AFA ASKS
AND CONGRESS RESPONDS!
This past week members of our Government
Affairs Committee met with over 100 Congressional offices asking
them to sign on to a letter urging President Obama to appoint a
worker friendly National Mediation Board (NMB) as soon as
possible. The
letter was initiated by our good friend and labor champion, the
Honorable Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) from the 34th district in
CA. In the letter
Rep. Roybal-Allard expressed concerns over the fact that the
current "NMB has increasingly tilted in favor of employers over
employees making organizing efforts and representation elections
more difficult." It
goes further to let the President know that time is of the
essence as the NMB will soon oversee the full integration of
Delta and Northwest Airlines. The election schedule, the voting
environment, the tolerance of management anti-union campaigning
and election rules are all governed by the NMB. The letter urges the
administration to act quickly to appoint a fair-minded
replacement to the current National Mediation Board to ensure
that the rights of all airline and rail employees are
protected. At the
end of a two-day marathon of meetings we gathered over 80
signatures from the House and the letter has been sent to
President Obama. In
addition to the over 80 signatures on the Roybal-Allard letter,
Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI), Rep. Sander Levin (D-MI) and Rep.
Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) sent their own individual letters to
President Obama. We
are hopeful that the administration will act and appoint an NMB
that we can count on for fairness in time for our election. We would like to express
our gratitude to Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) for taking
the initiative on this sign-on letter. We know that you will
also want to thank her with a personal note of gratitude by
sending her a simple thank-you to http://www.house.gov/roybal-allard/contact.shtml. A special
thanks to our friends at US Airways Government Affairs Committee
for helping us out with this effort and to collect signatures.
-- Submitted by MEC Government Affairs Chair Albert Garcia
PBS PROBLEM
WORKSHEET NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE
In order for our members to stay
engaged in the PBS improvement process, we ask that you submit
comments and suggestions regarding PBS to your union
representatives. To
make it easier to submit comments and suggestions, your MEC,
with the help of DTW flight attendant Frank Slitti, has created
an online PBS Problem Worksheet as a way to identify problems
with PBS and develop a database that will help us improve PBS
bidding issues. The
online PBS Problem Worksheet will be launched this week, and we
urge everyone to use the handy form to specify problems you are
having with PBS. Be
sure to include as many details and specific examples as
possible. The PBS
online form can be found on the home page of the NWA-AFA website
or by going to http://nwaafa.org/onlineforms/pbs.
Information you provide will be given to our PBS Support
Team. They will
take the information and develop recommendations that will be
presented to the Company for implementation. Your MEC would like to
thank our members’ input and patience as we work to
improve bidder satisfaction. Our gratitude also goes out to our PBS
volunteers, who will receive your feedback and work for positive
change. Keep in
mind that if and when we elect to retain union representation at
the new Delta, we will have the opportunity to negotiate new
parameters for our bidding system.
UNION
CONTRACT WORKS FOR YOU AND YOUR UNIFORM
As reported in last week’s hotline
message, our union and the Company worked together to honor our
contractual agreement of NO alteration cost limits on NEW
uniform pieces. For
flight attendants who have requested an Alterations Certificate,
please contact Lion Uniform Group to obtain an updated
certificate. This
week, our Local Council 94 representative Daniel Grey worked
with SuzAnne Balzer, Director of Contract Administration and
Gail Cummings, Director of Inflight Administration, to further
exercise our contractual language in Section 19.I.1 that allows
pre-merger Northwest flight attendants to use payroll deduction
on orders of optional uniform pieces or additional uniform
items. Flight
attendants at Delta pay for additional/optional uniform
orders only by credit card, but our contract provides for
payroll deduction.
Effective immediately, you may authorize the company to
payroll deduct any items ordered from DL uniform catalogue, such
as warming sweater, turtleneck, or vest. These optional or any
exchanged items will be shipped at the end of February, after
shipping of basic ensemble pieces has been completed. Should you have
additional uniform-related issues, please contact Tracy Marten
at Tracy.Martens@delta.com and your
union representatives.
A detailed e-mail on uniforms was sent from the company
this week, and it will also be available on the ATLAS home page
under What’s New.
JOINT
COMPANY AND AFA REMEDY FOR UNNECESSARY DUES
DEDUCTIONS
MEC VP Rook and MEC Sec-Treasurer
Gehrt met with Company representatives regarding ongoing
problems with unnecessary dues deductions for those on long-term
leave. After three
months of leave, no more dues will be deducted. The Company has agreed
to pay out as many extra payments as they can in the
27th paycheck (e.g., Quarterly Incentive Payments,
Profit Sharing, Grievance Settlements, etc.). This would effectively
stop many of the unnecessary dues deductions for leave
participants, since union dues are deducted from the
13th paycheck.
Additionally, AFA and the Company have mutually agreed to
automatically stop dues deductions for those taking early
retirement and early out, so no dues revocation forms will be
required. Many
thanks to NWA representatives SuzAnne Balzer, Chris Sterling,
and Jason Sprynczynatyk for their work on
this.
