• Electronic Trade Board
• Reserves and the Electronic Trade Board
• America West Merger
• Legislative Affairs
• The Pegasus Project

 
Dear Council 41 Members,

As many of you by now know, Bob Kenia has resigned his position as LEC President of Council 41. Per the Constitution and Bylaw of AFA, Katie Whitney and I have resigned our current positions. Pat Friend, International President of AFA-CWA, has installed myself as president and Katie as vice president to serve out the term of office until June 30, 2005 upon which we will assume the positions that we were elected too starting July 1, 2005. As well, Steve Schembs will also take over the position of LEC Secretary effective immediately. I would like to thank Katie and Steve for "stepping up to the plate" and serving as officers for the Washington base. During these difficult times, being a union officer requires a large commitment of time and energy. Please take a moment to thank them for their willingness to serve the Washington flight attendants.

I would also like to take a moment to thank Bob Kenia. During the last 12 years Bob has been an excellent representative for the flight attendants not only in DCA but throughout US Airways and all of AFA. His professionalism, dedication and commitment have served us all well and will be greatly missed. 

Electronic Trade Board

Effective May, 2005 the ETB became live. Flight attendants have been assisting crew members in the use of the ETB. The board is provided free of charge to all flight attendants. If you wish to use the catcrew functions of Flightline there is a charge associated with the function. While assisting flight attendants in the crew room a laundry list of questions have come up during the implementation of the ETB. Almost every night after being in the crew room I have been notifying the MEC of the issues brought up in the real world of the ETB and its use. The MEC and the Implementation Committee have been working to address the issues surrounding the ETB. Please call one of your officers if you have any questions or problems with the ETB. 

With the removal of the options, the ETB is the only way to reduce your flying obligation. Your obligation is your original line value or post SAP value, whatever is greater. If you are unsure as to what your flying obligation is for the month, you can now access this on option 2 in the catcrew menu. The time you drop on the ETB will reduce your obligation respectfully. If you have an 80 hour line and drop a 15 hour trip on the ETB, you new obligation will be 65 hours. If you need to make up time to reach your obligation this can only be done on the AIL. Any time picked up on the ETB will not count towards your company obligation. As with anything new there will be a learning curve on the use of the ETB. AFA and the Company will be working on the many issues raised by the implementation of the ETB. 

Reserves and the Electronic Trade Board

One of the features of the ETB is that reserve flight attendants can pick up trips on the days off. As reserves are well aware there are 2 types of days off, INV days and OFF days. Flight attendants can pick up trips on their INV days weeks ahead of time with buffers that are currently in place. Currently the trip would have to depart after 1000 on the first INV day and return by 1800 before the last scheduled day off. 

There have been some recent changes concerning being released into OFF days and picking up a trip from the ETB. Originally a flight attendant would have to be released by scheduling to pick up a trip from the ETB on an OFF day. Scheduling will now allow a reserve to pick up a trip on the ETB without being released by scheduling, with the current buffers in place. There will be some changes concerning how scheduling will assign trips into days OFF depending on if a flight attendant has or has not picked up an ETB trip. Once finalized, AFA and the Company will inform the flight attendants about the new procedure

America West Merger 

For those of you who have been hiding in a cave, America West and US Airways have recently announced plans to merge the two airlines. While America West is purchasing US Airways, the new carrier will carry the US Airways name. Both carriers are represented by AFA-CWA and the leadership between Council 41 and Council 66 (America West) has a long standing friendship. America West flight attendants are currently in negotiations and I have been receiving updates about the progress, or lack there of, of their negotiations. As plans for the merger continue, a merger committee and seniority integration committee will be formed by the MEC to address the many issues that any merger creates. A meeting is scheduled for June 8th in Washington, DC for the two MEC's to meet and discuss future plans on seniority integration and a joint negotiating committee. There are many issues that must be dealt with including fence agreements around the current airline operations. 

Legislative Affairs

The current legislative affairs agenda seems to be growing by the day. Flight attendants represented by AFA have lobbied Congress on crew member fatigue, cabin air quality, pension protection and protecting social security among others. I have had the opportunity to be a guide for many flight attendants on their first visits to congressional offices. Without question, each flight attendant has walked with a positive experience. With the overwhelming majority of the DCA flight attendants living in the area it provides us with extraordinary access to press our issues. AFA is always looking for new flight attendants to get involved in our lobby efforts. If you would like to offer your talents please call Alin Boswell to volunteer.

The Pegasus Project

The Pegasus Project is a nonprofit organization to provide financial assistance to flight attendants who are facing life-threatening illness or injury. The Project is currently a fund of last resort, once a flight attendant has exhausted all other avenues of assistance the Project steps in to help. There are a number of goals of Pegasus, not the least of which is to increase our donations so that we are not a fund of last resort and to increase the grants offered to members in need. In the coming months Pegasus volunteers will begin a campaign of payroll deduction. A couple of bucks a paycheck can go along way when many are involved. Pegasus is also actively seeking flight attendants who can volunteer a very small amount of time to assist us in this effort. If you and your friends or family can help, please call one of your LEC officers.

In Solidarity,

Alin Boswell
LEC President

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