|
|
2007 Hotline Updates
September 20, 2007
The negotiations team will be
meeting with Jay Trumble in September to review the survey comments
and to continue with section six openers. If you have any
suggestions for our upcoming contract be sure to contact the
negotiations team.
Please join us at the Aids Walk on Sunday October 21 at 12:30. You
can register for the walk at www.aidswalkatlanta.org. There are also
sign up sheets in Shannon Wilson’s
v-file. The team name is AirTran.
Did you know if you do not report your hotel concerns to the union
that we do not receive them? Any time you enter a comment into the
crew hotel system, be sure you copy your concerns via email to a
union representative.
Please remember to use our new
ASA jumpseat agreement. This is a trial jumpseat agreement and it
will be evaluated at the end of this year to determine if this
agreement should be extended. Please be sure to use this agreement
as the union has been pursuing ASA for an
agreement for many years and we would like to retain this benefit
for you.
September 1, 2007
The negotiations committee met
last week and finished considering a lengthy list of items that had
been presented to the Union over the last few years. The committee
made some preliminary decisions concerning these issues and how to
address them in any contract proposal put forth. Of course, the
survey results will dictate the priority of any issue to be
addressed.
The committee also started the lengthy process of preparing the
actual "opener" to be presented to the Company. It is anticipated
that the opener will be completed by late November. The goal is to
present it to the Company in December.
The survey has closed and the results are being compiled by AFA
international. The committee expects to have the results of the
survey by next week. The committee thanks everyone who took the time
to respond to the survey.
Lastly the committee discussed the issue of obtaining additional
input from two flight attendant work groups that have special needs.
We anticipate sending out another request for input specifically
directed to the MCO virtual based flight attendants and those flight
attendants who are currently on reserve or just who have just
completed being a reserve flight attendant.
This year we will be participating in the AIDS Walk in Atlanta. The
walk will be held on Sunday October 21. For more information and to
register, visit the website aidswalkatlanta.org. You can also find
sign-up sheets in Shannon Wilson’s v-file.
Starting September 1st you can jumpseat on ASA. This is a trial
jumpseat agreement and it will be evaluated at the end of this year
to determine if this agreement should be extended. Please be sure to
use this agreement as the union has been pursuing ASA for an
agreement for many years and we would like to retain this benefit
for you.
July 27, 2007
Don’t miss the Pegasus
fundraiser Tuesday night July 31st at Michon’s on Virginia Avenue in
Hapeville. The event is from 6-9pm. Flight attendants who have signed up
to donate to the Pegasus Fund will have the chance to win prizes
including a set of round trip tickets from AirTran Airways and US
Airways. If you have any questions, please contact an EAP
Representative.
If you have any hotel issues, please remember to notify the union. We
are interested in tracking hotel issues so we can resolve several
issues. Without documentation, we cannot present a case to the company.
The union does not receive the documentation that you provide to the
company via the CIS System. You can copy and paste your hotel issues
from the CIS system directly to an email addressed your union
representatives.
With the recent summer storms and recrews, please ensure you are
receiving all of your pay protections. If pay protections are not being
updated, first contact crew scheduling. Please give crew scheduling 48
hours to perform the updates. If you feel your pay protection is not
being handled in a timely manner or if you feel you are being shorted on
pay, contact a scheduling committee member.
In the next few weeks, the negotiations team will be surveying members
on the upcoming contract negotiations. Please take the time to answer
the survey as your input will be used to determine what issues you, the
members, would like to have addressed in the 2008 contract!
Nomination ballots for MEC/LEC officers are scheduled to be mailed out
on August 3rd. If you do not receive your nomination ballot, contact AFA
International at 1-800-424-2401. Nomination ballots must be postmarked
by August 23.
July 17, 2007
Recently Council 57 has
announced the Negotiation Team for the 2008 Contract. The team consists
of Dennis Bickham, Liz Howayeck, and Jennifer Fritchman. Currently the
negotiations team is assembling a survey for the flight attendants to
gauge what issues need to be addressed in the upcoming negotiations.
This survey will be released in the next few weeks. Please take a few
moments to give the negotiations team your input.
Also, please be sure to return your address updates to the MEC lockbox
so you will receive the most accurate and updated information from the
negotiations team during the negotiations.
As a reminder, if any male flight attendants are having an issue with
the collar of the new, wrinkle free shirts; please forward your name and
contact information to Kevin Smith of the Uniform Committee. Kevin will
be gathering your information and forwarding it on to the company, as
they are looking into issues arising from these shirts.
Remember that we still have ghost riders on our flights. Be sure you are
making all announcements from revision 18, and marketing and window
shade announcements. Please follow service guidelines, boarding and
deplaning procedure, and of course be sure to keep all areas of the
aircraft neat and tidy!
June 28, 2007
For members who missed our
LEC meetings: the notes from these meetings will be available shortly on
our website.
