6/17/2012 CAL GETS NEW TA!

June 17, 2012
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CAL GETS NEW TA!

Breaking News Microphone CAL-MEC negotiators have reached another tentative agreement (TA) with the Company on June 8, 2012! Upon ratification, it will be Continental Flight Attendants second contract in just over a year!!!

The CAL contract that was ratified in 2011 gave CAL FA's a 5% increase in base pay, profit sharing, furlough protection, and improvements in flexibility on top of an industry leading contract. The new 28 month Tentative (pending ratification) is amendable again in 2014 and provides additional furlough protection as well as protection for s-CO sub bases in IAD, DEN, ORD, LAX, and SFO. In less than two years from the ratification of the last contract, this additional CAL TA includes the following protection and increases:
  • Incentive Increase - Productivity Pay Increase starting at 67 hours yields an extra $40 ($5.00 x8 hrs) per month. $40 X 12 months = $480 per year. Currently flight attendants must work over 75 hours vs. the new 67 hours to receive the additional $5.00 per hour incentive pay.
  • Signing Bonus - $1500 divided by 28 months (the duration of contract extension) \u2022$53.57 per month x 12 months \u2022$642 per year (signing bonus) +$480 per year (Productivity Pay) = $1122 per year increase.
  • Profit Sharing
  • Furlough Protection
  • Trading Enhancements for Lineholders and Reserves
  • Enhanced Job Protections with Implementation of Satellite Bases (DEN, IAD, ORD, SFO, LAX).
  • Nothing removed from the Current Contract
*The Contract is Extended and Amendable in 2014.

The "Signing Bonus" Myth

CAL Bonus
Early indications are that some s-CO flight attendants are upset over the $1,500 signing bonus offered, when S-UA fa's were given $5,000 as a payout for ratifying their 2010-2016 agreement.


A "signing bonus" at UA was designed to pay a lump sum of money upfront to make up for the failed promise of retroactive pay that was due s-UA flight attendants. The 1987-1996 retroactive pay was settled for a fractional amount using a formula based on hours flown the single year prior to contract ratification. The 1996-2010 agreement's retroactive pay was ignored, along with raises of any substance, in favor of Kevin Lum's ill-conceived lump sum payments. The 2010-2016 contract's retroactive pay, a representation election campaign assurance, was settled for less than half what was owed in favor of UA MEC's newly conceived "signing bonus."

So while the $3,500 disparity in "signing bonus" pay may seem substantial, s-CO flight attendants would do well to bear in mind that CAL continues to make roughly $1,000 more a month in pay, based on a hundred hour month. CAL also enjoys scheduling flexibilities and trading opportunities for line holders and reserve alike, that s-UA flight attendants may NEVER see.

Continental MEC

THE TWO-FACED UA MEC

Two Faced Afa 3
AFA International and UA MEC have consistently attempted to marginalize the S-CO side of the merger while starving the UA fa's with a sub-standard contract which provided none of the improvements promised during the representation election of 2011.

UA MEC Propaganda

The UA fa's have been bombarded with propaganda, misinformation, and blatant lies about what is or isn't in the s-CO contract since the merger was announced, and these practices continue today. This assault against another union group is not only unfair to dues paying members, but also is divisive and fails to provide fair & unbiased representation.
The UA MEC has actively criticized the s-CO contract and way of life. A way of life, and a style of flying that has provided s-CO with the most flexibility in the industry, the highest wages of ANY legacy carrier, with the ability to tailor flying and income to meet individual needs!

The Afa UA MEC has had nearly a year since the representation vote to take care of a joint contract. We should be well down that road at this point - not standing mid-stream on some "stepping stones." There is nothing in the current Afa Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that is worth the $1,000 per month UA fa's are losing working under its restrictive terms and work rules.

CAL MEC's recently announced tentative agreement stands in stark contrast to the way the Afa UA MEC has done business for the past three decades, and provides clear insight into the driving force behind the philosophically grounded CAL MEC as opposed to the rudderless and dysfunctional UAL MEC.

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UA MEC "HANDCUFFS" UA FA'S

AFA Handcuffs
The only thing standing between s-UA flight attendants and a joint contract NOW is the UA MEC who will refuse to allow s-UA flight attendants to vote on the CAL MEC contract if it is ratified by the s-CO membership, and then allow it to stand as a joint contract through its amendable date of 12/31/2014.

Buy-outs for s-UA fa's, along with continued furloughs, reserve dates reaching deeper into the seniority ranks, and the opening of satellite bases are all happening as a direct result of the UA MEC's arrogant intransigence and pathological desire to cling to power for as long as possible.

The former United management offered a CAL-like contract in April 2010, upon which the UA MEC refused to allow s-UA flight attendants to vote. A cross over program, identical to the one offered post representation election, was offered to UA fa's in May 2011 to preclude the massive hiring that is now going on at s-CO. The UA MEC again refused to allow the membership a choice. This is not the MEC's role as our REPRESENTATIVES.

As we approach the one year anniversary of the Afa CWA's representation election victory,
DEMAND
A
JOINT CONTRACT NOW!

