days off, international pay, holding time, holiday pay, and red flag all pay above guarantee.

The Tentative Agreement adds more items paid above Reserve guarantee,including Sit Rig, Boarding Pay, Hotel Penalty Pay, TTS/UBL pickups on days off, and 30 minutes per day of vacation in blocks of 6 or less days.

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Base Visit and Town Hall Schedule

All remaining Base Visits begin at 1030am HBT and end at 1430 HBT. Base visit specific locations may be found here.