03.17.06

Attention InfoReps

The following is an important message to InfoReps designed to clear up any confusion regarding the rumors surrounding Availability and Open Replacement.

The Company has advised APFA that they are considering reducing Open Replacement/Availability as much as possible by June of this year. Having that knowledge this far ahead of the potential implementation gives APFA the time to be proactive in representing our members. Typically, members and APFA would have first found out about reduced RP lines when the bid results came out for June (If you will recall, this did happen at some bases in DEC 2004).

The membership has also made it clear to the leaders of APFA that they want to be kept informed. APFA has every intention of sharing as much information as possible with our members and using this announcement as an opportunity to take a proactive stance by possibly producing a more positive outcome. In reality, we are in the exact position we want to be based on the circumstances – full knowledge of a potential problem.

As this information was being communicated by APFA, Company HI6 messages were sent to certain bases by management, which did not reflect an accurate position of APFA’s involvement. The following is a list of Questions and Answers that we hope you will find useful to inform the membership on the subject of Availability.

Question: Is the Company considering eliminating Open Replacement all together? What will be the result of reducing or eliminating Open Replacement?

Answer: Crew Resources has stated they are only looking at reducing the number of Open Replacement jobs and moving those jobs to reserve. APFA strongly objects to this and is scheduling meetings with Crew Resources to discuss alternatives.

Question: Would the reduction of Open Replacement increase reserve rotation? My concern is that if open replacement is all an F/A can hold, then the company will put FAs who can no longer hold open replacement on reserve.

Answer: No. One month on/three months off is contractual. The reduction of 3000/4000 open replacement will cause reserve seniority to go up.

Question: After the last "Joint AA/APFA" HI6, there are those who now believe we are "working with the company again" when recent hotlines have emphasized that we would no longer work with the company on cost savings until the bonus arbitration was resolved. They want to know why there even is an AA/APFA "joint" scheduling committee convened right now.

Answer: The HI6 was a contractual reference to Article 22 of our Collective Bargaining Agreement entitled: Joint Scheduling Committee (JSC). This JSC has been in existence for many years and meets on a quarterly basis. In recent years this committee has made improvements in the areas of OE flexibility, Deadhead flexibility, MU procedures, to name a few. The Company made an error when they attributed their HI6 message to the JSC. This was a company HI6. APFA does not support the reduction of Open Replacement/Availability.

In closing, APFA takes very seriously the possibility of reducing Open Replacement, thereby increasing the number of reserves. Rest assured APFA is being proactive by working to change the outcome of this situation as opposed to waiting until June to be reactive.

Denise Pointer – DFW InfoRep
[email protected]