The uniform committee is
pleased to announce that they have two to three new items in the works!
Watch for these items to appear on the uniform order site.
If any male flight attendants are having issue with the collar of the
new, wrinkle free shirts; please forward your name and contact
information to Kevin Smith of the Uniform Committee. Kevin will be
gathering your information and forwarding it on to the company, as they
are looking into issues arising from these new shirts.
June 10, 2007
Don’t forget about our
upcoming LEC meetings! The meetings will be held on June 26 in Orlando
and June 27 in Atlanta. Information and directions to the meetings can
be found on our website at www.afaairtran.com, and on the bulletin board
in the Atlanta crew lounge. We will be announcing the Negotiations team
at the meeting and discussing upcoming negotiations.
May 17, 2007
The
LEC Membership Meetings are scheduled for the following dates:
Orlando
11:00am - 1:00pm
June
26,2007
Sheraton Suites-Airport
Atlanta
2:00pm
- 4:00pm
June
27, 2007
Especially For You Event Hall
Virginia Avenue
College Park
The
EAP committee asks that flight attendants take care of each other
and if you know a fellow coworker is out sick, had a death in
family, etc. that you forward their names and addresses to the EAP.
Also remember that the EAP is confidential and here to help you.
The Air Safety Committee is asking
flight attendants to call your Senators and urge them to support
OSHA provisions in the FAA reauthorization bill. Their phone numbers
can be found on our website at
www.afaairtran.com under the AFA InterActive link.
April 15, 2007
Due to
unforeseen circumstances the LEC MEETING scheduled for April 17 and 18
has been postponed until early June. The Union apologizes for any
inconvenience that this might have caused.
In other news…
We are
still having problems with F/A's putting their write up's in the wrong
lock box (i.e. the pilot's lock box). Please make sure to put all write
up's and grievance questionnaire fact sheets in the AFA lock box. It is
located on top of the Flight Attendant v-files (OUR MAILBOXES) in
inflight. It is NOT the lockbox by the door when you first walk in to
inflight. Also, we cannot fix problems without documentation. If you
want something fixed, write it up!
With
the addition of two new flight attendant classes that graduated at the
end of March, the Orlando
office is staffed with three additional reserves. The reserve pool in
Atlanta
was increased by 1% for the month of April.
The
number of “denied” days in open time as of Friday, April 6 was twelve
for BOTH Atlanta and
Orlando. Of course, this number will fluctuate
depending on adds/swaps/drops, etc.
April 13, 2007
The annual LEC Meeting has
been called. The dates and times are as follows:
Orlando
April 17,2007
11am-1pm
Sheraton Suites/airport room 260
Atlanta
April 18,2007
2pm-4pm
Especially for You
1650 Virginia Ave.
College Park, GA
March 18, 2007
Those of you who flew this
past weekend have experienced AirTran at its worst. Once again the
scheduling department has proven how ill prepared they are for weather
related irregular operations. Instead of having a plan in place for such
an event, they have continually made decisions that are possible
violations of the contract and FARs. The Union was pleased to hear
management complain that flight attendants were not answering their
phones while on a layover. Thank you for abiding by the contract and
FARs! Those of you who did not answer your phone proved to the company
that the Union and its members understand the contract, FARs, and
arbitration decisions.
The Union received many calls describing some of these haphazard
decisions made by schedulers. If you
experienced problems of crew scheduling calling during your first 8
hours of rest, hotel management knocking on your hotel door, no hotel
rooms available, etc., please write up these incidents and provide them
to the Union ASAP. Also save any voice mails scheduling might have left
you during your first eight hours of rest. The Union advises that EVERY
flight attendant who worked this weekend ensure that check in and
release times have not been altered without your knowledge. Please
include detailed documentation of times, names of people you dealt with,
and copies of scheduled and actual pairing printouts. You may email or
place a hard copy of your write ups in the union lock box located on top
of the V files.
In order to better serve you, the NPA and AFA hotel committees have
worked jointly to bring you a survey. This is your opportunity to tell
us what’s important to you so that we may more accurately reflect those
desires in the way we select hotels. The results will be compiled and
shared with the company. Please return your completed surveys ASAP to
the wooden AFA lock box located on top of the flight attendant file
cabinets in the crew room. We’ll compile what we have at midnight, March
22, but will continue to accept surveys through the end of the month.
The Union has come to a tentative agreement with in-flight management
concerning the integration sick call letter. In the coming weeks most
who received this letter will receive a retraction letter apologizing
for the mistake and the original letter will be removed from your file.
The new tentative sick call integration policy will recognize: 1)
Integration as defined by the contract, is the first 4 days of the bid
period 2) A flight attendant will only be affected by this policy if
she/he has made four or more sick calls during the integration periods
of a rolling 12 month time frame. 3) Flight attendants who are absent
due to FMLA, leave or on an extended sick call will not be affected by
the policy. Please recognize that this is a tentative agreement and that
the Union has not agreed to the final letter.
