|
|
 |
| In this Issue:
|
January 23, 2005 |
All three work groups represented by the IAM ratified a cost savings package valued at $353 million dollars annually on Friday. This brings to a close US Airways’ effort to achieve over $1 billion dollars in annual employee cost savings. Jerry Glass, senior vice president for Employee Relations said, "while this ratification vote marks the end of a long and arduous process, it also represents a new beginning for our Company. All employees have made tremendous sacrifices, and now we will work in unity to improve relations, transform our business, and emerge as a stronger airline." I sure hope so as the 23,119 union employees gave up $1.04 billion or an average of $43,000.00 per member. That amount obviously reflects job losses as well as pay and work rule changes resulting in productivity improvements.. All groups have now had their pensions terminated and retiree medical costs increased. All groups are working more for less money with fewer people. Aircraft utilization will increase while staffing will be decreased for all groups. The transformation of US Airways has begun with unionized employees leading the way. There should be no doubt, to the media, to the Company and among our customer base of the commitment by union members to provide the impetus for the transformation of US Airways. In May 2004 members of AFA leadership were shown the Transformation Plan. According to the Company the cornerstone of the plan was reducing labor costs. That has been done. The other parts of the plan are now in the hands of management. We have been hearing of a new enhanced web site but have yet to see it. We were told of increased point to point flying with a focus on major Northeast cities. Rolling the hub in Philadelphia and increased Caribbean flying are part of the plan. Now that management has been given cost savings from labor it is time for them to manage the business instead of our labor contracts. I call on management to move on with the job of running the airline. The ATSB, GE and labor have all given US Airways a lifeline to accomplish the transformation. It is now in the hands of the ladies and gentlemen of management to move on.
SAP DELAY
March SAP opening and closing will be delayed as a result of the Company recalculating trip values to reflect the DH 50% pay no credit provision of the new agreement. DH time will be excluded from the trip value so as not to affect the min/max window. The exclusion of DH time will also be in effect for AIL purposes beginning January 31, 2005. SAP Generic Expansion Screen will show which trips contain DH time but not how much. When using the AIL, schedulers will know the pay/credit values of each trip but NOT the DH time in each trip. The SAP closing for CLT and CLW will be January 29, 2005 at 1800 EST. As a reminder you can still use SAP to drop out weekend trips to avoid the weekend AIL restriction effective 1/31/05. Please reference the MEC E-lines and the web site at www.afausairways.org for additional information.
IMPLEMENTATION UPDATE
As you are aware some sections, items of the new agreement are in place and some will be implemented on January 31, 2005. Please refer to previous E-Lines for the schedule as known to date. Vacation bidding and AIL weekend restriction filler day and commuter policy language has been finalized. A recap of each follows.
Vacation Bidding and Cancellation/2005 Drop Bid- As part of the 2004 agreement the amount of vacation days you will be allowed to use will be reduced. Everyone will have to re-bid vacation for 2005. The new vacation period of May-Dec is designed to coincide with the elimination of the ITD fence in CLW and PHW. Everyone’s vacation has been reduced for 2005 but vacation accrued in 2004 in excess of the amount allowed in 2005 will be held out to the side and can be utilized 3 days per year until the excess is exhausted.
Because of the re-bid, people who have vacation during February-April have two potential categories they will fall into.
CATEGORY 1 - Are those F/As who have vacation in February-April that does not exceed the total amount of vacation allowed for 2005. If you desire you may bid to drop any vacation in Feb-Apr only and re-bid it for May-Dec 2005 during the 2005 re-bid process. The form for this 2005 "Drop Bid" can be found on the Inflight Services Home Page on theHub. If your bid is honored any trips that have been previously dropped out of your line by vacation will NOT be reinstated. Your monthly flying obligation will not change. When filling out the drop bid be aware of the range field. If you have 7 days and ONLY want to drop 7 days you must indicate 7 in the range field otherwise you may be awarded a drop of less than 7 days. Results of the drop bid will be posted in Catcrew screen 15. The Bid will be processed in seniority order and will close on January 27 at 1800 EST. If you choose to keep your Feb-Apr vacation you can do so but will be subject to the new 2005 vacation allotment.
CATEGORY 2 - Those F/As who have vacation from January-April that EXCEEDS the total amount allowed for all of 2005. For example if your 2005 allowance is 28 days and you have 31 days scheduled during Feb-Apr you would be required to cancel 3 days. There are 241 people system wide in this category. You have been sent an individual CBS message indicating that you must cancel the excess amount by contacting InFlight Admin Vacation by noon on January 27, 2005. You may call 1-800-327-0117, prompts 1,5,4,2,2, or send a fax containing your Name, Employee #, base and date(s) to be given up to 1-702-872-6476. You will be allowed to drop the excess days of your choice if you contact the Company by the January 27th date. If you do not contact the Company with your request the Company will choose the day/days to cancel for you. If you are in this category and also wish to drop Feb-Apr days other than those in excess you can participate in the above mentioned 2005 Drop Bid.
