03.09.06

Hello, this is Denise Pointer with an InfoRep Hotline message for Thursday, March 9, 2006.

Today was Day Two of the Executive Compensation Bonus Arbitration being held at APA Headquarters. All members in good standing are welcome to attend. As referenced in the APFA Hotline update On March 7th, no note taking, laptops, recording devices or cameras will be allowed. The hearing is set to continue through Friday, March 10th.

On Friday, February 24, 2006, the APFA Board of Directors completed its annual convention. The week was packed full of long days and a large amount of union business was conducted. JFK flight Attendant and long time union activist Laura Glading, was elected to the position of AdHoc #5 and will assume her duties on April 1st. Ted Bedwell represented APFA on the Hill at a political event on Wednesday night and will be ending his term as Ad Hoc #5 on March 31st. He will sit as a member of the Executive Committee during the first Quarterly 2006 meeting later this month. The APFA leadership thanks Ted for his many years of service to his union and expects Ted to continue as an activist member in the years to come. The ’06-‘07 budget was presented by the APFA Budget Committee and was amended then adopted by the Board of Directors. Minutes from the meeting will be posted on the APFA Web site as soon as they are completed.

Thank you to the Flight Attendants who came to the Ayres Hotel during the Convention to observe your Union at work. Gerard Arpey and Jeff Brundage met with the Board before the official convention convened. Many difficult questions were posed to Mr. Arpey, mainly regarding the executive compensation bonuses scheduled for payout in April. There were no clear answers or solutions that came out of that presentation.

The legislative front has been busy these past few weeks. There’s been a good amount of local DFW press stemming from our lawmakers in Washington, D.C. They are calling for the local Dallas and Fort Worth government officials to try to work out a compromise between the two cities with regard to the Wright Amendment. You may also have seen news reports that the Texas Congressional delegation has agreed to delay any additional efforts on the Wright Amendment issue in order to give North Texas officials a chance to craft a solution. The Wright Amendment is a highly visible and very sensitive subject for many Senators and Congresspersons and they are hoping that they don’t have to “choose sides”. A compromise may help the politicians, but it could possibly hurt the employees of AA. AA is currently not supporting a compromise on this subject. The position that the Wright Amendment needs to remain in place is holding strong.

The APFA Legislative Team continues to put pressure on our lawmakers to retain the aviation language in the Pension Reform Bill. Members of the team have spent the past week on the phones contacting Congress and lobbying APFA’s position.

Today, the House will appoint conferees on H.R. 2830, Pension Protection Act. Democrats will offer a motion to direct the House conferees to accept provisions to protect the pension benefits of airlines employees, encourage retirement savings and protect traditional pension plans by dropping provisions that encourage companies to eliminate or cut their pension benefits. The motion to instruct would support a Senate provision that will help keep AA, Continental, Delta and Northwest from terminating their pension plans at the expense of tax payers and employees by giving them additional time to fund their workers pension plans provided the plans are frozen so that new liabilities do not accrue. There is no provision in the House bill.

The Pension Reform bill will go to conference as soon as this conference committee is appointed. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is frustrated that this process has taken as long as it has. He was recently quoted as saying that if the committee isn’t finalized soon, he will pull airline relief out of the Pension Bill and add it to the Tax Reconciliation Bill.

Delta and its pilots’ union this week missed a self-imposed deadline of March 1st to reach a new contract and will now move to a three-person arbitration panel. The panel hearings will be held in Washington the weeks of March 13 and March 20, and the panel will have until April 15 to render a decision. The airline’s unit of the Air Line Pilots Association claim that management continues to demand more than $300 million in annual concessions, including an additional 18% pay cut from the pilots, while refusing to fund the Delta employee pension plans and placing the Delta pilots’ pension plan at grave risk.

Our colleagues at Northwest are thanking all AA flight attendants who took the time to voice their support and joined in the fight against the outsourcing of flight attendant jobs. Northwest was successful in keeping their entire Scope//job protections section of their contract in place when they reached a Tentative Agreement last week. The ratification process will begin soon. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (NY-14), who in November led 99 Members of Congress in urging Northwest Airline’s CEO to eliminate the outsourcing plan, said that she is pleased with the developments. "I’m thrilled that Northwest’s outsourcing plan never quite took off," said Maloney. "This is a major victory that should send a message to all of the airlines that it doesn’t pay to replace loyal, hard-working American flight attendants. Outsourcing personnel on international flights raises serious security questions and is bad for our economy. I congratulate the PFAA for gaining this major concession."

IDF APFA Base Reps have informed us that several Flight Attendants have received $500.00 US Department of Agricultural fines recently for entering Customs and Immigrations with undeclared food items, i.e. fruits and vegetables. The Department currently holds crewmembers to a different standard than our passengers since we are frequent travelers. We are trying to spread the word to all international crews to please declare all food items regardless of origin (your home) or packaging. A banana or apple from your house could cost you $500.00.