BEWARE OF
STOOL PIGEONS AROUND THE SYSTEM
Around the system, reports are coming in
regarding anti-union Delta flight attendants who are on special
assignment “observing” NW flights and of managers
questioning the merits of union representation. Some managers are even
requesting that flight attendants remove bag tags or union
insignia. On one
flight out of HNL on January 21, a special-assignment Delta
flight attendant boarded on the pretext of observing our LOD and
interpreter program, but then spent the better part of the
flight questioning our flight attendants about our union and
advocating against representation. She even went so far as to ask for their
personal email addresses. For your protection, we have provided
some documents that you can use when you find yourself in these
uncomfortable and inappropriate situations. Please carry and use
these documents from AFA Legal: Interference Form and Legal Do's and Don’ts
posted on www.deltaafa.org and in the Legal
Library on www.nwaafa.org. Please report any incidents of this nature to your union
officers immediately, so evidence may be collected to be
presented to the National Mediation Board. Brace yourself; this is
just one part of Delta management’s much used union
busting strategy:
http://nwaafa.org/docs/AirlnExecs_NoUnion081.pdf.
NWA-AFA
MASTER EXECUTIVE COUNCIL SEEKS
SECRETARY-TREASURER
The MEC is currently seeking candidates
to serve as its Secretary-Treasurer. The qualified
candidate will review and maintain the monthly budget
expenditures provided by the AFA International Office and assist
the President in the administration of MEC funds.
Additional duties include, but are not limited to: maintaining MEC records,
keeping meeting minutes, monitoring membership rosters and
seniority lists, maintaining files of Base monthly scheduling
information, and administrating MEC Committees.
Our
current MEC Secretary-Treasurer, Mark Gehrt, will be
participating in the Company early-out program. We would
like to thank him for his dedication and hard work on behalf of
our membership. We wish him the best of luck in his future
endeavors.
If you are interested in being considered for
MEC Secretary-Treasurer, please send a letter of interest with a
resume to Karen Chapdelaine, Association of Flight Attendants,
Master Executive Council, 8011 34th Avenue South, Suite 220,
Bloomington, MN 55425, or email to
kchapdelaine@nwaafa.org.
For a complete description of the duties of MEC
Secretary-Treasurer, please refer to the
AFA-CWA Constitution and Bylaws Article VII,
2(c) or go to the Committees
tab on NWA-AFA website for the open job
announcement. The
deadline for all submissions is February 10,
2009.
UNION
MEETING AND BENEFITS INFORMATION ON YOUTUBE
Studies from 2007 have shown that up to
90 million American households had difficulty paying medical
expenses. AFA
senior benefits attorney Mary Lou Savage has made numerous
presentations on medical and retirement benefits
comparisons. If
you’ve missed any of her informative sessions, a DTW-based
member filmed some of these sessions and has kindly made them
available on his YouTube channel so we can all learn about
benefits that matter to many of us. The current economic state and high cost of
healthcare should make us more vigilant to understand and
protect our benefits.
To watch the medical presentation or LEC 94 membership
meeting, please go to want2keepmyvoice on YouTube. Many thanks go out to
this LEC 94 member for his generosity and countless hours of
hard work in making these footage available to us.
36th ANNUAL AFA-CWA BOARD OF DIRECTORS
MEETING
Based upon member feedback, your
Master Executive Council has made available online a number of
advance agenda items for this year’s Board of Directors
Meeting. We have a
new password-protected area on our MEC
website where these items can be
viewed. Advance
agenda items include: 1) a proposal to change our dues rate from $43
to 1X hourly pay rate; 2) a proposal to eliminate dues
requirement for medical leave; 3) proposals that would change
how MEC and International Officers are elected; and 4) a
proposal that would increase the percentage of dues that goes to
all locals. You
must register for access to this area of our
site.
AROUND THE SYSTEM - BRING A COLLEAGUE. GET MOTIVATED. GET
INVOLVED.
The MEC meeting
schedule and the Local Meeting schedule are found under the “Events” tab
at www.nwaafa.org.
Delta Flight Attendants will be invited to local union
meetings throughout the country in the coming year, and there
will be mixers and trainings planned and posted at www.deltaafa.org as
well.
GOT MERGER QUESTIONS? GET ANSWERS!
You are always welcome to
contact your AFA-CWA Local officers, whose contact information
is found at nwaafa.org.
Another way to get accurate answers to merger questions
is to email Questions@nwaafa.org.
As additional information is gathered, it will be
reported in hotline messages, our quarterly printed MEC
newsletter all call, in Union
bulletin boards, and on the websites. Archived editions of the MEC merger
Q&A the source and the
Contract vs. Policy Manual postcards
are posted on the MEC
website. To sign up
for the joint campaign e-news and read past campaign
publications visit www.deltaafa.org.
DON'T FORGET TO WEAR YOUR UNION
PIN!
Click
HERE or visit www.afanet.org for information about AFA-CWA union structure and
the history of the AFA-CWA. Dues & Member
Q&A can be viewed here: http://nwaafa.org/resources/dues/.