March 1, 2007
The Union would like to announce that
Joe Costa and Missy Robinson have joined the Virtual Base Rep team. Please check
the afaairtran.com website for information on how to contact these new reps.
Please keep in mind that if you don't have an MCO Airport Badge you are not
allowed in the crewroom in MCO. You could be fined by the Greater Orlando
Airport Authority and AirTran.
The AFA EAP Committee is planning once again for the display of the annual
Memory Board. This board is displayed annually in the month of April. Please
forward names and pictures of any deceased crewmembers to Cindy Glick. Also if
you have any memories or just something to say we will also gladly accept your
comments. If pictures are placed in Cindy’s v-file, please place them in a
sealed envelope marked personal and confidential and advise Cindy via email.
Pictures will be returned to you.
We have received reports that F/A's are putting in trip requests and they are
being denied with the reason stating "not in open time." This should not happen
and we need to investigate those situations. Please submit the write-ups to the
grievance committee for review.
February 2, 2007
We are
still see F/A's picking up trash in the cabin on the ground. PLEASE stop doing
this!!!!!! The CS agents at outstations are supposed to be doing this. THEY
are getting paid their full hourly rate, not $1.75. If they do not take the
initiative and automatically do it, ask them politely. If they refuse, report
it to Bob Costales. This union fought very hard and spent a lot of money going
to arbitration on this issue. What is the point in fighting for these rights if
our F/A group doesn't care enough to stand united on this? If you "feel bad"
and want to "help" the agents, be proactive while collecting trash IN THE AIR.
At arrival check, please ask passengers to clean out seat back pockets and
remove trash from the floor. Once you land, your trash responsibility ends!!!
The
EAP/Professional is still pressing forward it’s campaign on Talk It Out Don't
write It Up. Always remember that when you encounter a confrontation or
discrepancy with a fellow crew member learn how to discuss these matters in
a professional way and not just run and write up a fellow crew member. Sometimes
the crew member may not be aware of their actions or behaviors. If you don't
feel comfortable in approaching that individual on the situation contact us and
we can approach it for you. Please keep in mind that once a situation has been
given to inflight management we cannot intervene.
Please
keep in mind that all EAP calls are confidential.
In lieu of the company's
recent "possible offering" of CPR barriers, the council will be offering FREE
CPR barriers. Please see your nearest union rep to obtain your free barrier
today! One per person, please! The union feels that EVERY flight attendant
should be afforded this basic health protection without having to pay for it out
of their own pocket.
When you encounter ANY
cracked or broken cart trays this is a SAFETY HAZARD! Ask catering to replace
any clear, broken or cracked cart trays you encounter. If catering will not
replace the trays, report your findings to MEC President Susan Cosby. Be sure to
report the date, A/C number, and pictures if you can provide them.
Please
welcome Myra Ramsey as the chair for the new Reserve Mentoring Committee. Myra
and Hielle Ross will begin "couching it" with reserves in the next few weeks. If
you have any questions please feel free to contact Hielle or Myra. Contact
information can be found on our website or on the AFA bulletin board.
January 19, 2007
In January 2007 the hotel committee
will be conducting site visits in IND, MSY, LAS, PHX and PNS.
The council held its quarterly Committee Chair meeting on January 18. Please
contact any officer if you would like details on the meeting.
AirTran and Air Wisconsin have signed a jumpseat agreement effective
immediately. Air Wisconsin operates regional jets for US Airways to 69 cities in
26 states and 2 Canadian Provinces. Air Wisconsin operates direct roundtrip
flights out of Atlanta to CLT and PHL.
The union has been advised that several pilots have been
requesting to search crewmember bags. This is NOT proper
procedure and is a violation of company policy. Members of
management are the only employees that can request to search
your bags. If a pilot request to search your bag, advise him
that he does not have the authority to do so and if there is a
problem that he should contact in-flight management. If anyone
has experienced this problem, please send an incident report to
the Union.
The EAP/Professional is still pressing forward it’s campaign on Talk It Out
Don't write It Up. Always remember that when you encounter a confrontation or
discrepancy with a fellow crew member learn how to discuss these matters in a
professional way and not just run and write up a fellow crew member. Sometimes
the crew member may not be aware of their actions or behaviors. If you don't
feel comfortable in approaching that individual on the situation contact us and
we can approach it for you. Please keep in mind that once a situation has been
given to inflight management we cannot intervene.
The EAP Committee wants members to be aware of their privileges and benefits as
dues paying members. The EAP Committee is here to assist crew members and their
families with a variety of situations such as alcoholism, sexual harassment,
gambling additions, drug abuse and other situations that may affect you in your
everyday work life.
Please keep in mind that all EAP calls are confidential.
|
|
Council 57
AirTran Airways
www.afaairtran.com
Ask the Union 
