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MORE UNITED FURLOUGHS!
 S-UA
Furloughs
The October 24, 2012 AFA E-lines announced that
there will be another round of Voluntary Furloughs when the current 12-month
Voluntary Furlough ends on March 1, 2013. The Company anticipates offering the
new Voluntary Furlough for approximately 2,000 s-UA flight attendants, beginning
March 2, 2013. In the meantime, s-CO will hire approximately 2,000 MORE flight
attendants in 2013.
Remember AFA UA MEC's
Campaign Promise?
An excerpt from AFA's newsletter on May
6, 2011 (RE: furloughs) - The Whole Truth: With AFA - No One Is Getting
'Squeezed Out'
"No,
management cannot simply "squeeze out" United Flight Attendants by moving the
flying or the aircraft. Our United contract contains strong scope protection,
recently reaffirmed, that prevents them from doing this...... AFA will protect
ALL Flight Attendant jobs in this merger. We will unify all Flight Attendants
and protect every member."
In the s-UA Summary of Contract Improvements dated January 08,
2012, the AFA UA MEC also stated, "We will begin
negotiations for Single Collective Bargaining Agreement within the first year.
Thus, this can be a short term agreement with the Single Contract
providing additional opportunities for improvements prior to the conclusion of
this Tentative Agreement." The Tentative was ratified by s-UA flight
attendants on February 28, 2012 and is NOT amendable until 2016.
That Was Almost A Year
Ago!
The additional flying by S-CO below is for
International routes in s-UA domiciles.
Additional s-CO Flying in
2013
- Chicago – Munich CO 767-400ER replaces UA
777
- Newark – Zurich CO 767-400ER continues operation
(from W12), replaces UA 767-300ER
- Washington Dulles – London Heathrow effective 31MAR13
- CO 757 replaces UA 767-300ER.
- Washington Dulles - London Heathrow - Introduction of
4th daily service from 27APR13 with CO 757
- Washington Dulles – Moscow Domodedovo Service
cancelled in 2013.
- Washington Dulles – Munich - CO 767-400ER replaces
UNITED 777.
- Washington Dulles – Rome - CO 767-400ER replaces
UNITED 777.
- Los Angeles - Shanghai - CO replaces UA in March
2013.
- Los Angeles - Narita - Los Angeles - CO 787 replaces
UA (January 31, 2013).
- Narita - Singapore - Narita - CO 777 replaces UA
(January 31, 2013).
*S-CO have also
announced needs for additional language qualified flight attendants for
Japanese, Spanish, German, and Mandarin. While UA MEC maintains that the Scope provisions in the s-UA Contract
ensures maintenance of the flying ratios that existed between the two
subsidiaries as of the date of the merger until a combined Contract is ratified
for s-UA flight attendants. They fail to address the real reasons behind
what is resulting in continued furloughs on the s-UA side and massive hiring by
s-CO. UA MEC's failed joint contract negotiations?
The Next JNC Meeting Has Been
Delayed Until
December!
AFA MAKES HISTORY WITH "UNITED
3"
There has NEVER been a
flight attendant who did not hold an AFA MEC or LEC position that has been
BROUGHT UP ON CHARGES by the AFA CWA.
There has NEVER been
an AFA Officer or a member who has been EXPELLED at the AFA
CWA.
There has been only ONE suspension in the history of AFA
CWA. An AMR (American Eagle) MEC President was charged on November 8th, 2008 by
AFA CWA International Secretary-Treasurer Kevin Creighan for violation of
Article X (misappropriation of union money). The Hearing was scheduled for May
18, 2009 at AFA CWA headquarters in Washington D.C.
A decision was
rendered by the hearing board (Mike Flores- USA MEC, Shawn Fivecoat - NWA
Council 93, and Kelle Wells - ALA MEC) that the AMR MECP violated her fiduciary
obligations by misappropriating AFA funds and ordered that the MECP's AFA
membership be suspended immediately as well as being barred from re-applying for
membership for period of no less than five years.
The SAME former AMR MECP was reinstated
at the February 12th, 2012 AFA BOD meeting - LESS THAN FIVE YEARS
LATER!!!
Charges Against "United 3" = Retaliation!
- None of the the "United 3" are MEC or LEC
Officers.
- All of them were on the Steering Committee for IAM
during the Government sanctioned representation election between IAM and AFA in
2011 at s-UA.
- All of them are AFA CWA members in "Good
Standing".
- All of them are known "reformists".
- All of them are loyal unionists.
- All of them were witnesses to AFA CWA violations, and
testified to the NMB regarding election Interference violations by the AFA CWA
in 2011.
- The NMB, partly based on theirs and other
testimonies, found the AFA CWA violated election rules at United during the IAM
and AFA representation election in 2011.
- All were transition team leaders and some are on
record for their intent to run for office in the upcoming AFA LEC election cycle
at s-UA.
- All of them held their LECP's accountable (SFO &
DCA).
ANOTHER DESPICABLE LEGACY FOR THE AFA
CWA!