The new annual vacation re-bid for 2005 will open on or about February 15 and the entire process (bid, award, secondary bid, and secondary award) will be completed by March 15. This timeline is necessary in order for the ITD fence to be eliminated on May 1. The ITD fence cannot be eliminated prior to the awarding of the new vacation otherwise, the f/a’s in the ITD would be disadvantaged. Good luck and don’t hesitate to call the office if you have questions.
Filler Days - Effective 1/31/05 Filler Days may be bid only by using the Filler bid process which closes on the 10th of the proceeding month. All filler request received by the 10th are processed in seniority order (based on availability.)
Filler days will no longer be bid on a first come, first served basis. The bid will be closed and final on the 10th of the preceding month, and no additional bids will be processed after the bid closing. To be honest this would not seem to affect the current practice of requesting filler days mid-month for February but confirmation of that has not been provided. Backfill filler days will be awarded for the bid month January and eliminated as of 1/31/05.
AIL Weekend Trip Restriction - The AIL weekend restriction will begin on 1/31/05. The premise of the restriction is to restrict front-end trip improving to avoid flying weekend days that were included in the touched trip. The idea is for that time not to be dropped to the Company forcing imbalanced reserve usage. In theory if you have a trip that flies on Saturday and or Sunday you will be required to touch the weekend days affected. A three day originating on Friday will force you to fly something on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. You do not have to fly the three day but you must touch all three days. If you fly a two day Friday/ Saturday and are unable to pick up something on Sunday you will have illegally trip improved. Illegal trip improving is an event in the Dependability Control Program. In practice "back-end" trip improving will still be allowed. If, for example, you have a Friday/Saturday/Sunday 3 day and the bid sheet is not restricted you will be allowed to drop the Friday origination. You will automatically be placed on the AIL sheet for Saturday. If by some act of God, Saturday is not restricted you will not have to fly on Saturday but will be automatically placed on the AIL sheet for Sunday and would have to originate a trip on that day. As we all know the bid sheet has been restricted on the weekends since the beginning of time so I find it highly unlikely that you would be able to count on not flying weekend days if you have a trip touching the weekend.
You will still be allowed to SAP out of weekend trips. You will still be allowed to drop weekend trips for over projection until the options are eliminated.
In addition, for the month of February ONLY the Company will allow you to trip improve on weekend trips (as in the past) if adequate weekend coverage exists. Crew Scheduling will be determining the coverage and in control of the process so plan accordingly.
Commuter Policy - The amended commuter policy outlined in the new agreement will take effect 1/31/05. You must be a registered commuter with InFlight to qualify. The main difference with this policy is that if the first flight is cancelled and the second flight is posted more than 30 minutes late or is full you will not be disciplined. You must have scheduled yourself to arrive one hour prior to scheduled check in. Reserves can participate in the program but MUST be in base when they are scheduled to be on duty.
RETIREMENT QUESTIONS
Our defined benefit plan was terminated by the Bankruptcy court earlier this month. The PBGC has signed a trusteeship agreement with US Airways this week to assume the plan. It may take several weeks for the details to be finalized between the Company and the PBGC. AFA is working with both parties to acquire information regarding PBGC administrative policies. Once the plan is being fully administered by the PBGC future retirees will deal with the agency regarding payment of their pension. The transition period will involve both US Airways and the PBGC. Current retirees should see no lapse in their payments. AFA leadership will be meeting with PBGC officials learn about the transition and the PBGC requirements. In addition the MEC is developing a retiree Q and A to assist you with your information needs. Please feel free to call me with your questions. If I don’t know the answer I will forward your questions to our benefits attorney for resolution. Information is coming in daily and I will do my best answer or redirect your questions so you will have the timeliest information available. Additional information can be found on the AFA web site at
www.afausairways.org.
MARCH FLYING OBLIGATION INCREASE
Claiming "deficit staffing levels" the Company has increased the March flying obligation by an additional five hours for all bases. I have questioned whether the Company has the ability to do this under our new agreement or as part of the 1113e motion. Technically the 1113e motion expired when our new agreement was approved by the court on January 10, 2005. Our new agreement states the Company can increase flying during any given month due to irregular operations but not in advance of that month. The Company claims that a deficit exists despite the fact that our reserves are on average not breaking guarantee. I will continue to investigate this issue
In closing, I appreciate all of your questions and comments. This agreement has many changes, new options and restrictions that will take time to understand and implement. We find
new "wrinkles" every day. We are all working as hard as possible to ease everyone into this agreement and provide you the necessary information to make informed decisions about your career.
Thank
You,
Mike
Flores
LEC President CLT
AFA-CWA AFL-CIO
704-527-0325 OFFICE
704-576-3174 CELL
|
|
