11.11.05

This is Leslie Mayo, National Communications Coordinator, with the APFA Hotline for Friday, November 11, 2005.

APFA would like to honor our seven fellow crewmembers who died in the crash of flight 587 on November 12, 2001. Deborah Fontakis, Barbara Giannasca, Wilmer Gonzalez, Joe Lopes, Michele Mills, Carol Palm and Wilmer Valdespino, you are missed.

Please remember the 13 APFA Flight Attendants who are serving full time in the military as well as our 4,094 furloughed members.

Bankruptcy Watch: Delta reported a $1.1B loss for the 3Q ’05, up from the $646M loss in the same quarter last year. They are in their second month of bankruptcy and like other major airlines in bankruptcy, Delta is probably spending about $1M a day on legal fees alone.

ALPA, the union representing Delta’s pilots is offering $91M in annual concessions. Delta, however, wants to cut the pilots’ pay by 20% – even more than the pilots’ proposal. If no agreement is reached, Delta says it will impose pay cuts and the pilots state they maintain their right to strike.

Northwest Pilots agreed to a tentative interim 24% pay cut in order to put off a Section 1113 filing by Northwest. The deal also includes the elimination of international rates of pay, and incentive pay for hours over 80.

In case outsourcing Flight Attendant jobs wasn’t enough, the IAM reports that Northwest Airlines intends to outsource 5,000 baggage handler, customer service and ground worker jobs in an effort to cut $190M in labor costs. Northwest says it will consider other proposals as long as the same cost savings are achieved.

And finally, PFAA, the union representing the NW Flight Attendants and Northwest Airlines have agreed to temporary concessions until a new agreement can be reached. The amount equals only 60 percent of the total NW is seeking in bankruptcy concessions from its Flight Attendants. Among the interim cuts, hourly pay rates will be reduced by more than 20 percent, purser pay and per diem will be cut, International pay will be suspended, and sick pay will be paid at 75 percent. To compensate for these pay cuts, reserve guarantee will be increased to 80 hours (from 75) for December through February of ’06.

Fuel Watch: Fuel prices are slowly falling from $60 a barrel last week to $58.93 as of November 9th. The crack-spread price is fluctuating around $15 a barrel to refine crude bringing the total cost for a barrel of jet fuel to $74.11. If you remember the crack spread in October was upwards of $60 which brought fuel prices to about $120 a barrel.

APFA News: From the Contract Department – recently APFA and the company reached an understanding regarding the proper way to determine eligibility and compensation for Flight Attendants who are required to stay late and remain onboard with passengers at the conclusion of a duty period. Previously, the company viewed this situation as falling under the parameters of Article 3.J.3. of our Agreement, which is the provision for Basic Ground Time on Through Flights. A copy of this Letter of Understanding is posted on the Contract Department page of the APFA website.

From the Health Department – for those of you planning to fly Delhi, India (DEL) please go to the Health page at www.apfa.org for precautions you can take to prevent illnesses specific to the region. There is also information available on preventing blocked ears in-flight.

American Airlines notified APFA this week that we will be starting layovers in MSY beginning December 15, 2005. Our current long-layover hotel is occupied by the U.S. Government; therefore we will be staying at our former layover hotel. Please check the Web site . for details. The new short layover hotel is also listed on www.apfa.org as well.

Also, the APFA Hotel Department has received reports of stolen credit cards in LIM. Please use caution when leaving your credit card number with the front desk. For now, cash is better.

Joint News Watch: Yesterday, CEO Gerard Arpey testified on behalf of American Airlines’ position to keep the Wright Amendment intact. The unions representing AA Flight Attendants, pilots and mechanics were also in attendance in D.C. The room was packed and arguments for both sides were represented. A press release from the labor leaders of all three unions at American was issued to the media and delivered to legislators and was also placed on the record for the Senate Hearing.

Go to NBC Channel 5’s website in Dallas and voice your opinion by voting no on any repeal to the Wright Amendment. This link is also available on the APFA website.

That’s it for this week. Thanks for calling the APFA hotline.