Greetings,

TALKING POINTS FOR AFA VOLUNTEERS

Single Carrier

Below is the text from the single carrier newsletter.  The talking points are in blue.  The purpose of this eline is to help you discuss the issues with other flight attendants. 

Yesterday the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, (IBT) applied for the services of the National Mediation Board in  investigating whether there is a representation dispute among the craft or class of Flight Attendants in the service of Chautauqua Airlines, Shuttle America, Republic Airlines and Midwest Airlines.  The Teamsters assert in their filing that the four airlines, including Midwest, constitute a single carrier for representation purposes under the Railway Labor Act.

When two or more airlines merge, a union representing one of the employee groups may request the NMB to make a determination "is the airline a single transportation system for the purpose of union representation?"  This is done on a work group-by-work group basis.   It is important to understand that only a union may request a single carrier determination from the NMB.  Airline management may not request it. 

Now that the request has been made by the Teamsters, the NMB will review a list of indicia as part of their investigation.  The following indicia is from the NMB Representation Manual, Section 19.501.  The NMB may consider other indicia as well:

-          Published combined scheduled or combined routes;

-          Standardized uniforms;

-          Common marketing, markings or insignia;

-          Integrated essential operations such as scheduling or dispatching;

-          Centralized or common management, corporate officers and board of directors;

-          Combined workforce; and

-          Common or overlapping ownership.

 If the NMB determines that is a single carrier for the purpose of representation, each union will have the opportunity to prove a "showing of interest."  That means each union must show that at least 35% of the combined group is already represented by that union or has signed an authorization card.  The Teamsters assert in their filing,  "We do not anticipate at this time that a representation election will be necessary since the size of the IBT represented Flight Attendant group is not comparable to the that of the Midwest group."  In other words, they believe the Midwest flight attendants should become part of Teamsters without the benefit of an election.

Yes, you read that correctly.  You could end up with a union without ever voting for one. 

There is no timeline for the NMB's determination.  It will not happen overnight.  While the NMB is researching the question as to whether or not the RJET system is a "single carrier," the parties have the ability to comment on the question. 

You are probably asking yourself how Frontier fits into this. 

Let's look at the numbers.  There are approximately 420 AFA represented flight attendants at Midwest and 1,600 Teamster represented RJET flight attendants.  When the RJET-F9 deal is finalized approximately 1,040 flight attendants will be added to the mix (920 Frontier flight attendants and 120 AFA represented flight attendants at Lynx).  If AFA wins the election at Frontier then AFA would represent over 46% of the flight attendants at RJET.  This would lead to an election to determine the union for the combined group (Frontier, Lynx, Midwest, Chautauqua, Shuttle America and Republic). 

Do you want to vote to determine which union is going to represent the Frontier flight attendants or do you want to have union representation forced upon you?

The Teamsters are trying to scare you into not signing an AFA card by telling you that AFA is going to force a date-of-hire integration.  They refuse to admit the truth - the seniority integration is going to happen pursuant to the McCaskill-Bond Amendment.  The AFA or Teamster merger policies do not apply because the group is represented by two different unions.  This lie that they insist on repeating is the only thing they can think of that might keep you from voting for AFA.  Please make sure that everyone understands this important issue. 

We would not be surprised if the Teamsters plan to obtain the representation of the Frontier flight attendants through this same process.  At our open house over the weekend the F9 flight attendant working on the Teamster campaign raised the question, "What if we (Teamsters) don't file (for an election)?"  That can only mean one thing.  They do not want us to vote.

The slogan for our campaign is "One Choice, One Voice" and this is the choice we are talking about.    We should all have a vote.  We want a choice. 

Time is almost out.   Sign a card and mail it in now. 

Seriously, time is just about out.     

Most likely, the Teamsters would have filed for an election by now if they had gotten enough authorization cards to do so.  But they do not have enough support among the flight attendants.  So instead of an election, they are going to force themselves on us through the single carrier determination process. 

We do not want that.  We want a choice.  There is only one way to get a choice.  Please print some authorization cards and bring them with you on your next trip. 

If we work together, quickly, we can file for the election soon.  Please contact one of us to find out how you can help.