Greetings,

What You Need to Know @

the AFA Structure

AFA:  of the flight attendants, by the flight attendants, for the flight attendants

 

AFA is a class-and-craft union, a union that represents only one profession.  By focusing on only one profession, AFA is able to provide superior representation.

                    

It has not always been this way.  Before AFA, stewardesses were part of ALPA, the Air Line Pilots Association.  But after a while the flight attendants determined that they would be better served by taking control of their own destiny.  The flight attendants left ALPA (amicably) to form their own union.  Never again would a pilot or anyone else have authority over the flight attendants.

 

We, the Frontier flight attendants, do not want to go back in time.  It's 2009, not 1959.  Why settle for being .005% of the membership and 0% of the elected leaders when we could be 100% of the membership and 100% of the elected leaders? 

 

AFA Members in the Driver's Seat

 

AFA is a truly democratic union.  As you can see from the chart below, the members and their elected leaders are in control. 

 

The structure may look complicated, but it is not.  Each airline has a Master Executive Council (MEC) which operates as sort of a mini-union within AFA.  The MEC has control of their contract and the union business that takes place at their airline.  The MEC is comprised of the Local Executive Council (LEC) Presidents at their airline.  Each domicile with more than 100 flight attendants has their own LEC (a domicile with less than 100 flight attendants is combined with another domicile at that airline).  At an airline with only one domicile, like Frontier, the MEC and LEC are the same. 

 

The LEC officers are directly elected by the members in their council.  At airlines with more than one LEC, the MEC officers are elected by the LEC Presidents.  At airlines with only one LEC (as would be the case at Frontier) the LEC and MEC officers are the same and are directly elected by the members in their council.  

 

To hold an office or any committee position at AFA you must be an AFA member. 

 

 

 

Flight Attendants Unite at AFA

 

This chart reflects the current membership of AFA.  Each circle is an MEC and the lines from the circle to an airport code reflect the LEC's in that MEC.  For example, the SPR circle is the Spirit MEC and the two spokes reflect the two LEC's; one in DTW and the other in FLL.  When Frontier joins AFA there will be a circle for us and one spoke that says DEN to reflect our LEC.  The number of LEC's changes periodically as the airlines open and close domiciles.
 

AFA Dues:  Money Spent on Flight Attendants

 

It's true, AFA dues would cost us about one cup of coffee more per month than the dues at another union. But it is more than worth it.  As they say, you get what you pay for!

 

Flight Attendants in Control and Backed by Millions

 

Although AFA is completely autonomous within the CWA, the 700,000+ members of the CWA are there when we need them.  Not to mention the 11.7 million members of the AFL-CIO, a group AFA has been a part of since our separation from ALPA.  

 

With AFA you get the best of all worlds, a specialty union with self governance and the support of CWA and the AFL-CIO.

 

AFA Organizing is on a Roll!

 

So far this year there have been three elections and three victories for flight attendants.  The flight attendants at Ryan International, USA 3000 and Lynx voted for AFA representation.  An election at Compass is currently underway and we hope our election will be underway in the near future. 

 

Our election is still on hold pending the outcome of the single carrier determination by the National Mediation Board. 

 

If you have any questions about the structure of AFA or the campaign, please respond to this email.  As always, an AFA Authorization Card is attached.  If you have not already done so, please fill one out and mail it in ASAP.  Thank you.   

 

 F9 for AFA Coalition of Frontier Flight Attendants

www.afafrontier.org