Negotiations Update (November 19, 2021)

Dear Flight Attendants,

Your Negotiation Team met with the company this week for our first bargaining meeting. We presented our opener to the company on November 5, 2021. 

As we’ve been saying for a few months now, our goal in these negotiations is to improve a limited number of contract provisions in the shortest amount of time.  We want to put more money into our pockets quickly instead of three years from now.  Your survey results were used to pick twenty contract provisions to improve in addition to some cleanup issues.  This week was spent negotiating over these items with management.  

The ball is now in management’s court because they have all of our proposals.  Negotiations are scheduled to resume on December 8th and we look forward to seeing their counterproposals at that time. The company was not prepared with an opening proposal of their own and they understand we are expecting that in December as well.  It’s possible that they don’t want to propose any changes to the contract, but we will find that out next month. 

Our Opening Proposal

In addition to only negotiating over a limited number of issues, quickly, these negotiations will be a bit different than those for our previous contract.  The MEC and Negotiating Committee want everyone to know what is going on at the table and that is why we will be publishing our proposals and management’s proposals throughout the process.  

A note about Section 7 – a number of improvements have been proposed to the Scheduling section.  One of our goals here is to be able to bid for the line that most closely resembles the line we want – in terms of credit hours.  That is why we’ve proposed a number of credit windows.  Some people want to fly more and some people want to fly less.  These windows would allow the PBS system to do accommodate those preferences.  Of course, our awarded lines are only half the battle of getting the line we want and that’s why we’ve proposed a change to the SAP process.  Our proposal includes one day of dropping into open time which would be allowed because the grid would be “green.”  The second SAP day would be for picking up and swapping.  We’re hoping this would provide more open time initially so that it would be easier to modify our schedules.  

In addition to those items, we also proposed to clean up some language and to incorporate the three side letters/grievance settlements that have been negotiated during the last few years.  Those settlements include agreements regarding commuter hotel rooms before a trip, bereavement leave and notification by crew scheduling of a delayed or cancelled flight.  

Remember to wear your Red AFA pin, display your Orange AFA bag tag on your rollaboard, and stay informed during Negotiations! Your support is greatly appreciated!

In Unity,

Your Negotiations Team

Maggie Fox, MEC President
Cathy Lindig, MEC Vice President
Rosanna Scollo, Committee Member
Beth DeProspero, AFA Senior Staff Negotiator

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