3.06.18 – Weather Events, Duty Day Limitations, Rescheduling
PHL Base Flight Attendants,
Once again, here we are faced with another weather event that the “New American” cannot handle.
Our Flight Attendants are flying blind. Systems Scheduling/Tracking cannot handle these severe irregular operations. Our members should not be on hold for hours trying to reach scheduling for information on their duty day.
We have continued to voice our anger and frustration over this very issue with absolutely no resolve. We are seeing crews being rescheduled illegally due to the lack of knowledge and experience in this department. We have our Reserves being run ragged, threatened with refusals to fly, and being flown into their Moveable Days and Golden Days. Flight Attendants are being forced into double ups and waiting hours on hold to get through to tracking because they are not being notified of their cancellation or reschedule. If you need an unscheduled hotel, good luck getting through for that. Flight Attendants were sitting in lobbies of hotels for as much as 4 hours waiting on rooms. This is all unacceptable and our hard working Flight Attendants deserve so much better.
Lucky us, parts of the North East are being advised to brace for another weather event moving in Wednesday.
I do not have a magic wand that I can wave to fix the Company’s problems, all I can do is advise our membership to reach out to us immediately if you think what scheduling is trying to do to you smells fishy and document, document, document. Snapshot the time you called scheduling and with whom you spoke.
We also recommend you call PHL Flight Service to advise them of your current situation. They should be able to offer support as well. Your APFA base representatives are doing everything we can to assist our crews. We do ask for your patience. We are available and doing the best we can trying to help hundreds of Flight Attendants. Please leave us a message and/or text or email us your name, CATS number, pairing number with the origination date, and where you currently are with a brief description of what’s going on.
PHL Office (215)- 492-0840
Kim –Â (215) 939-6276Â Â Â [email protected]
Brian – (215) 939-2692Â [email protected]
Rick – (714) 307- 8220 [email protected]
Sara – (856) 236-9233  [email protected]
Everyone has access to their Contract on their tablets. Please review your duty day limitations chart, Section 11 E page 11-4, and remember you can extend 2 hours beyond the chart in actual operations.
You can also reference the Rescheduling language in the 2013 LUS Redbook Contract, Section 10.J., pages 10-35 though 10-41. Knowing your legalities when you are being rescheduled is everyone’s responsibility.
We are all frustrated over the continued failures by this Company. The APFA Contract and Scheduling Chairs as well as the National Officers and Board of Directors have expressed this frustration on behalf of the Flight Attendants. Both sides of the operation are melting down due to the failures of the Crew Tracking/System Scheduling Departments. We will continue to push back with our frustrations and make sure our crews are compensated for any and all contractual violations.
Kim Kaswinkel
APFA PHL Base President