FACC TELLS THE TRUTH

Statements made recently by the UA MEC in a letter to s-UA f/a's and in particular facebook postings of the LECP of DCASW in regards to an FACC facebook page are patently FALSE.

The FACC does not maintain a FaceBook page of any sort, under any pseudonym, acronym or otherwise. We communicate through our blog site and email only.

The FACC will speak out further regarding the UA MEC's libelous letter in our next email. Be sure and sign up. 
You can read the CAL MEC's response to it here.

NOW FIND OUT WHAT THE UA MEC IS SO AFRAID OF.......TAKE OUR SURVEY!

Survey closes August 13th

If you are having trouble accessing the survey from the email that was sent to you or by clicking on the link above, please be aware that our survey vendor provides a "fail safe" to prevent multiple entries from the same email or IP address.

Thank you,

Fly Safe

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WORKING FOR CHANGE WITHIN OUR UNION

JULY 20, 2012...   

 YOU'VE READ ABOUT IT NOW SEE WHAT IT IS THE UA MEC IS SO AFRAID OF:

*IS IT QUESTION #4?

*QUESTION #7?

*QUESTION #8?, #9?, #10?, OR #11?

TAKE THE SURVEY FOR YOURSELF AND FIND OUT!  

FACC JOINT CONTRACT SURVEY IS OPEN ON LINE!

Survey Closes August 13th

If you are having trouble accessing the survey from the email that was sent to you or by clicking on the link above, please be aware that our survey vendor provides a "fail safe" to prevent multiple entries from the same email or IP address.

Thank you,

 Fly Safe

CMI GETS A TA.....
Highlights:

*Nothing removed from current book.

*Signing bonus $3000.

*Int'l overide $1.00/hour.

*401k match.

*Parity with CAL pay scale, trip rigs, and reduced flying.

*Cross Over to CAL.

*Occupational Injury sec. fixed to cover those injured at work 

    100%

* Caps on sick and OL banks raised to 93 hours.

*Amendable date Dec. 31, 2014

==========================================

Why Didn't UA MEC Wait to Allow CAL to Participate in the JNC Survey?

The fact of the matter is the s-UA MEC would not allow any input from the CAL MEC in regards to the structure of the questions in the sUA survey. So why would CAL want its members to be surveyed  under these circumstances? A biased and skewed 66 questions to be used against there membership at the joint negotiating table??? AND they wanted CAL's participation anyway???

"It is the CAL AFA MEC’s firm opinion that any survey involving Joint Negotiations that is intended for all three groups must be developed from start to finish by all three MEC’s. While CAL and CMI were asked for their input on the UAL MEC’s final product, it was insufficient and the timing inappropriate." CALafa.org

"The CAL AFA MEC does not take issue with the UAL MEC conducting their own survey for the Joint Negotiations; the CAL AFA MEC has already done this with our contract proposals. We do take exception with those select leaders and proxies who continue to propagate false rumors insisting that the CAL AFA MEC refuses to participate in a UAL MEC survey. The CAL AFA MEC respected the negotiating and ratifying process for the UAL MEC contract and we expected the same courtesy and respect in return. CMI must still conclude their negotiations and ratify their agreement and they should be afforded the same courtesy."  CALafa.org                        

"TELL THE TRUTH AND SO MAKE PEACE"

                                                                                                            -Maxine Hong Kingston

Education is the key. The afa should be doing all it can to educate the membership about each others contracts, good and bad. All we seem to have heard from s-Ua side is how bad the IAM contract is. Tell us the truth, we are an intelligent, educated work force. Empower us all with the facts and we will make the right decision.

Hold seminars, explain the pros and cons from different view points in each contract. Then take input from CAL CMI and UA flight attendants as to what questions to ask in a survey. To take a survey without telling people what the other side is all about and especially how it works is not ethical and not valid.

Flight Attendant Robbie Fanning's parody makes the point:

Media Release: AFA extends popular Contract Education Seminar to 5th week.
 Seminars designed to dispel rumors about both contracts.
 Washington D.C., Association of Flight Attendants-CWA.

In the interest of gaining momentum for a joint contract, AFA has extended its popular contract education seminar into its 5th week, citing much needed insights from both subsidiary groups-UA and CO.