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FIASCO AT MIDWEST & PINNACLE

McCaskill-Bond & TWA
AFA Integration
The "Fair and Equitable" process alluded to refers to the McCaskill-Bond amendment which, in 2007, sought to codify parts of the Allegheny-Mohawk Labor Protection provisions as they related to seniority integration in airline mergers. The Afa CWA is fond of taking full credit for the passage of this bill, though they were only one of several labor groups who participated. Though "representatives from each Flight Attendant group meet to attempt to workout an agreement on how to best integrate the seniority lists...if we cannot reach agreement, it will go to arbitration before an independent arbitrator."
The amendment, brought to the floor of the Senate by Missouri senators, was less about affirming the Afa's position on seniority integration and more about trying to retain the jobs of flight attendants in the St. Louis area where TWA was headquartered.

At the time, the Afa excoriated APFA (the union represents American Airlines f/a's) for their shabby treatment of the TWA flight attendants, and now the Afa find themselves nine years later in a position to have to work with them in order to secure at least a "fair and equitable" seniority integration process in Amiferican/US Airways do merge. "Fair and equitable" is the law of the land - "Date-of-Hire" is AFA's advertising copy.
THE MIDWEST AIRLINES SENIORITY DEBACLE

Afa takes great pains to paint the recently concluded Midwest Airlines integration process "debacle" in the best possible light, when, in fact, it remains what it is - a betrayal of their own commitment to Date-of-Hire seniority integration at the cost of Midwest flight attendants' interests. The AFA's assertion that they could not request an election is true as it pertains to the Republic/Chautauqua/Shuttle America single carrier ruling because all three are IBT represented carriers.

Afa CWA COULD have fought for an election and Midwest flight attendants' rights, when the NMB declared Frontier Airlines to also be part of the single carrier operated by Republic Airways Holdings. Midwest flight attendants were shut out of the face-to- face meetings with the people involved in ultimately deciding their fate at the hands of the very people that were supposed to protect them - AFA!

Afa CWA, "in a showing of good faith, agreed the Frontier list of approximately 1000 Flight Attendants would also open to offer positions for former Midwest Flight Attendants," This stapling to the bottom of the Frontier list was characterized as "integration into the
last 345 positions on the Frontier system seniority list."

Afa advised Midwest to give up the seniority fight since "this settlement with IBT would be consistent with what the Flight Attendants might be able to achieve through an arbitration, excluding the offer of positions at Frontier, which was unprecedented and not otherwise an option for Midwest Flight Attendants." Anyone who has read Afa propaganda for any length of time must surely be amazed at the number of things defined as "unprecedented," "historic," and "ground breaking." It is hyperbole best saved for truly remarkable achievements and not the kind of back pedaling excuse making that too often masquerades as "representation" by the Afa-CWA!


Pinnacle/Colgan/Mesaba Debacle

USW vs AFA

The USW has long represented flight attendants at Pinnacle and Colgan and today represents nearly 1,800 flight attendants at those two airlines. Pinnacle Airlines Corporation and its affiliates filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy petitions on April 1, 2012 in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.
Colgan has approximately 400 flight attendants but many will be furloughed in the coming months. Mesaba Aviation ceased operations in January 2012.

The Afa CWA has chosen to wade into a representation fight with the United Steelworkers (USW) over the Pinnacle/Colgan/Mesaba group after the USW rebuffed efforts by the CWA to strike a joint representation deal with them. The deal would have allowed Afa to retain the Mesaba representation (and dues money), and the USW would have retained the Pinnacle/Colgan group. Similar to the deal struck with the IBT over the Republic Airways Holdings/Frontier group. The issues confronting the two groups are remarkably similar.


The issue that arises in a merger with a failed carrier was addressed in the appellate court's decision reaffirming Midwest flight attendants' seniority rights. Like Mesaba flight attendants, they do have rights of integration even when their carrier is out of business. Afa took that powerful legal tool and squandered it for the political and business benefit of the parent union and left the Midwest flight attendants stapled to the bottom of not ONE (Republic Airways) but TWO (Frontier Airlines) seniority lists!!

Seniority to the Afa is simply another commodity to be bought, sold, or traded in the political arena. Look at what they did to the flight attendants from Pan American World Airways in 1986 when United Airlines acquired the Pacific routes. Afa stapled the Pan Am flight attendants to the bottom of the seniority list until an arbitrator "dovetailed' and integrated the seniority list two years later. Afa stapled the Midwest flight attendants to the bottom of seniority. And Midwest is an Afa represented carrier!

The US Airways/America West integration is seven years in the making with US Airways having recently voted down the Afa negotiated tentative after years of negotiations. United and Continental Airlines merged over two years ago in May 2010 and have YET to enter into combined contract talks. An integrated Pinnacle/Colgan/Mesaba group WITHOUT USW might be unthinkable given Afa's history of incompetence and false promises on seniority integration!

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MEMBERSHIP FOR CHANGE!

Change Ahead Yellow sign1
FACC DEMANDS

  • COMBINED CONTRACT (allow S-UA f/a's to vote on S-CO's contract if ratified by S-CO) instead of waiting years to get the same bad result from the same incompetent negotiators (Kande, Lum, and Davidowitch).
  • TERM LIMITS (for LEC, MEC, and AFA International). Davidowitch has been the UA MEC President since 2005 and his third term runs through 2014.
  • VOTE FOR OUR MEC OFFICERS (amend the Constitution and By-Laws as was proposed by the CAL MEC at the BOD meeting in 2011).
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JOIN THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT COALITION FOR CHANGE AND MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD IN 2012!

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