December 18, 2016

Dear Council 11 Members,

I would like to thank everyone who participated and voted in our local council election. The process of combining our Council has begun with the election and the officers will now start the process of redefining roles and responsibilities. One of our primary goals in the next few months will be to ensure all members of Council 11 are receiving local updates.  Beginning January 1, 2017, we will be starting an email drive and encourage all members to sign up to receive the Council Newsletter. We will continue to keep you updated with dates and times we will be available to verify your email or to change or add a new email address.

Local Council Meeting

We are currently searching for an airport meeting room to host a Local Council Meeting the first week of January. We anticipate this meeting will be on January 5 with January 6 as a backup possibility.  As soon as the venue and location are secured, we will put out an additional notice.  At this meeting, we will be discussing the upcoming MEC meeting on Jan 17-19 in IAH as well as other Council Business.

Uniform Points

As a reminder, uniform points from 2016 will not roll over to 2017. If you have any 2016 points still available, they can be used until December 30 at 1500 central time if ordering by telephone and until December 31 at 2359 Central time if ordering via the Cintas Website.

January Line Awards

January Line awards were published earlier today and many Flight Attendants were caught off guard when the SDR went senior to the Cover Letter estimate of 2/27/1999 seniority date.  We spoke to Crew Schedule Planning today and found that several factors changed the dynamic of the Line Awards for January. These factors include, but are not limited to, the increase of 30-day WOP awards after the publication of the Cover letter, the low line averages, a junior Vacation month, and RLF lines holding true to the estimate. Remember in November, we had an addition 80 RLF lines awarded than estimated, and in DEC we had an additional 40 RLF lines than estimated.  In both November and December, we had 16-18% of the base on Reserve. For January 24% of the base is on Reserve.

Active Population- 2229

Total Reserves- 546 (24%)

Last Domestic Purser Line- 2/24/01

Last Relief Line- 3/17/2008 (B)

Last Domestic Line- 1/9/06 (B)

Senior Designated Reserve- 7/11/1998

DenyNAI- Week of Action

Working with other Unions, AFA-CWA Councils will be participating in leafleting events at airports across the country next week, December 20 -23, 2016, to heighten awareness to our passengers on the dangers of a flag of convenience models. Flag of convenience models such as these will lead to outsourcing 300,000 U.S. aviation jobs just as this model did in the U.S. shipping industry, which ultimately decimated that industry. We realize this is short notice during a very busy time of the year. However, the increased passenger traffic during this period will help build awareness. 

In SFO, we are working to secure a permit for this Wednesday December 21 from 10 until noon. If you are available to help leaflet, please call Kaitlin at 415-527-9344.

Reserve Christmas Wish List

Flight Attendants on Reserve for the month of December, have an opportunity to preference where they would like to layover for the three (3) days preceding and two (2) day following Christmas.  Section 10.C.13.c. of our Contract provides for the Reserve Christmas Wish List and for these assignments to be made in seniority order. When submitting your requests, you will be asked for your Reserve LOF number as well as your Reserve status (CLLR/RSV).  Requests may be submitted for up to four layover stations.

You may submit your holiday layover requests through the link which is available our AFA website.  We encourage you to put an initial request on file early and modify your request if your circumstances change later in the month to take full advantage of the flexibility of our programming.  The last request on file will be the request that will be considered at the time of assignment.  The submission page will detail the dates of your request and must be finalized to be considered. 

The company has stated that the Reserve Preferencing system will not be utilized in tandem with the Reserve Christmas Wish List. We disagree with the company’s decision: Three days before Christmas and two days following, Reserve assignment procedures provide for the Christmas Wish List. These assignments are seniority based exclusively so they would not be accomplished through the Reserve Preferencing process which is based on time accrued order. It is possible, in our view, for both process to be accomplished consecutively. MEC 7-15 was filed based on the company’s misapplication of our Contract.

For a full list of deadline dates for the holiday period, as well as more detailed information please visit unitedafa.org/wishlist.  United Crew Scheduling will make every attempt to accommodate the Reserve Christmas Wish List layover requests to the best of their ability.