“I was really blown away”, Julie Ceslaisi, LAX-based Flight Attendant for the UA group stated. “After listening to the MEC explain everything about Duty Rigs I knew my assumption about CO having no work rules was totally false. I was dumbfounded to discover the many provisions CO has that are actually BETTER than UA.”

Citing the example of the stranding of hundreds of flight attendants in Europe during the May 2011 volcanic ash plume, the MEC demonstrated how CO flight attendants made MORE money with their contract during the delay than UA did with their duty rigs.

“Duty rigs are like being on a fixed-income when all your friends are making more”, Ceslaisi added, “The minute you give up a small guarantee, you are awarded an infinite possibility. Contractual guarantees no longer work when they trigger a series of diminishing effects".

Like notes in a symphony, a contract is a composed of a set of limits, guarantees and potentials. S-UA flight attendants must decide if the potential to earn is more valuable than the limit of a guarantee. This interdependence is what dictates hourly pay.

“The workshops have been really great in educating both groups about the dynamics of both contract styles”, Tamber Denty, spokesperson for the LEC in Chicago said. “The CO group loves UA’s Holiday Pay. The UA group wants CO’s flexibility. We’ve explained that giving up certain work rules that restrict income isn’t necessarily a concession."

And that’s the issue. Both groups currently work with a significant disparity in hourly pay, with CO earning some $9-13 more per hour. The workshops were designed to explain why AFA was not able to achieve CO’s hourly pay in the recent TA.

“In order to bring UA up to CO’s level, the workshops were used to identify those prohibitive work rules that, when relinquished, not only increase UA’s pay, but also ushers in the flexibility UA wants and deserves”, Tom Foolerly, lawyer for AFA said.

The survey for s-UA will start hitting mailboxes today.

"Because AFA has been so honest and forthcoming about the dynamics of both contract styles, we feel comfortable our members have the facts needed to make the right decisions", Denty said.

(reprinted with permission)

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ANOTHER CONTRACT PASSES AT S-CAL!

Congratulations to the s-CAL flight attendants and their MEC.

http://calafa.org/

You have achieved what the s-UA AFA has failed to do time and time again.....a TIMELY collective bargaining agreement! You will not be disappointed with the protections you've given yourselves in this contract extension, especially during the upcoming joint negotiations!
The battle over your quality of work life contained in this contract is now at the forefront....
YOU MUST NOT BE APATHETIC! Pay your dues and make sure you are eligible to vote for a combined contract. Its the only way to make sure your voices will be heard!

FACC ONLINE SURVEY IS COMING.........

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CAL TA......STILL TIME TO VOTE

 Ask yourselves this:

*Do you feel comfortable with protections in your current contract if this TA is turned down?

*Will the Company bother with continuing separate Sec 6 or want to go straight into joint negotiations?

*Will you lose leverage at the joint negotiating table without this contract extension?

*Are you willing to live with your current contract for possibly the next several years during joint negotiations?

These are just some of the questions that may effect your decision to vote yes or no. And remember, you can change you vote as many times as you wish right up to the deadline. Only your last vote counts.

The following is a perspective from CAL flight attendant Denny Wheeling, posted on a social media website, reprinted with permission:

"(For the sCO FAs and crossovers. 

Some food for thought as we move inevitably closer to a combined contract.

This post is intended to inform, not influence your vote on our TA one way or the other.

So as sCO prepares to vote on a TA which could become our new contract, the sUA MEC has already started campaigning to their members for a restrictive, non-productive, contract based on failed concepts that are overdue to be scrapped. With tacit approval at the International Level, they have consistently attempted to marginalize the sCO side of this merger since the beginning. It’s not enough they held their own starved membership hostage with a sub-standard contract which provided none of the improvements promised during the campaign- now they are actively condemning our contract and way of life. A way of life, and a style of flying that has provided us with the most flexibility in the industry, the highest wages of ANY legacy carrier, the ability to tailor your flying and income to meet your individual needs, and the freedom to do so without concern for whether you will be senior enough to “hold a trip trade”.

