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AFA Detroit Local Executive Council
94 | eNews 2
July 2008
Happy 4th
of
July!
Whether you are flying or
spending time with family and friends, the Officers of Local 94
wish you a safe and happy Independence Day!
Please note, the AFA Office in Detroit will
be closed Friday in observance of the holiday. Regular
office hours will resume on Monday.
**ATTENTION: Please see the end of this
hotline message for important information regarding SLIP leaves
and Michigan Unemployment benefits.
SCHEDULING AND RESERVE TOWN HALL MEETING -
UPDATE!
Last month's
AFA-initiated Scheduling and Reserve Town Hall Meeting was so
well received, we are coordinating another educational forum and
Question/Answer Session with AFA MEC Officers, MEC Scheduling
Chairs along with management on Tuesday, July 22. AFA Detroit has
invited Director of Scheduling, Brian Moreau, for a return visit
to share contract implementation changes, PBS updates and
everything you wanted to know about Reserve and/or Scheduling
but were afraid to ask.
The Town Hall Meeting is hosted in
collaboration with Detroit Inflight at the DTW CBT Lab, just
beyond the briefing rooms in the Inflight Offices. If you
missed last month's meeting or have additional questions, please
take advantage of this special opportunity for in depth
explanations of scheduling and contract issues. There will be three
sessions, each with a slightly different emphasis: 10:00
a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Open Q and A, 12:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Open Q and A, and 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. Reserve issues,
including SLIC/PBS questions.
PBS TRAINING SEMINARS:
WEIGHTING
Don't forget to sign up for a PBS
Weighting Seminar, to be offered July 7 through July 17, from
11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., in the CBT room. Sign up sheets
are available at the Inflight CRC desk or you may call (734)
247-2529. Class topics will include Weighting
Basics, the Multiplier, Day-off Requests, Cumulative Weighting
and Trip Points Summary.
35th ANNUAL AFA-CWA BOARD of DIRECTORS MEETING
(BOD)
The 2008 AFA Board of Directors Meeting (BOD) will
be held in Milwaukee from July 8-10, 2008. Any member in
good standing is welcome and encouraged to attend the
meetings. If you would like more information, please
contact lec94@nwaafa.org.
With some of your Local 94 Officers attending the BOD
next week, we would like to advise you that the Detroit office
will have minimum staffing next week. Please know that we
can retrieve our messages remotely, and we are always available
by email. Our contact information is included at the
bottom of this message.
MORE PRESCRIPTION
DISCOUNTS
In recent months, some local retailers
and grocery stores have begun offering generic prescriptions at
very affordable rates. For instance, Detroit and
other Midwest-area residents can save hundreds, even thousands,
of dollars on many eligible generic medications at participating
Kroger Pharmacies, Target and Meijer Stores. If you currently
purchase maintenance medication or other prescriptions with
NWA's Merck-Medco prescription card plan (in-store, mail-in or
online), you may be able to pay much less than the Medco
standard co-pays.
Kroger Pharmacies and Target both offer
$4 generic prescriptions for a 30-day supply and $10 generic
prescriptions for a 90-day supply. Hundreds of common
medications are now available in generic form. Additionally,
Meijer Pharmacy now provides seven commonly prescribed
antibiotics, as well as five different brands of pre-natal
vitamins for free. Stores can provide a list of qualifying
medications for you or they are available
online.
Kroger Pharmacy:
Target Pharmacy:
Meijer Pharmacy:
Ask your
doctor whether s/he recommends a generic alternative to your
current or future medication(s) and check out Kroger, Target,
Meijer or other retail pharmacies that now provide this discount
service.
If you know of other participating retailers or
have helpful money-saving tips to share with your co-workers,
please contact LEC94@nwaafa.org
for publication in a future hotline.
MICHIGAN UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFIT
INFORMATION
The following unemployment information
is being provided to assist members considering an upcoming SLIP
leave. The company has advised they will not contest
unemployment for the 3 ?, 6 or 9-month leaves, which will begin
August 30. Bids close July 13 at 2359 CDT.
Unemployment
benefits and qualifications vary from state to state. Historically, the State
of Michigan has paid unemployment
benefits to DTW-based Flight Attendants on SLIP leaves and other
furlough-avoidance type leaves, although it has often been only
after an appeal process following denial. Local 94 is not
authorized to make determinations of eligibility on behalf of
the State of Michigan, however.
The attached documents from the Michigan
Unemployment Insurance Agency and publication excerpts contained
in this hotline are provided for informational purposes only and
are not intended to imply or affirm known benefit approval. More comprehensive
information, as well as additional fact sheets, tutorials and
forms can be found on the State of Michigan
Unemployment website at http://www.mi.gov/uia. Please refer to
your local unemployment office for specific questions regarding
benefit coverage.
Qualifying
requirements
The
UIA will look at your standard base period to determine if your
earnings qualify you for unemployment benefits. The standard
base period includes the first four of the last five completed
calendar quarters prior to when you filed your claim. The four
calendar quarters in a year are:
January, March, April, June,
July, September,October, and
December.
If
you cannot qualify based on your standard base period, the UIA
will check your earnings in the "alternate" base period, which
is the four most recently completed calendar quarters. There are
two ways in which your earnings may qualify you for unemployment
benefits:
-
"Regular" qualifying method: (a) For
benefit years beginning 1/6/2008 through 1/3/2009, you must have
wages in at least two quarters in your base period. In one
quarter, your wages must be at least $2,774; and (b) total wages
for all four quarters must equal at least one and a half times
the highest amount of wages paid in any quarter of the base
period. ($2,774 x 1.5 = $4,161)
OR
-
Alternate Earnings Qualifier (AEQ): (a)
You must have wages in at least two quarters; and (b)
total wages for all four quarters must equal at least 20 times
the state average weekly wage (SAWW). For 2008, the AEQ amount
is $16,400.80. [20 x $820.04 (SAWW) =
$16,400.80]
To set up a claim, the
UIA must find the following in the base period: wages in the
"high quarter" (quarter with the highest wages) of at least
$2,697; and wages in the entire based period of at least 1.5
times the wages in the high
quarter.
UIA staff calculates how much you
receive in unemployment benefits by multiplying the highest
amount of wages paid to you in any base period quarter by 4.1%.
(.041) The UIA adds
$6 for each dependent you claim, up to five dependents. The
weekly benefit amount is capped at
$362.
Calculating your unemployment
benefits:
-
Multiply your high-quarter wages by 4.1%
(.041);
-
Add $6 for each dependent, up to
5;
-
Round down the result to the nearest
whole number;
-
The maximum weekly benefit amount is
$362
To determine how many weeks of benefits
you may receive, the UIA multiplies your total base period wages
by 43%, and then divides that answer by your weekly benefit
amount. The claim, however, cannot be less than 14 weeks or more
than 26 weeks.
- Multiply your total base period wages by
43% (.43);
- Divide that amount by your weekly
benefit amount;
- Round down the result to the nearest
half-week;
- Minimum duration of benefits is 14
weeks; maximum is 26
weeks.
LOCAL 94 TELEPHONE DIRECTORY
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Your Detroit Local Executive
Council
Wear your Union Pin! FLY SAFE, AND
FLY THE CONTRACT!
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