November 5, 2007 AFA Local 94 eNEWS

 

Joint Contract Training for Crew Scheduling and AFA Representatives

For the first time, crew schedulers and duty managers have been invited by union representatives to attend joint contract training.  To prevent contract interpretation disputes during the holiday season, representatives from AFA-CWA councils across Northwest will meet in MSP November 9–11 with their counterparts in scheduling to review work rules.  This collaborative effort, led by MEC negotiators and AFA-CWA attorneys, will ensure that our contract is enforced fairly and correctly, and will affirm to management and crew scheduling that we are all working together for the same "internal customer," the flight attendant.  The Local 94 office will be closed Friday, November 9th to accommodate this training.  Please see www.nwaafa.org for a full list of cell phone contacts and email addresses.

 

Liberty Mutual Complaints and Occupational Benefits Committee

If you have experienced problems in the past year with Liberty Mutual (Northwest’s Workers Compensation Insurance Company in Michigan,) and they were not resolved, please report this to Local 94 at lec94@nwaafa.org.  Local 94 would like to compile a list of member names in order to ascertain if there is a continuing problem.  The Occupational Benefits Committee is an informational resource for members who are involved in an OJI.  It does not give legal advice or represent members for state benefit (Workers Compensation Insurance) appeal hearings.  Volunteers that are familiar with this process and passionate about member assistance in this area are asked to contact Local 94 to volunteer for this committee.  

 

Beacon Foundation Benefit - December 4th               
On December 4th, 2007, from 9-4 there will be a Beacon Foundation Benefit in Inflight.  All of the proceeds from the benefit will be directed to the Beacon Foundation.  The Beacon Foundation is a non-profit organization that was established in April of 2000.  Its mission is to provide financial assistance to NWA Flight Attendants and their families who are suffering from 
a critical or terminal illness, injury, or disability. If you have any gently used uniforms or baked goods and would like to donate them to the Benefit, please take them to In-flight.   Beacon Foundation donations can be payroll deducted and the forms can be found by the union bulletin board in the lounge.         

 

Duty Free of Canada Deposit Problems

Please report any problems that you are having with your Duty Free Commission to Payroll and Local 94.  There have been some reports that the commission checks have been deposited, only to later be withdrawn because the check is written from a Canadian bank.

 

DTW Uniform Show – December 12th

If you are in DTW on December 12th, the new uniforms will be on display in the Inflight office.

 

Flight Attendant Notification from outside numbers

The system that is now used by Scheduling is a rotating system, as used in reservations.  The phone call may appear to be from anywhere in the system and have any area code, including Singapore.  The automated calls are supposed to recognize an answering machine and leave a message.  Please document if a message was not left and send to lec94@nwaafa.org.   

 

Government Affairs – Legislate, so we will not have to negotiate!

Please read the attached Government Affairs update.  Member action is needed NOW to make legal FMLA and other flight attendant-friendly initiatives happen.  Please sign the attached letters to the Senate and House, and the Government Affairs Chairs will fill in your Senator and Representatives’ names for you.  There will be a table, manned by Government Affairs Chair/MEC Vice President Albert Garcia and Government Affairs Vice Chair /Local 94 President-Elect Diana Mitcham, in In-flight on December 4th.

 

Change to Reserve 1400-1400 on-call Award  

The MEC Scheduling and Negotiations Committees have worked with the NW Scheduling Department to change the procedure for awarding 1400-1400 on-call status for reserve flight attendants.  Currently, 1400-1400 is awarded following SLAP at 1300 base local, and immediately preceding Reserve Assignment Processing.  The timing of this process does not allow for reserve preference input since you are simultaneously awarded the on-call status and possibly a pattern assignment.  The new 1400-1400 award will be processed at the 1100 run, along with pattern drops and reserve releases.  The Agreement allows for a minimum of 10% of reserves beginning an on-call period to elect 1400-1400 status.  Please see 7.1C.1 of the contract for complete information about 1400-1400.  This change is expected to begin January, 2008.   

 

Future Scheduling Changes

Reserve "Magnet" Days:  Scheduled to be implemented in November.  This will allow some movement for switching reserve days, although it is at the discretion of the company.  For example, if there is a shortage of reserves on the 22nd of the month, the company could create a magnet day on that date and allow reserves to switch on-call days from a day with better coverage.  The benefit would be if the days happened to fit the trade need of any specific flight attendant, though weekends and holidays are going to be the likely days impacted by magnet.  

Premium Pay Patterns:  Scheduled for November implementation.  Premium Pay Patterns are created by crew scheduling from existing patters to give incentive to fly certain trips.  PPP trips will be paid your regular incentive rate plus 25%.  These patterns will be designated by a new, recognizable pattern number, most likely in the 250000 range.  Reserves may pick up PPPs within the parameters described above in the RIA section.  Premium Pay Patterns will also get a pattern class code (PCPP, for example) so they can be bid for generically. 

Reserve AM/PM and Silo:  Silo = trip awards matched to days on-call for Reserves.  AM/PM = the ability to choose to be on call 12 hours, either AM or PM.  These are slated to begin in the first quarter of 2008. 

 

Scheduling “Optimization” Discussions

In a recent meeting with the company, the MEC Scheduling Committee addressed several issues of concern over flying allocation, pattern construction, sit time, and exhausting domestic patterns.  Pattern construction is a result of trip optimization which calculates the most efficient use of crews.  We continue to stress the point that current pattern construction results in exhausted crews.   

A Scheduling Committee meeting is planned for November 7th with the company.  A large portion of the day will be spent on pattern construction and optimization discussions.  The Detroit Scheduling Committee Chair is Len Koral and Reserve Committee Chair is Greg Frattini .  We continue to gather your input to bring with us to meeting with the Scheduling department.   Please visit www.nwaafa.org for committee email addresses.  We are also happy to announce a Crew Schedule Report is now available on the MEC website.  Select "Committees" from the main page of the nwaafa.org website, then scroll down to click "Scheduling."  This will direct you to an automated form to document scheduling issues. 

 

Next Local 94 Council Meeting – January 9, 2008

Please plan to attend the next Local 94 Council Meeting on January 9, 2008 for a “meet and greet” with our newly elected officers.  New officers take office on January 1, 2008.

 

Fly safe and fly the contract!

Please print and carry attached Contract Notes.  The negotiating committee has finished proofreading and done an exhaustive page by page to make sure all is correct in the green book.  There were many grammatical errors and corrections that needed to be made, as well as conflicting areas in the green book and a comprehensive index.  The final hard copy of the contract is expected to be printed and available in a few weeks.