It is important that each of us has the clearest understanding of the issues regarding this contract before casting our vote. The UnitedAFA.org and the OurContract.org sites provide a number of resources for study.

The following articles are part of a series regarding information presented by the AFA Joint Negotiation Committee during their Contract Roadshows in HNL, SFO & LAX. Thank you in advance for your time, attention and understanding in this local council presentation. - Sharon

Aloha Friends and Greetings from Oahu,

By now you’ve had an opportunity to:

• Attend the Contract Roadshow in HNL or GUM

• Watch the roadshow webcast on the AFA website  

• Talk to Kevin in the office and get clarity on some of your concerns

•  Read through the summary and looked up the applicable specific language in the full tentative.

• View the industry comparisons.

• Discuss elements of the full Tentative Agreement and the application of these issues to your work and home situation.
  

Clearly, there is a lot to take in and sift through. All of these avenues of open dialog and study are great sources to formulate an opinion and hopefully open the mind to possibilities unknown. Yet, despite all of this information, there are questions. Questions as to what will be, how will you make an issue work for you and naturally, what can you do to make an issue not work against you. You also know from your own long flying careers and previous contracts that much of the uncertainty is a simple matter of adjusting to change.

Will change happen without voting FOR this Tentative Agreement? Some yes, some no, but even those answers are not finite.

Warring Houses

During the long process of this merger, the changes have been painful for most. As the laborious negotiation process would stop and start at the whims of powers or perceived powers of some, we were subjected to watching episode after episode of some sick kind of airline “Game of Thrones.”

Flying was decimated in many locations, at all three pre-merger Flight Attendant groups. Long time aircraft orders were delayed, converted and seemingly toyed. Contractual violations happened across each pre-merger carrier, flagging out the best and worst of each contract and provision, all pointing to the futility of an intended war of attrition.

Some fared well during each episode, while others bore the brunt of these battles. Meanwhile, Flight Attendants at all three pre-merger airline continued their lives, taking care of their families and making the best whenever and wherever they could. At the end of the day, be it the darkest days for some or the sunniest of others, roofs must still be paid, medicine bought and children or elderly cared for and fed.

Watching one group pitted against another, the differences seemed unsurmountable. Contract talks went nowhere and those that seemingly held the bigger or better pieces of the pie came to think they would forever own that favor.

Change and Compromise

After four long years of stalled contract negotiations, a change of palace, and feudal landscape, we now have a treaty of sorts; an agreement of compromise to fit all.

Compromise? Yes, compromise. The very nature of bringing 3 airlines with three separate histories and three contracts into one, took a great deal of compromise. Each would give up something that one group valued while each would gain something different that the other held.

Hundreds of pages, stipulations, applications, many of which related to the other. Each brought with them definitions, terms and new ways for each group to learn. It was a huge undertaking. And now we are tasked to learn them as well.

The National Mediation Board was instrumental in helping all sides. The bridge has been built. Now it will be your vote to decide if we cross it.

So let’s get started. Winter is coming.

And so is Part Two. Stay with us.