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Dear Council 41 Members:
On Friday November 12th US Airways filed the 1113(c) motion which asks the court to reject our collective bargaining agreement. The judge will rule in accordance with the Bankruptcy Code timeline I have outlined below. The judge DOES NOT negotiate a new agreement.
What does that mean? Now that the motion is filed the Company has 14 days (extendable by 7 days) to submit a proposal to the court. After the 14 days (possibly 21) a hearing will commence between the judge, AFA's legal counsel and the Company's counsel. During this hearing the judge would hear arguments from both sides on why the agreements should be rejected and should not be rejected.
If the judge rules in favor of the Company and agrees that the Collective Bargaining Agreement should be rejected the Company has the right to impose an agreement. Management has stated that they will impose the offer they presented to the judge. IF the judge rules in our favor and states (for example) the amount of money being asked for is too high we win, so to speak. If we prevail the Company has the ability to file another motion and propose an agreement with the lesser amount as stated by the judge. This is a very simplistic example but you can see in the end we will be taking large concessions. Remember, the role of the judge is to keep the Company solvent.
Now where have we been with negotiations? If you have not kept up with the MEC E-Line or website (all e-lines are on the website) each proposal and counter proposal is posted on the website. Initially the Company "asked" AFA for $116 million that amount has now increased to $150 million. The Company is also asking to terminate our pension plan and will NOT give us any credit towards our "ask" amount. So as you can see negotiations are not going well to say the least and the Company will most likely propose the $150 million contract to the judge.
The MEC and Negotiating Committee have received many emails and phone calls from flight attendants concerned about particular items in the proposals. Such as what if we changed "this" did you think of "that"? You will need to trust me when I tell you every aspect of our agreement was reviewed and reviewed again. Every item is valued by our analysts.
All I can suggest is to keep up the good work, avoid the rumors and stay informed.
THANK YOU!
On behalf of the Officers and Members of Council 41 we would like to thank Kathy Vieweg for her many years of service to the DCA flight attendants on the AFA EAP Committee. Kathy resigned from US Airways effective November 8. Kathy received her Masters Degree in Social Work and will pursue her career in that field. We wish her all the best.
MEC ELECTIONS; WHAT HAPPENED?
At the MEC Meeting (Nov 9-11) MEC Officers and Committee Chairpersons were elected by the MEC (each LEC President). The term of office begins January 1, 2005 and ends December 31, 2007.
The officers are:
MEC President, Teddy Xidas LEC President Pittsburg; MEC Vice President, Buddy Brannon LEC President BOS; MEC Secretary/Treasurer Leslie Miller, re-elected. Keep in mind Ms. Xidas has stated she will keep her position as LEC President of PIT which is allowed but not recommended by the AFA Constitution and Bylaws.
Now many of you may ask or at least you should, how these people were elected. Each LEC President has one vote and one person must receive a majority vote of the MEC (4 votes). There were 4 individuals running for President. I supported and voted for the current MEC President Perry Hayes. However after a great deal of political games there was a run off election between Ms. Xidas and an unknown individual. I say unknown because this person has never done AFA work. So now I am faced with voting for Teddy or this other individual, I had no choice but to abstain my vote. I cannot support Ms. Xidas and if you want to know why, please contact me. Teddy Xidas was elected; 4 votes for and 2 abstentions. Immediately after the election I motioned to recall Ms. Xidas (CLT seconded the motion) however the motion failed, only the CLT President Mike Flores and myself voted for the recall.
The political games played in my opinion were: the new MEC vice president lost his local election in BOS and cut a deal with other members of the MEC to put him into the VP position and Teddy into the Presidents position.
I have written to you in the past regarding the current negotiating committee and MEC President, I told you that I can sleep nights knowing they will do their absolute best in the absolute worst of times. With Ms. Xidas leading the group now I am NOT sleeping nights. I hope I am wrong and I will be the first to admit it. I know we should show a unified front but that will be very hard to do. She will have to earn my trust and respect and I do not believe we have time for that. Things are happening fast and furious. I will do my best to look after our interests. I will remain vigilant and prepare for our futures. The MEC President answers to the LEC Presidents of each base; I will do my best to hold her accountable to speak for all members not just those in PIT.
The AFA process of elections is a democratic one and I stand by that, I do not condemn AFA for this and neither should you; it is the individuals that should be faulted.
The MEC Committee Chairpersons elected can be found HERE.
EAP By Annette Hill
Some of you may have seen Kathy Vieweg or me in the crew room during October on Tuesdays. We had information on dealing with stress, creating a financial plan in light of salary reductions, and creating a plan "B" (writing a resume, etc.). That information will now be available in Annette Hill's mailbox. Feel free to take whatever you need.
The EAP committee is in need of new committee members. If you are interested, please contact Annette Hill at 703-212-0580.
This newsletter was sent via e-mail and placed in all flight attendant mailboxes.
Sign up HERE
or www.afausairways.org
and Click on the Washington page.
COUNCIL 41
Association of Flight Attendants, AFL-CIO
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