The attack on our lifestyle, and career potential is coming from the sUA MEC, backed by the International Level- not the average rank & file sUA FA. These FAs have been bombarded with propaganda, mis-information, and blatant lies ever since the merger was announced, and these practices continue today. Most of these FAs have no real, clear, or factual information regarding our contract or way of life. They are basing opinions on what they have been fed by their MEC & the International Level. These unscrupulous attempts at discrediting our ELECTED leaders, our contract, and our way of life need to stop. This is not only unfair to us a workgroup of dues paying members, but borders on failure to provide fair & unbiased representation. If the International Level won’t police the sUA MEC and enforce the non-interference clauses in the C&B, how can we expect fair treatment in any aspect of dealing with our new “union”? I encourage all of you, regardless of your opinion of the TA before us, to e-mail Veda Shook (vshook@afacwa.org), voice your concerns, and demand she step in to curtail this divisive behavior on the part of the sUA MEC. Tell them to back off. We are dues paying AFA members, and so far have not received the services, protections, or promises made since our kidnapping.

To those who would blow this off by saying “get involved”- I am involved, and I am encouraging all sCO FAs to do likewise.

Vote your conscience on our TA, but make sure you fully understand all the issues, and all the potential ramifications of your Vote.)"

 

STAY TUNED FOR THE FACC JOINT CONTRACT SURVEY 

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CAL: Think About How Important Your Vote Is...

Continentals recently announced tentative agreement (TA) stands in stark contrast to the way the CWA-afa has done business for the past three decades. It provides a clear insight into the driving force behind the philosophically grounded CAL MEC as opposed to the rudderless and dysfunctional UAL MEC.

IT'S YOUR FUTURE

"SAFEGUARDING OUR CULTURE AND OUR CONTRACT"


The CAL MEC has never made a secret of the fact that the IAM CBA was the preferred contract for s-CO f/a's. The priority of the elected leadership since then has been to maintain the pay, flexibility and efficiency inherent in it. Though many s-UA f/a's, and sadly, far too many s-CO f/a's, bought into the Afa propaganda that the representation vote was about the perceived quality of one union over another, and not about the merits of one contract over another, what remains in the aftermath of the vote is that one's contract is clearly superior over another and continues to be preserved and administered by the CAL MEC.

The June 9, 2012 letter to their membership issued by the CAL MEC reiterates that commitment to their IAM negotiated contract and rightfully refers to it as "an industry leading contract." There is no apology for the concessionary, company management friendly terms that Davidowitch's UAL MEC claims make up the CAL CBA, (an inferior document, we are told at s-United), yet the CWA itself calls it "industry leading".

The first paragraph of their letter starts with CAL MEC's commitment to the CAL membership that the s-UA f/a's are denied by the UAL MEC. In referring to the process of sending the TA out to the membership for a vote, the CAL MEC reaffirmed it as "a formality for us under the (CWA-afa) Constitution" and  "that the (CAL)MEC would never deny the membership their right to vote." This is a quantum shift away from the UAL MEC policy that has consistently refused to permit the UAL membership the right to vote on issues affecting us; which has DIRECTLY led us to the precarious position we at s-United find ourselves in today.

In other words, if the Company has presented a proposal to the CAL MEC, the CAL MEC has committed to treating its work force like thinking adults in allowing them to vote on it. The CAL MEC may make a recommendation on that vote and advises its membership what it thinks the benefits or consequences may be, unlike the arrogance and condescension of the UAL MEC which does as it sees fit and invariably what it feels is "in the best interest of the Association", (AFA C&B), NOT the membership. 

The former United management offered a CAL-like contract in April 2010, and the UAL MEC refused to allow
s-UA f/a's to vote or even consider it. A crossover program, identical to the one offered post-representation election, was offered in May 2011 to preclude the necessity to begin the massive hiring that is now going on at s-Continental and the UAL MEC again refused to allow the membership a choice. This is not the MEC's role as our representatives. The CAL MEC has correctly and forcefully identified their role as a conduit of information in regards to a vote for or against a TA and recognizes that a final decision rests with the people doing the job themselves, (the membership), and not the political hacks picking and choosing what is sent to the membership for a vote based on their own personal political agendas.

HIGHER UP THE MOUNTAIN

s-UA f/a's have seen THREE contracts ratified in the past thirty years (1987-1996, 1996-2010, 2010-2016). CAL's tentative agreement marks the second contract in just over a year, and is presented well in advance of its Sept 2012 amendable date. The UAL MEC and indeed the entire CWA-afa represented flight attendant sector has NEVER achieved that kind of timeline. In addition to the incentive pay increase (in hours), improvements in flexibility (including for reserves), protections for sub-domicile transfers and continuation of profit sharing participation, there is  the all important FURLOUGH protection that will ensure new hire flight attendants and crossovers are protected from furlough through the new contracts amendable date of December 31, 2014.

