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Greetings, AFA 66 eCommunication - Friday, July 10,
2009 Following the close of the Voluntary Furlough bid, the Company released on their websites the final list of Involuntary Furloughs. US Airways has stated that the involuntary furloughs could last until approximately December 2010, based upon Company staffing projections at this time. Those projections are subject to change and could provide an earlier or later recall date. The final list of furloughs is available on the US Airways website theHub and Wings, as well as the AFA Council 66 website at www.afa66.org Beginning on Monday, July 13, US Airways will be sending furlough packets to those 192 flight attendants most junior on the seniority list. This packet of information will address some furlough concerns regarding procedures prior to leaving the company and during the furlough period. Additionally, flight attendants who will be furloughed will still need to bid for the month of August, even though they will only be required to be available the first four days of the month. For additional information on Recall to Duty procedures, please review Section 21 Furlough/Displacement/Recall of the 1999 AFA Flight Attendant Agreement. You will find an electronic copy of the Agreement as well as additional Involuntary Furlough information on the AFA Council 66 website at www.afa66.org The AFA office, officers and resources will continue to be
available to furloughed flight attendants during the entire
furlough period. AFA dues are suspended during furlough periods.
Please keep the AFA office updated on any address, phone or
email changes during the furlough period to avoid missing any
important recall information. If you have additional questions
or concerns please feel free to contact the office at
480-966-1231. AFA looks forward to having every flight attendant
back from furlough as soon as possible. The August 18th schedule reduction of the night flight bank out of Las Vegas has created havoc in terms of cadence and trip distribution in the August Flight Attendant Bid. The remaining night flights from Las Vegas operated consistently by West crews will be on the A321 aircraft departing for the East Coast hubs of Charlotte and Philadelphia. In order to create more lines of flying, night pairings operating Aug. 1-17 were combined with day pairings that operate Aug. 18-31. During this schedule transition, the software used to generate the Mixed Equipment pairings produced more four-day trips than two-day trips for the last thirteen days of the August Bid, producing results that were very disappointing to AFA. The two-day trips took a bid decrease due to this transition. During the first half of the month (Aug. 1-17), approximately 22% of the bid consisted of four-day trips, with 44% of two-day trips. During the second half of the month (Aug.18-31), the percentage of four-day trips rose bys 12% and two-day trips decreased to 34%. This shift from two-day to four-day trip distribution in the second half of the month eroded line cadence in the bid. There is a big decrease in the number of pure two-day trip lines. You will find many of the two-day trip lines further back in later pages of the bid. Additionally, during the first two weeks you will see consistent two-day, back-to-back pairings, however, with the reduction after the 18th, lines had to be completed with three or four-day trips. AFA Scheduling Chairperson Jane Flinn along with MEC President Lisa LeCarre, sat with Scheduling for hours trying to make a bad situation better by running solution after solution and manually tweaking some of the worse lines. The question must be asked of what becomes of the LAS base now that the night flights are almost nonexistent. The LAS Pilot base is considered a 24-hour base, and no longer operates only the early evening or late night departures out of the city. A transfer bid for openings in the LAS Flight Attendant Reserve base was recently completed. US Airways management has determined that keeping the LAS base and LAS Reserve Flight Attendants is beneficial to the operation, and saves money for the airline. Speaking of saving money, you may have noticed that an increased number of Phoenix crews have to remain overnight in PHL and CLT. Likewise, there are many CLT crews who remain overnight in PHX. This doesn’t make sense, especially when the airline has crew domiciles in these stations. In the past, Schedule Planning has given little regard to the cost of having to overnight a crew, however with the increased focus on saving money, new management is researching options to reduce the number of RONs in both PHL and CLT for Phoenix-based crews. In August, the west fleet will have a total of eleven (11) A321’s operated by West crews. By January 2010, there should be a total of thirteen (13) A321’s based in Phoenix. At the same time, we will see fewer B737 trips as they are returned to lessors. By October 2010, the Boeing 737 aircraft will no longer be part of the US Airways West fleet. AFA knows that many lineholders will be very disappointed in
the type of line that they will be awarded in the August
Bid. The next couple of months will be very challenging
for all of us. The decision to eliminate 300 Flight
Attendant positions through VLOAs and furloughs will have
multiple effects upon our schedules. We must anticipate an
increase in critical staffing days. We also need to
acknowledge that the line averages are going to increase.
This will mean fewer days off for most lineholders. While
this is not the news most of you want to hear, let’s keep
in mind that some of our most junior Flight Attendants will be
furloughed on August 5, and may face a future that is full of
uncertainty and challenges. While the August Bid may not
be what you wanted to see, at least you still get to bid. We
hope to see our furloughed Flight Attendants back on line as
soon as possible in the future. Your AFA MEC Officers, President Lisa LeCarre and Secretary-Treasurer Jeff Albers would like to thank all AFA members for their support during this unfortunate situation. At this time, the AFA Hearing Board has made their decision and we accept those decisions regarding union charges filed against us with AFA International in April. MEC US Airways East President Mike Flores filed charges under the AFA Hearing Board while MEC US Airways West Vice President Dorene Fredette filed additional charges under the AFA Ethical Practices Board. The AFA Hearing Board made the decision to hear all charges at the same time since they all stem from the same January 29th incident. Of the six violations alleged by Flores in his charges against LeCarre and Albers, the Board found that the copying of a document was inconsistent with the duty of Article X.1.(j). This decision was based upon Albers admission to the fact. The Hearing Board did not sanction LeCarre and Albers, however, “they are directed to refrain from any similar conduct in the future.” The Hearing Board also directed all parties to “make every reasonable effort to rebuild their mutual trust on the JNT and to continue to negotiate a single contract for the US Airways flight attendants.” The Hearing Board stated “expulsion of LeCarre and Albers is simply not warranted based upon the facts presented, and most importantly, would do nothing but further hinder and delay the negotiations of (a) single contract for the US Airways flight attendants.” Fredette charged LeCarre and Albers with the violation of three articles in the AFA Constitution and Bylaws related to the same incident. The Board found that “LeCarre and Albers did not violate any provision of the AFA C&Bs with regard to their treatment of Fredette”, and ordered the MEC to meet and attempt to resolve their differences in order to serve the best interests of the members who elected them to AFA Office. With the hearing concluded and the decision behind us, your
MEC President Lisa LeCarre and MEC Secretary-Treasurer Jeff
Albers will refocus on the important issues facing flight
attendants. We will continue the work forward on a merged
contract that respects the needs of all flight attendants at US
Airways, while continuing the fight to defend the west contract
and find solutions to the financial and economic concerns of
west flight attendants. |