AFA and IAM Announce Reciprocal Cabin Jumpseat Opportunities

Following the merger of United, Continental, and Continental Micronesia airlines, United management revised its policy which previously provided IAM Flight Attendants with access to the cabin jumpseat. Because of that change, IAM Flight Attendants lost their access to the cabin jumpseats on the new United Airlines aircraft.  Today, AFA, the IAM and United Airlines are happy to announce an agreement has been reached that will provide a reciprocal opportunity for IAM-represented ExpressJet, CommutAir, and United Airlines Flight Attendants to occupy vacant cabin jumpseats on each other’s aircraft. Priority access will be given to the Flight Attendant(s) accessing the cabin jumpseat(s) on her/his own carrier. In addition, true to AFA’s Constitutional priority to establish jumpseat reciprocity, Flight Attendants at Mesa and GoJet Airlines, United Express carriers, will also benefit from this collaborative effort of our Unions. 

More than two years in the making, this agreement is the result of meetings and intensive discussions with both United management and the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), representing Flight Attendants at United Airlines.  We are pleased to announce this agreement was reached through a combination of patience and persistence.  Because access to the cabin jumpseat was subject to the terms of the pre-merger United AFA collective bargaining agreement (CBA), resolution to the issues that impeded other airlines Flight Attendant access to our cabin jumpseat was difficult if not impossible while we were negotiating a joint collective bargaining agreement for the three pre-merger airlines.  

As soon as the joint collective bargaining agreement was ratified, discussions between the IAM, AFA, and United Airlines Senior Vice President of Labor Relations, Doug McKeen resumed in earnest.  With the support of AFA, resolution was accomplished while, at the same time, extending access to AFA represented Flight Attendants at Mesa and GoJet Airlines, both United Express carriers, who will also benefit from this collaborative effort of our Unions.

There are currently no automation processes in place for Flight Attendants of other airlines to jumpseat on United metal. Therefore, United must implement process and technology changes based on specific contractual parameters agreed to with AFA.  Details on the actual process and the date of implementation are being worked out, but all parties agree that these benefits should be in place for Flight Attendants as soon as practicable.  

We will keep you updated as more information becomes available.

Vacation Accrual while on Occupational Injury or Illness Additional Payout

In January 2014, our AFA MEC Grievance Committee filed MEC Grievance 1-14, when management reduced vacation accrual in certain circumstances when a Flight Attendant was on an Occupational Leave of Absence. In October 2016, the Company and AFA agreed to settle MEC 1-14 regarding vacation accrual while on Occupational Illness or Injury Leave.

While answering questions relative to this grievance award, AFA discovered a problem in how the company calculated vacation accrual for the 2014 bid schedule year.  Back in 2012, United changed the accrual calendar year for the following year’s vacation. This change from a January-December accrual year, to a September-August accrual year.  For the 4 months September to December 2013, Flight Attendants were given credit for both the 2013 vacation (accrual consider January-December 2012) and 2014 vacation (accrual considered September 2012-August 2013.)

However, in the application of the settlement, those Flight Attendants whose 2014 vacation were reduced by virtue of being on L9 status at any time during September to December 2012 were not properly given credit and, in fact, were not considered in the initial MEC 1-14 payments in October. United has agreed to pay the 127 affected Flight Attendants who were impacted.

United issued an “off cycle” check (not a regular pay check) dated 12-15-16 to those affected Flight Attendants. The additional settlement payment is identified on the “off cycle” pay advice in two ways. The value of the vacation will be identified as “Settlement Elig” and the value for the Profit Sharing will be identified as “Settlement Non Elig”. 

All questions relative to this award should be directed to the Union by e-mail

at MEC114@unitedafa.org. This is the exclusive method by which all inquiries will be processed.

Irregular Operations

Over the weekend the Weather Nationwide created irregular ops and led to many Flight Attendants being re-assigned or drafted.  For those of you who were drafted please double check your DFAPs to ensure you were paid correctly.

Irregular Operations (Sections 9.K & 12.R):

When irregular operations prevent a Flight Attendant from working her/his assigned flight, our Contract provides for the steps to be taken to cover the open flight. Sections 9.K. and 12.R. address specific situations based on the operation, domestic or international, as well as where (the location) the irregularity is occurring.

·        Domestic Domicile Point

·        International Domicile Point

At a domicile point, when a visiting Flight Attendant for either the domestic or international operation is unable to connect or is illegal for her/his regular flight, protection for that flight is to be provided in the following order by reassigning another Flight Attendant who must remain legal for her/his own next scheduled flight.

