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Greetings,
September 4,
2009
RE:
New Contractual Letters of
Agreement
Dear
Northwest Flight Attendants:
We are
pleased to announce we have reached agreement with the Company
over three new Letters of Agreement to add to our collective
bargaining agreement.
The most notable of the three being LOA 41 - Split Line
Program. We also came to
agreement on LOA 40 - AMC/CRAF
Flying, which updates and
combines two 2003 IBT "Yellow Book" LOAs regarding military
charter flying. The
third is LOA 39 - Base
Transfers, which makes
a procedural correction to align contractual Base Transfer bid
deadlines with PBS bid deadlines. Please click on the above links or visit our
MEC website for the complete Letters of Agreement. Hard copies will also be
distributed to all flight attendants in the near
future.
Split Line Program -
Letter of Agreement 41
During the negotiations for our current contract,
management and your Negotiating Committee agreed to continue
talks with the aim of creating a Split Line Flying Program. The original concept was
to create more low lines for junior flight attendants while
offering greater flexibility. However, as staffing conditions and the
economic climate changed, the focus evolved into not only
securing more schedule flexibility, but
attempting to save the jobs of our most
junior members.
Our
original proposals had flight attendants pairing up and
splitting one line.
With the advent of PBS, that was no longer necessary and
now flight attendants - both reserves and line holders - in
the program will be able to "split a line" with PBS. This improvement
will simplify the process and broaden access for our group.
Split
Line Flying will only be offered at bases with a staffing
overage and will of course be awarded in seniority order. The program is strictly
voluntary and will be offered in conjunction with SLIP and
CCL leaves. The lock-in terms will
vary depending upon need, but will be in increments of 1-month,
3-months, and 6-months. The program is expected to begin for the
November 2009 flying month, and we have asked for it to begin in
1-month increments, to allow a testing and trial period for all
parties.
A
Split Line participant will be credited and pre-blocked with a
"blind credit" equaling half of the month's EBLA, and
will bid and be awarded the rest of a line of flying. Reserves will be
pre-blocked with a "blind credit" of 40 hours and will bid and
be awarded 9 days of reserve availability. All bidding and awarding
of lines will be in accordance with the participant's
seniority. All line
adjustment provisions of the contract still apply and
participants may adjust their lines in any way provided for in
our Agreement.
Flight Attendants holding a Split Line will pay 50%
of the Company's portion of our health and dental insurance
premiums, and if they fly fewer than 70 credited hours, will
have vacation and sick leave accruals prorated in accordance
with Section 10.A.3. of our Agreement. Pattern guarantees apply to all lineholders,
and reserves will be pay guaranteed to 40
hours.
Your
MEC and Negotiating Committee are very pleased that this program
offering increased flexibility for Northwest Flight Attendants
is finally in place.
It is just another tool we have negotiated with
management, which allows us greater control over our work life
and increases our schedule options. More importantly, it has potential to save
some of our colleagues from furlough and protect flight
attendant jobs.
Enjoy your new scheduling opportunity and remember that
without a Union, it would not
be in place.
Please stay tuned to the MEC Hotline and company
email for more information about these LOAs, including more
detailed information about the new Split Line Program.
In
Unity For a Better Future,
Janette Rook, MEC
President
James
Yung, Negotiating Committee
Bruce
Retrum, Negotiating
Committee
Lovey
Offerle, Negotiating
Committee
Paula
Mastrangelo, AFA Staff
Negotiator
(Printable PDF version
attached to this email)
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