This should be a great concern to s-United flight attendants still believing the AFA myth machine. There is now a clear timeline for when Company and union management expects the integration to be completed. The UAL MEC's acceptance of a 2016 amendable date with the tacit understanding that, of course, even THAT date will be extended well beyond AS HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE CASE WITH UA MEC AFA.

The tight, compact and short term agreements struck on behalf of the CAL f/a's with the IAM and now the CAL MEC reflect the volatile and rapidly changing circumstances in which we find ourselves, and the CAL MEC has positioned its membership to adapt, change and benefit. Yet the UAL MEC found it acceptable to lock its membership into yet another long term contract (2010-2016) unable to adapt to changing circumstances and making it far easier for Company management to draw down the number of s-UA flight attendants through attrition and continued furloughs.

The CAL MEC "made it (their) first priority to ensure the security of (Continental) Flight Attendants during the Joint Contract Negotiations (and has) produced improvements to what is already a contract that leads all other legacy carriers for pay and pension." There is a reason a buyout was offered at s-United and not s-Continental, just as there is a reason s-United has flight attendants on furlough and continues to offer thirty day ANP and s-Continental does not. Yet the UAL MEC, led by a President on a TWELVE YEAR LEAVE OF ABSENCE for "union" business with FULL SENIORITY RETENTION AND ACCRUAL, blithely asks s-UA flight attendants to ignore reality until 2016 and beyond for something really good--"we promise!"

A tough decision lies ahead for CAL f/a's in regards to this tentative agreement and what the future consequencses of the vote, pro or con, will be. The future of your careers, at least for the next 2 years, will depend on the outcome of this vote.

Attend your MEC's roadshows, make an informed, unemotional decision, bring your AFA dues up to date and make certain you are eligible to vote. Then vote!



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s-UA AFA's CAMPAIGN FOR WORK RULES IS IN FULL SWING....




Afa Work Rules

  Meet "Miss-Education".
She's the darling of AFA.
(miseducate: -->to educate improperly)
...
"Our RIGs have been in place for many years and are an integral aspect of our Contract. Much of our current scheduled IDs are built with very----little ----credit---- time...."

The above phrase can be viewed on United Afa dot org's 'Contract Education' section. Here, you will meet the dashing "Miss Ed".
With 6 charts to show you how the lack of duty RIGS at CO puts them in the red, you will see carefully selected examples where our UA afa trip rigs pay us more than our flight time.

Since this section of the UA MEC website is "Everything You Wanted To Know About Rigs",
"Miss Ed", could you please:

- remove the LIE that legacy UA f/a's work trips with "very little credit time"
- demonstrate the flexibility awarded to CO because they have no 5/10/15/20 duty rigs (they can add or subtract to their trips)
- demonstrate that the higher Reserve Guarantee at CO (83) is a function of their lack of duty rigs (fly 1 hour, layover, fly back = paid 2 hours not 10)
- demonstrate how CO's lack of duty rigs positively affect their cancelation & reassignment protections.

"Miss Ed" will be giving lots of (dis) info to United Flight Attendants in the coming months. She hates mirrors and disappears when you call her name.



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CONGRATULATIONS CAL F/A'S

CAL Tentative Agreement Reached!

The experienced Continental flight attendant negotiators have reached another tentative agreement with the Company. This makes the 3rd such tentative since the 2010 merger between UA and CO that the CAL flight attendants will have an opportunity to vote on. And if passed, it will become the second new contract they have obtained with improvements in the same time period! Learn more about the new contract at the CAL-MEC website and stay tuned for our next edition of the FACC email.

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UAL, CAL, CMI F/A'S WILL WORK TOGETHER

The NMB has ruled that the AFA did break many of their election rules during last years campaign but that none of the violations were grievous enough to warrant a re vote.

At no time in recent memory has the fomenting of mistrust of all information sources other than the afa's been as acute as it was during last years representation campaign. When rational and intelligent conversation was needed to debate the merits of three (CMI included) vastly different labor contracts and compare the value offered by two different labor unions' cultures and styles, flight attendants were instead subjected to a quickly devolving series of events in airports and in the social media that had little to do with facts and more to do with emotional outbursts and the shrill hysteria that has characterized the afa's "representational" style for more than three decades. Of course, last year's election was won not by standing on a record of past afa achievements (ie: number of contracts negotiated and ratified for the ongoing benefit of WORKING flight attendants), but by threats, coercion, misinformation, and blatant disregard of NMB voting rules.

