Negotiations News Archives

SECTION 9 – JUNIOR AVAILABLE

Q Can we have “limited immunity for trips traded off of FA’s original line” from the opener specified more thoroughly?

Sure.  We are proposing that if a Flight Attendant trades away – with Open Time or another Flight Attendant – a trip and does not replace flying on those days, then any days on which s/he does not replace flying (i.e. pick up new flying) would be immune from JA.  Today, a Flight Attendant could trade around her/his entire line and be immune from JA for the entire month (extreme case) even though s/he was flying a full schedule.  This happens today and it sometimes forces JA very senior.

In the survey, members were very adamant that immunity from JA should still remain for days on which a trip was dropped for a special event or to extend vacation/ holiday time off. 

SECTION 11 – RESERVE

Q Being on reserve for two years I feel like I can speak for the majority of reserves that ER days are not wanted. The last tentative agreement that was proposed had a lot of great changes for reserves, most importantly getting rid of awarding reserve days on lines, but still being able to convert. The biggest thing I didn’t like about the reserve portion of the contract was getting rid of the reserve premium.

Based on feedback, we are reviewing ER days vs conversions in the overall context of the TA.  We have already added discussion of ER days/ conversions back onto the agenda for the next meeting.  Additionally, we have secured the reinstatement of the Reserve Premium from management. 

Q Another issue for reserves is not having transparency in open time for trading reserve days.  My previous airline used a system for trading and reserve coverage which gave a lot of information.  Each day showed the reserve coverage if it was open for drops was listed in green.  The number of reserves available each day was shown as well as the threshold. Is this possible?

That is pretty much exactly what was negotiated in TA1.  The OT system was completely transparent with all open/closed days, reserve thresholds, reserve usage, etc. listed.  For reserves, if the reserve trade board listed the day open, you would be allowed to trade – through automation.  No more submitting a request and waiting for a response.  We have proposed retaining that system from TA1 and so far, management is on the same page. 

SECTION 12 – EXCHANGE OF SEQUENCES (and Open Time)

Q Why would we be going back to current practice instead of what was negotiated in Sec 12 of TA1?

In the survey, Flight Attendants overwhelmingly conveyed that reverting to the current OT system would be preferential to changing to another system that they did not know.  However, it is important to remember that if either party cancels the OT ‘Test’ system, AFA and management would immediately sit down to negotiate a new system – using all the information from the ‘Test.’  During that time, the OT system would revert to the current practice.  Once a new system is negotiated, that new procedure would be submitted for membership vote and put in place once ratified.  So the “going back to current practice” part would only last as long as negotiations for new system- which FAs would vote on. 

NEGOTIATIONS UNDER THE RAILWAY LABOR ACT (RLA) (including policy/procedures, solidarity activities, the National Mediation Board, etc.)

Q Why are the full survey results not being published?

The actual results of negotiations surveys done by AFA are never published to the membership.  In 2011, before the opening proposals were written, the Negotiating Committee sent out the negotiations survey to all members.  Those results were used by the Committee to learn your bargaining objectives and priorities.  If AFA had published those results, then management would know which provision was more important than another and that would be detrimental to our bargaining strategy.

The Hart Survey was basically another negotiations survey, one scientifically done with a much lower margin of error by a very highly regarded professional polling company.  Because we do not want management to know your exact priorities in negotiations, we will not be publishing those results either.

Q How was the opener for this second round of negotiations derived?

The opener was created using the priorities in the Hart Survey.  When a tentative agreement fails to ratify, the subsequent negotiations for a new agreement focus on ‘fixing’ the provisions which were not acceptable.  It is not about going back to the beginning and starting all over.