APFA is interviewing for a new Retirement Specialist to replace Jill Frank Smoak. Although many of us think Jill is irreplaceable, she is determined to float off into the sunset this summer…probably on a big sailboat. If you are interested in this position please contact APFA Contract Coordinator Brent Peterson at 817-540-0108, extension 8271. The deadline for applying is March 31st.

Jill will be conducting a retirement seminar in ORD on March 20th at 1300 in the West conference room.

Effective January 1, 2006 the company implemented a new billing process for benefits for Flight Attendants who are on leave of absence greater than 30 days. This has also resulted in a change to the requirement for Flight Attendants who take Bid Leaves. In the past, you were responsible for the full cost of your medical benefits if you took a Bid Leave greater than 16 days. Now, you will not become responsible for the full cost of your medical benefits unless you take a Bid Leave greater than 30 days. This will also include back-to-back Bid Leaves that result in the Flight Attendant being on Leave greater than 30 days.

The non-smoking hotel trend is continuing. Last week, we received notice from one of our long LAX layover hotels, the Marina Del Rey Marriott Courtyard, that effective immediately, the entire hotel is now 100% non-smoking. Flight Attendants will be assessed a $250 cleaning fee if they are caught smoking in their rooms. If you enter your room and it smells of smoke, immediately notify the front desk. They have designated two smoking areas outside of the hotel. As we have said many time previously, this is just the beginning of this trend so smokers – don’t shoot the messenger.

The Allerton Crowne Plaza in downtown Chicago has notified AA that they are not renewing our contract. They indicated that they would no longer accept our AA crews after March 15tth. The Hotel department has been working very hard to keep our crews with long layovers in downtown Chicago. A review was performed recently and we are happy to announce that we were successful in finding a very nice downtown Chicago property that really wants our crew business. The new layover hotel is the Hilton Homewood Suites, which is located on Grand Avenue in the River North section of downtown. In addition to this hotel being an all-suite hotel, it includes complimentary breakfast seven days a week, and on Monday through Thursday – complimentary beer, wine, soft drinks and dinner. A detailed review is now posted on the Hotel Department’s web page at www.www.apfa.org.

Effective March 16th, we will be changing long layover hotel properties in Dallas-Fort Worth. Our new long layover is the historic Stoneleigh Hotel. The Stoneleigh has an Uptown Dallas location and is in the quiet neighborhood of Turtle Creek. The hotel is located close to West End Marketplace & the Historic District, the Arts District, Deep Ellum nightlife, the American Airlines Center and other downtown arenas and venues,

The rumor mill was quite busy during convention week and hasn’t slowed down much. I would like to address a few items. The first topic is recalls – as APFA has stated over the past few months, AA has not notified us of any recalls whatsoever for the near future. There are nearly 500 Flight Attendants out on Bid Leaves for the month of March.

The second subject matter that I have been bombarded with is Availability. During the convention, APFA Scheduling Coordinator presented information to the Board of Directors, which she had received from AA regarding AVBL.

There is truth to the fact that AA Crew Resources has told APFA that they are considering reducing Open Replacement as much as contractually possible by June 1st. AA contends that availability is not covering the flying that AA needs when they need it and it is driving reserve utilization. APFA is trying to avoid this path and we are working on finding an alternate solution. I will keep all InfoReps updated on this topic as developments happen.

And speaking of the rumor mill, I would like to encourage all of you to please forward me any rumors and topics of interest. Part of my responsibility as APFA InfoRep Coordinator is to get factual information out to you in a timely manner. Having factual information will empower you to spread correct and accurate information to your co-workers. The rumor mill is a very powerful and potentially damaging machine. It does no one any good and usually causes harm. No one can force good behavior, but we can encourage everyone to ask first before assuming everything you are hearing is true. A quick email to [email protected] will help keep the lines of communication open to all.

Don’t forget to get your new ID badge by March 17, 2006. You must turn in your old badge when picking up the new one with the magnetic stripe. The new ID badges will be used on board when the credit card machines are put into place later this spring. They can also be used to check in for flights at the one-stop machines at terminals when non-reving.

I would also like to ask all InfoReps to please help recruit new InfoReps. As you know, being an InfoRep does not take much time. It’s all about communication – its not political! Refer your friends to www.www.apfa.org and then click on the link to sign up.

Thanks again for all you do for the InfoRep program.

Denise Pointer, DFW InfoRep
InfoRep Program
1004 W. Euless Boulevard
Euless, TX 76040
817-540-0108 Ext. 8743
[email protected]