It is now time for all parties to come together for the good of the ENTIRE flight attendant population at the new United Airlines.

We challenge the subsidiary United afa to abandon its "alternative knowledge" system, with its own "facts", its own "history" and its own laws of economics and EMPOWER their members by making changes to the Constitution and Bylaws which would allow DIRECT member voting in ALL matters that affect the membership. Including, but not limited to, election of Joint Negotiating Committee members and Union Officers at ALL levels of the organization.

Until changes are made at the AFA to totally empower its membership and become a truly democratic Union, the FACC will continue to aggressively question and contest AFA "leaderships" decisions AS IS OUR RIGHT TO DO SO, FREE FROM INTIMIDATION OR HARASSMENT. The total environment of "pseudo-facts and pretend information" constructed by the CWA-afa for the s-United flight attendants consumption will no longer stand uncontested. 

WE CHALLENGE THE AFA TO CHANGE AND EMPOWER ALL ITS MEMBERS SO THAT ALL FACTIONS WITHIN THE ORGANIZATION CAN MOVE FORWARD TOGETHER.

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DEADLINE LOOMS FOR EARLY OUTS.

 

 

Only a few more days before the Early Out offer closes.

Aircraft redeployment's, sub bases opening, routes changing hands from one subsidiary to another, will base closures be far behind? You bet they will! Those who take the early out will be off the payroll by the end of August. The Company will only have so many options to balance the subsequent domicile populations on the UA side.

And beware, AFA  has negotiated meaningless language concerning protections for international base closures.

 

EVERYTHING the UAL MEC has done seems to be for the sole purpose of playacting and posturing while they fervently hope as many people as the Company allows will take the early out option, so there will be as few of us left as possible to witness first hand their utter selling out of the s-United membership!!

REMEMBER:                                                      

The number of Early Out offers are at the “sole discretion” of the Company! (TA page 61). Will it be more than 1000? Less?

And for those of us who stay, back on reserve after 30 years??

 

ASK YOURSELF THIS: Would the Company need to institute all these changes if the AFA had negotiated a Joint Collective Bargaining Agreement after the election, almost a year ago?

   Hmmmmm……………………….

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"When people learn no tools of judgment and merely follow their hopes, the seeds of political manipulation are sown."

                                                                                                                     -Stephen Jay Gould-

                                                           

The recent appointments of Kevin Lum and Jack Kande to the joint negotiating committee by the appointed UAL MEC and their rubberstamp LEC Presidents is a perfect illustration of the way members’ wishes are ignored and loyalty to union management valued over all else.  If for no other reason than simple common sense and good taste, the two men responsible for the two largest negotiating failures on behalf of United flight attendants over the past thirty years, should have been shown the door and a new team given a chance to make WORKING flight attendants’ voices heard.  Instead, the Afa closed ranks amidst a storm of controversy and rising discontent, and spit in the faces of its employers.

Dissension has never been welcome by the flight attendant sector, as evidenced by the very structure of the governing bodies within the organization.  Electoral  participation by the membership is restricted to the lowest offices, with no say being given to the membership at ANY airline to elect their own MEC.  Nor is the flight attendant sector as a whole allowed to vote on the international officers who purport to lead the entire "represented" flight attendant work force.  Instead, a closed system built upon cronyism and nepotism ensures only a select few individuals are given a chance to hold these higher offices, based upon their service and acceptability to union management and not the general membership. 

The inherent flaw, of course, is that a local representative is NOT going to vote in the interests of his or her membership if that means jeopardizing their possible advancement in a union career with greater pay and benefits sometime in the future.    Many of our so-called “representatives” at ALL sector levels have made no secret of their career ambitions at the parent union level and want nothing more to do with the so called "demeaning labor" of pushing a cart up and down an airplane aisle.  They’ve rubbed shoulders with business executives and labor leaders and had their pictures taken with Congressional leaders after all!  They can’t expect to be content with pouring second coffees and collecting garbage, can they?  And yet, those tasks are precisely what fund their exploits.

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