[See also Healthcare Insurance: Premiums [JCBA] and Healthcare Insurance: Premiums 2 [JCBA]]

Q:     My concern is the TA clause regarding healthcare insurance premiums frozen at the 2019 rates. To my understanding, the clause has no bearing or protection regarding the $1500 the Company gives to the employee Health Savings Account (HSA) to assist with the high deductible plan. So technically the Company could rescind that amount starting in 2019 if this TA passes, and the high deductibles would be completely the responsibility of the employee. The $1500 is not a contractual item.  Currently we have protection and a cap on what our premiums can increase each year, which I believe is 20% for 2019. With this TA our premiums would be frozen at the 2019 rate, not our current 2018 rate.  If I run the numbers, it would be to my benefit to have my premiums increase even to the max of 20% verses having the Company rescind the $1500 they award to our HSA. Premiums notoriously increase each year and if our premiums are frozen, the Company’s share will increase. With that said, I don’t see the Company still giving money to help with the high deductibles. The Company will have to make up their share of increased premiums somewhere, and rescinding the $1500 would be the obvious as it is not contractual and just out of the goodness of the Company’s heart.

A:     The Company contribution to the Health Savings Account (HSA) has historically been and will remain management discretion under the TA. The Company has been providing annual financial incentives to move employees over to the high deductible plan by contributing to the HSA when employees switch to (or, depending on the year, are simply enrolled in) the high deductible plan. The year-on-year cap is 15%, so the 2019 healthcare insurance rates cannot increase more than 15% from 2018 (not 20% as indicated in the question). Additionally, the Flight Attendant cost share cannot be more than 20% of the actual cost to the Company. If management were to eliminate the HSA contribution, it would have to do that for all employees. This in turn would disincent employees from switching to (or remaining on) the high deductible plan, which is the exact opposite of management’s goal to migrate as many employees as possible from the higher cost PPO to the lower cost high deductible plan.

Q:     My crew today is all convinced that L-VX FAs will not receive L-AS work rules if the TA is ratified. Each of us is reading it differently. Is it just the money? Or will L-VX FAs get the L-AS contract?

A:     If the TA is ratified, L-VX FAs will start receiving the equivalent of L-AS pay on many of the L-AS contractual pay provisions (converted from TFP to block-hours until L-VX is transitioned fully to TFP). If the TA is ratified, L-VX FAs will also receive many of the L-AS contractual provisions starting at Date of Ratification. However, many of the L-AS scheduling-related work rules will not become effective until Full Implementation, which is currently expected in March 2019. Although the JNC pushed hard for L-AS contractual work rules to be implemented earlier, that is not possible due to programming limitation in Sabre (VX) and JCTE (AS) as well as staffing constraints on the VX partition.  Details regarding the timing of JCBA implementation for L-VX FAs is in the L-VX Implementation Timetable LOA TA.

Q:     If the TA is not passed, will L-AS FAs still experience aircraft differences training this year? Also…the differences training is mentioned many times in the blog as taking place this summer and fall. As summer is approaching (our next bid month is May!), do you have any information as to who will be scheduled and when? Will we have much notice as to when our training will be? If we have recurrent in June, for example, will it be incorporated with differences training? Or will it remain separate?

A:     Transition training (i.e. aircraft differences training) within both partitions will go forward regardless of the status of the TA. All Flight Attendants who are medically able to attend training are required to do so. The ‘live’ portion of differences training (there is also some computer based training) will be two days completely separate from Recurrent Training. The training is anticipated between July and November, with bidding for the training in late April to early May. More information can be found in the Airbus Transition Training LOA. The MEC is also planning a standalone communication to address differences training.

Q:     I can’t seem to find the part in the TA about getting retro pay for L-AS Flight Attendants back to January 2018. Is that true, and if it is, will L-AS FAs be getting the on the April 20th paycheck if the TA passes?

A:     Retro pay for L-AS FAs to January 1, 2018, is located in the L-AS FA Transition Agreement 2018 (located on the Merger TA & Info page) under “JCBA Implementation Schedule.” If the TA is ratified, L-AS retro pay is anticipated on the May 20th paycheck.