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CLT
Legislative Affairs
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Dear Colleagues,
As you are now aware, H.R. 2744 The Flight Crew Technical Corrections Act passed
"The House of Representatives." FMLA as was always supposed to have included
flight crew. It passed overwhelmingly because YOU called! What we in the
legislative affairs part of AFA have done has been to make your representatives
aware that we are in fact full-time employees. Sure, we have an advantage at
changing our schedule but our reserves do not and even though we can "make
arrangements" for a day or two... we are still responsible for our time.
Reserves have in the past and in the near future will be on call 24/7 and not
get credit for flying time. Pilots under FAA rules never can qualify. Under the
law, Flight attendants must fly 111 hours per month to qualify when a full-time
employee by airline industry standards is 80 hours.
The airline industry does not want us to have the ability to qualify for FMLA.
The airline industry wants us to bargain for the right a "LAW" of the United
States gives all full-time employees. When the law covers what we should have
anyway, it comes off the bargaining table. What we have at USAIRWAYS now is PCL...
personal care leave that mimics FMLA but it is something that the company gave
us in bargaining, can be, and is given indiscriminately and under pressure.
Having the right intended, to us takes the stress of jumping through hoops to
get time off for emergencies.
AFA and your legislative team made congress (the house of representative) aware
that ALL flight attendants work full-time are not part-time employees. Congress
had the impression that all reserves were part time employees. The key
issue here is it has only passed the house. We are now on to the Senate.
With as many struggles as we had with the House of Representatives getting
co-sponsors, we had an amazing and overwhelming response. 402 members said yes
and 9 said no. 24 did not make the vote. This is unprecedented. You would think
that your senators would see this and in fact be willing to co-sponsor the bill
but alas, they will not. It is up to us to remind our senators that flight
attendants vote to and we need them to back FMLA for their flight attendant
constituents. We need co-sponsorship to get the bill to the floor. We have 26
and need 60.
Here is the lowdown by State
North Carolina:
Senator Dole does not want to discuss this issue. Senator Dole's aides say that
she supports "flight attendants" but refuses to state her position on FMLA.
Elizabeth Dole was one of the backers against FMLA in the first place. (202)
224-6342 UPDATE! After an hour call with her labor attorney, we are personally
discussing how she can support us without compromising her position and her NC
constituents, only 3% of which are labor... NO CALLS PLEASE!
Richard Burr- Senator Burr is on the committee that hears this particular issue.
His comments are that co-sponsorship is out because he is on the committee but
assured me that he would "Right a Wrong" for the flight crews. Phone: (202)
224-3154 WE NEED ALL FLIGHT ATTENDANTS to call him and specifically co-sponsor.
HE WANTS CALLS from his constituents.
South Carolina:
Lindsay Graham has always supported flight attendant issues but has not yet
signed on - please call him to ask him to support S.2059 His contact number is
202-224-5972.
Jim DeMint office was visited in April and he has not yet signed on to
co-sponsor S.2059. Please call 202-224-6121 and ask for his
co-sponsorship/support
Tennessee and Georgia:
None of these Senators have made any comments in any direction and we need
constituents to call and ask them to co-sponsor S. 2059.
Lamar Alexander 202-224-4944 (TN)
Bob Corker (202) 224-3344 (TN)
Saxby Chambliss (202) 224-3521 (GA)
Johnny Isackson (202) 224-3643
If you live in any of these states, you once again need to pick up the phone and
call. While your legislative affairs volunteers are the "eye candy" the ones
that meet with them face to face to argue our case, it is you, their
constituents, which make the difference. Please feel free to call me or email me
with any questions.
Cathy Bossi
Legislative Affairs Chair
Council 89
cbossi@afausairways.org
704-622-0648
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