Greetings,

As you probably know, our contract is “amendable” at the end of October.  Amendable means that provisions in the contract can be changed through negotiations with the Company.  Initially, the Negotiating Committee was anticipating exchanging opening proposals with the Company in July of this year.  Even though our Contract was not “amendable” until October, we were hoping to get an early start on talks with the management.  We have obviously deviated from that schedule and for some very good reasons.

Initially, your Negotiating Committee met to create the survey that would ultimately gage how important you thought specific items concerning our pay, work rules and benefits were. We soon discovered that the addresses on file with and supplied by the Company to AFA were not accurate in many instances.  It would have been irresponsible to send out the surveys to bad addresses.  Instead, we decided to do the right thing. We developed and placed address-correction postcards in the Flight Attendant mailboxes. Once the completed cards were returned, we coordinated with our MEC Membership Chair and the AFA Membership department to clean up the address list.  Finally, the survey was sent out AND we now have the added benefits of an updated address lists and cell numbers for text messaging.

Once the survey results were tabulated, we sat down to compile the initial list of desired changes to the Agreement.  Committee chairs (hotel, grievance, scheduling, safety, etc) were contacted and asked for their thoughts.  Working with our AFA professional Staff Negotiator, negotiating committee members started going through our Agreement in detail and it soon became evident that in order to fully understand the contract provisions, all of the side letters had to be understood also.  The realization that almost all of the 44 side letters published within the Agreement had to be incorporated was daunting.  Additionally, your Committee identified even more side letters, arbitration decisions and grievance mediated/settlement agreements that have come into existence since the inception of our current agreement. These have now been published on our website for your viewing pleasure!  The decision was made to incorporate ALL of these hard-won gains into our opening proposals as clarifications of the Contract.  Because: if it’s not in the Contract, Flight Attendants will not know their rights. 

We are currently engaged in the process of incorporating all the agreements from the Contract Interpretation Committee Manual (CIC) and Joint (with management) Interpretation Committee Reports (JIC).  The task is huge in that these changes impact all sections of our current contract.  Let’s not forget that automation has also changed our contract in a big way.  Additionally, everyone would agree that major changes in the reserve section have to be undertaken.  Also, delaying the survey meant that the report on your responses was delayed.  Your priorities will dictate the bargaining emphasis for the Committee so it is essential that your voices be heard.

As you can see, circumstances beyond the control of your Negotiating Committee forced a change in plans and as a result, the opening proposals were not exchanged with the Company’s team in July.  Your Committee is in contact with the Company now to find mutually acceptable dates to begin meeting. It is essential to take the necessary time to thoroughly prepare our opener and to make sure that it accurately represents the priorities of you, the members.  The Committee made a deliberated decision that is was more important to be right than fast. The time to get it right is now.

In Solidarity,

You Negotiating Team Members