AFA American Eagle MEC E-News

Greetings,

  

Reduction in Flying Update

 

As most of you know, the Company put out a Special Eaglewire on Wednesday giving us more details on the actual reductions they announced a few weeks ago. Management's perspective included:

  • Ground 29 of our 39 EMB-135 (37-seat) fleet
  • Reduce our schedule by 37 flights per day in LGA, 34 flights in Chicago and an additional 7 flight per day reduction in BOS compared to last year's winter schedule
  • Reduce frequency in many other Eagle stations
  • Close our stations in Albany (ALB), Harrisburg (MDT), Providence (PVD) and San Luis Obispo (SBP) as well as Samana, Dominican Republic (previously announced).  Our people at ALB and SBP were notified of these changes earlier today, as were our contract ground handlers in MDT and PVD.
  • Close our maintenance base in SBP as a result of the elimination of the SAAB fleet and the cancellation of  the LAX-SBP route

Your AFA MEC believes that Flight Attendants will eventually see an increase in flying as American has requested that Trans States Airlines return to Eagle the ten EMB-145s (50 seaters) which it currently leases from Eagle. 

It is still to be determined the total amount of Flight Attendants that will be affected in the SJU and BOS bases. We are confident that the majority of bases will remain unaffected.

We have reviewed the numbers and it still looks like there will be no furloughs for American Eagle Flight Attendants. There will however be displacements. In order to make the least disruptions to all American Eagle Flight Attendants, the CIC (Contract Interpretation Committee) has written a new sideletter that minimizes the amount of these disruptions. It is a concept similar to that of base transfers. The sideletter is attached to this E-News. The sideletter prevents a "bump and roll" scenario through-out the system. The sideletter, as applied to our current situation, for example: if SJU F/A's are being displaced they can only go to a base where there is an opening. So MIA, LGA, ORD, LAX, and DFW will not have any displacements. Only SJU and BOS will be displaced and they can only go to a base that is open. Most likely the open bases will be ORD or DFW. Another enhancement from the sideletter includes "all moves out of domicile, weather voluntary or involuntary, where the overage exists will be considered involuntary for purposes of moving expenses under Section 6 (Moving Expenses)." If you have any questions on the sideletter, please contact your Local Council President.

In the coming weeks we will be working closely with management to ensure all of the displacements occur as indicated in the sideletter.

We know many of you are eager to hear detailed numbers and figures so you can plan accordingly. Rest assured that your AFA MEC is in close contact with management. We are hopeful to release the numbers by June 30, 2008.

Once we have an indication of the number of Flight Attendants affected at each base we will work diligently on your behalf to ensure as many Members are unaffected as possible.

In an effort to voluntarily and involuntarily displace the least amount of Flight Attendants possible, we are looking at the following:

  • Offering as much Part Time lines as possible
  • Reducing the bidline values to increase the number of bidlines at affected domiciles

We will continue to monitor the situation as events unfold. Your MEC has taken a pro-active approach to this and all situations that may arise as we navigate through an unstable industry ensuring our jobs are priority one.

 

In Unity,

 

Your AFA-CWA American Eagle Master Executive Council