Forward this message to a
friend
AFA
SENDS S-CO TERMINATION WARNINGS!
In October, hundreds of s-CO
flight attendants started receiving letters threatening TERMINATION. THAT IS
CORRECT! It is based on a union security clause (Section 30 in the s-UA
contract). AFA requires that flight attendants either join the union or pay the
equivalent of union dues. The (Railway Labor Act) RLA gives employees 60 days to join the
union.
Flight attendants who object (Ellis Objectors) to that
requirement may be compelled to pay only that portion of union dues that is
attributable to the cost of being represented in collective bargaining and
representation, but not to the union's political activities or organizing
employees of other employers.
Per contract, AFA CWA states, "that she/he is delinquent in the payment of
such service, charge, initiation fee, assessments and/or membership dues as
specified herein and is subject to discharge as an employee of the Company.
Such letter shall also notify the employee she/he must remit the required
payment within a period of fifteen (15) days or be discharged."
Protect Yourself - Pay Your Dues!
The AFA CWA Will Make You
Pay One Way or Another!
AFA "WASTES" UNION
DUES
WASTING "DUES MONEY"
In the case of a labor union, it is the quality of local
representation and the DAILY accessibility and availability of officers and
employees of that union that defines how well it is doing the job it is being
paid to do.
The stark difference between the CAL MECs efforts to provide
grievance desks staffed with personnel IN THE BASE with contracts in hand, and
the UAL MEC, whose officers remain in locations removed from direct contact with
base personnel, is a prime example of one organization providing a quality
product, if you will, while another seeks to avoid personal contact and then
blames the very people paying their salaries for their own inadequacies.
According to the AFA CWA 2011-2012 LM-2 Report, published by the
Department of Labor, forty-three percent, or $9,221,616 of flight attendants
dues money is spent on things like:
- Air travel ($264,778)
- Hotels ($274,556)
- Telephone service, including mobile service for
officers and employees ($39,741).
- Outsourced legal counsel over and above what is
already spent on in house attorneys both at the sector and parent union levels
($578,436).
- Consulting services ($197,555), again in addition to
the research economists and supposed “experts” already on staff and paid well by
flight attendants.
- Printing and distribution of the Flightlog magazine,
which cost flight attendants $31,899 and doesn’t take into account money paid to
individuals who wrote the articles and put the issue together to send to the
printer.
What is also worth noting
is the $435,554 ($36,292 PER MONTH) paid to the CWA for rent of office space in
the CWA headquarters building in Washington DC for officers and employees. In
addition, another $103,030 is paid to a leasing company for office space in
Chicago, for a total yearly rent payment of $538,584.
AFA CWA'S "ARITHMETIC"
Travel and
Hotel
Given the flippant and dismissive attitudes of AFA
International, MEC and LEC Officers regarding the need for accurate,
down-to-the-penny accounting of flight attendants’ dues money, it is no surprise
that many expenses are undated and unexplained. For instance, NONE of the
$264,778 in air travel is so much as given an invoice date, let alone a reason
for the travel, and while some hotel expenses are clearly labeled as to date and
reason, others, such as $28,455 paid to Hilton Grand Vacations in Las Vegas, or
$18,348 paid to the Kyo-Ya Hotel and Resorts in Honolulu, are simply
non-itemized and undated and attributed to the catch-all category of “union
administration” or “representational activities.”
Representation and Mobilizing
In fact, the largest cost was
$15,104,826 for representational activities.
Remember the IAM/AFA representation election? Remember Delta? Or Pinnacle
Airlines? Based on approximately 38,866
dues paying membership as reported on the LM-2 report, it can be inferred
that $32.39 of every flight attendants’ dues money ($43.00 for s-UA) went for
representational activities .Pension and Benefits Total benefits paid for union officers and employees cost the AFA
CWA flight attendant $981,327. Evidently, not satisfied with the insurance and
benefits package they are able to negotiate at each individual carrier, CWA
provides separate insurance and PENSION benefits to their employees. Costs
included:
- $519,272 in premium payments for Blue Cross Blue
Shield
- $137,147 to Prudential Insurance Company for the
401(k)
- $167,189 to Express Scripts for pharmaceutical
insurance
- $19,611 paid to the Washington Metropolitan Transit
Authority for Metrocheck – a prepaid payment system to manage commuter benefits
on public transit for officers and employees.
Every flight attendant also contributed $2.06 of their monthly
dues money to pay for 401(k), medical, dental, prescription drug, and vision
benefits for officers and employees of AFA CWA.
These are admittedly
estimates based upon the numbers provided to the Department of Labor, and are
meant to only give a general idea of where WORKING flight attendants’
dues money goes each month. Precise figures from each industry sector paid to
the CWA treasury are not broken out separately within the parent union’s report,
so it is up to us to ferret out the information for ourselves to the best of
our ability.
AFA CWA Will Use Our "Dues"
to Organize Delta AGAIN While We Still Have
NO Joint Contract!
http://flightattendantcoalition.blogspot.com/
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