1.      First, move up another Flight Attendant from the same domicile as the regular crew on the flight to cover the open position(s). Assign the replacement Flight Attendant’s now open flight to the Flight Attendant(s) who cannot connect to her/his own return flight.  If not, then,

2.      Move up a visiting Flight Attendant from another domicile, which will not further interfere with either crew’s schedule and when the flights are to the same general destination.  If not, then,

3.      Move up the first available home Flight Attendant for whose flight the visiting Flight Attendant will be legal, assigning that flight to the visiting Flight Attendant when she/he arrives as long as the flights are to the same general destination. If not, then, 

4.      Consider the return flight open and assign the visiting Flight Attendant to the first flight for which she/he is eligible under the Order of Assignment, as a visiting Flight Attendant under Section 9.I.3.

The provisions of Section 9.I. of the Contract provides for the assignment of domestic open flying while Section 12.Q. provides for the assignment of international open flying to Flight Attendants in a specific order. The following is a high-level overview of the order in which open flying is to be assigned under Sections 9.I. and 12.Q.

·        Converted Flight Attendant

·        A Home Flight Attendant

·        A Visiting Flight Attendant

·        A Home Lineholder

·        A Home Reserve Flight Attendant

·        Drafting

     i.          Domestic Non-domicile point 

   ii.          International non-domicile within the 48 contiguous United States

When a visiting Flight Attendant is unable to work her/his flight at a non-domicile point due to irregularities or illegalities, open flights will be assigned by Crew Scheduling on first in, first out (FIFO) basis. In a case where two or more Flight Attendants have the same arrival time, assignments will be made based on seniority preference.

1.      Flight Attendants will normally be assigned only to flights toward her/his domicile. If that is not possible, the following order of assignment will take precedence: 

a.      To a flight where the direction and destination of the open flight will expeditiously and efficiently return the Flight Attendant to her/his regularly assigned schedule. If not, then

b.      To a flight that is normally flown by her/his home domicile. If not, then

c.      If you are the only Flight Attendant legal to work the open flight, you will be reassigned.

2.      If you are relieved from duty because you have reached your maximum hours on-duty (in other words, you are ‘over duty’) for the day you will be assigned to the first open flight for which you are legal after your legal rest.

3.      If you are not legal for your return flight or your return flight has canceled at your layover station, Crew Scheduling should assign you, as soon as possible, to a return flight that departs no more than twelve (12) hours after your original scheduled departure. However, at your home domicile, this period may be extended by mutual consent of the Flight Attendant and Crew Scheduling at your home domicile.

4.      In a situation where you are required to remain at a non-domicile point to protect unserviceable equipment or to protect the operation of equipment which has become available because of the cancellation of her/his assigned flight, this time limitation will be extended to twenty-four hours.

While the twelve (12) and twenty-four (24) hour time limitations may be extended to permit assignment to the first flight departing the station however, every effort should be made to get the Flight Attendant back to their home domicile as soon as possible.

III. International Non-domicile point outside the contiguous United States

When irregularities occur at a non-domicile point outside the contiguous United States, Section 12.R.2. of our Contract prescribes the following reassignment priorities:

1.      Open flights will be filled on a first in, first out (FIFO) basis from crews headed in the same direction. 

2.      When an inbound crew is not legal for their scheduled outbound flight, protection for tht flight will be provided by drafting the first available crew for whose flight the arriving crew would be legal.

3.      In a circumstance where schedule irregularities involve other than the same direction and protection cannot be provided by using Paragraph 2 (above), the first legal crew available will be utilized to provide protection for the open flight.

CQ 2017

This month 2017 CQ will launch and will be a two-day training, with a portion of day two focused on customer training (CST). Training will consist of evacuations, event management evaluations (EMEs) and a first aid scenario.

To prepare for 2017 CQ:

• Complete CBT training no later than 48 hours prior to your class date. CBTs can be found on Flying Together>Inflight Services >Training & Qualifications >Continuing Qualification >Takeoff Learning.

• Bring the following items with you when you arrive to CQ class:

1.  .A printed CQ eFAOM Worksheet, initialed by a base supervisor. (This worksheet is located at Flying Together > Inflight Services > Training & Qualifications > Continuing Qualification.)
2.  Your Link, charged to at least 75% with current versions of iOS, Manuals app, eFAOM, Announcements eBooklet, Safety Checklist, and Land & Ditching Emergency Checklist.
3. Crewmember ID badge.
4. Wrist watch.
5. Something to write with.

CQ training information and videos are available on the Continuing Qualification site. Please plan to review the available information prior to attending training and be prepared to perform the skills necessary to manage inflight events and emergency situations.

In Solidarity,

Kaitlin White, President
AFA-CWA, San Francisco, C-11

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