As we rapidly approach the
issuance of our Single Operating Certificate (SOC) from the FAA and are
faced with the changes that will be ushered in as a result, it is vital
that we, as a work group, remain informed and focused on what is
important to us as flight attendants – a COMBINED CONTRACT for a COMBINED AIRLINE!
"SEPARATE" EXPEDITED NEGOTIATIONS?
The UA flight attendant group alone seems to
be on the path to nowhere. The prospect of the renewal of Section 6
negotiations is imminent on January 6, 2012, if a tentative is not
reached. “Elected” and appointed CWA-afa representatives and local
officers are telling us that a joint collective bargaining agreement
after a tentative is three to five years away! Whatever happened to
their elaborate comparison charts with our
$64.00 an hour pay
raise?
What color ribbon should we wear to remind CWA-afa of
the promises made to the flight attendants during the representation
election??
Consider
the structure of our “merger” with Continental; the bulk of the
surviving managerial and administrative infrastructure is from
Continental. At Delta/Northwest,
the larger acquiring carrier set the tone for contract terms to achieve
the necessary economic synergy with the purchase of the smaller, less
efficiently managed Northwest operation.
Likewise, the better managed America West, though smaller, purchased US Airways. The more efficient Continental now runs the old United Airlines. The morass that will continue to engulf America West / US Airways for
the foreseeable future is the result of separate contractual “must
haves” for pilots and flight attendants taking precedent over the
business needs of a combined work force.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Flight Attendants have no Job Protection at UAL
There is NO job
protection for United flight attendants facing furloughs next quarter.
The training center in Houston is up and running and the cross-over
staffing offered in May by United Airlines was rejected by the CWA-afa.
However, ALPA agreed to the cross-over for the UA pilots to save jobs.
New hires at Continental are protected by an IAM negotiated "no-furlough" clause
that cannot be changed without a joint collective bargaining agreement
that changes it – and who at Continental will vote for a joint agreement
that diminishes what they already have?
Incidentally, when it
comes time to dust off resumes for future furloughed United flight
attendants seeking jobs, make sure to put down under compensation
proposal on your job application, “more pay for less work”. That was a
central theme propagated by the CWA-afa on its election web sites and a
selling point to UA flight attendants. Also, even if we can find jobs,
we may not want to let our new employers and co-workers know we declined
a MINIMUM $13,000 a year raise to come to work for
them at Starbucks or Sam’s Club. Or we can choose to hold CWA-afa
accountable for their empty promises and join the Flight Attendant
Coalition for Change (FACC) to fight for a combined contract for all
flight attendants!!
We are not just 15,000 United flight
attendants or 9,500 Continental flight attendants anymore; we are 24,500
strong members who want a..............................
COMBINED CONTRACT NOW!
JOIN THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT COALITION FOR CHANGE AND MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!
