COUNCIL 41 Association of Flight Attendants, AFL-CIO Your Local AFA Update August 21, 2002

Dear Washington Flight Attendants,

I would like to thank each of you who took the time to vote. This had to be one of the most important decisions ever facing the flight attendants at US Airways and I understand what it took for everyone to make a decision. It truly was a choice of “pick your poison.” I believe the flight attendants made the right decision. What we need to do is move forward, it is the only place to go now.

Our negotiating committee and our MEC President did an outstanding job in securing our jobs and maintaining some quality of life for the flight attendants. I would like to thank them for a very tough job well done.

Although our MEC President was faced with the toughest job ever in our history the controlling members of our MEC are criticizing her. Once again the politics are taking the forefront as opposed to your best interest. It is my opinion that the MEC President, Karen Lascoli has done an outstanding job and is the person best suited to continue in these difficult times. Karen is a person of high morals and an excellent work ethic. What do these others LEC Presidents want? Who knows?

With that said, on Friday August 16, 2002 the MEC President and Vice President submitted their resignations.

Below is the resignation letter sent to the MEC:

August 16, 2002

Members of the MEC:

On Monday, August 12, 2002 I was contacted by Steve Hearn, local council president of Charlotte informing me that the MEC members representing Charlotte, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia intended to call a Special Meeting of the MEC within two days to recall the MEC Vice President, Joanne Trihey and myself.

The Charlotte president informed me that the three members were giving Joanne and me the opportunity to resign before the meeting would be called.

In fact a meeting was schedule on August 14, however, recall was not included on the agenda.

Joanne and I are keenly aware that the same representatives continue in their efforts to orchestrate the recall.

The flight attendant’s careers at US Airways have never been in such a volatile position in the history of this airline. In order for the business of this union to carry on for the well being of the membership we are resigning our respective positions. Our resignations will be effective as soon as the MEC can schedule a Special Meeting and conduct an election to fill our positions.

We do not want our resignations to be interpreted as an admission of being incapable of continuing our service to our members. We have served our membership for many years with pride and we are confident that we could have successfully led our membership through this difficult period of the bankruptcy.

Make no mistake, our resignations are being submitted to the MEC in light of the on-going political effort to have us recalled. We have decided to do what we believe is in the best interest of the membership. The local presidents of Charlotte, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh have made it very evident that they believe they are representing the voice of their members.

We will remain available to the membership and the MEC to complete a successful transition.

Yours truly,
Karen Lascoli, MEC President

C: International Officers, AFA
 

The officers of Council 41 will continue to work for your best interest politics or no politics. If you ever have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.

In Solidarity,
Bob Kenia

TEMPORARY RELIEF

In the revised contract there are a list of items the company may need as a result of filing bankruptcy. Please refer to pages 24 & 25 of the “tentative agreement.” Keep in mind that these items are temporary and will only last through December 2002.

Briefly the items are:

• The Company has the ability to build short lines with no pay protection other than the monthly minimum guarantee.
• Vacation may be canceled in inverse order of seniority if vacation buyback does not prove to be sufficient to cover the schedule. Please refer to the tentative agreement for details of re-bidding the vacation or a pay out of vacation.
• SAP and Secondary lines may be eliminated for this period and this period only. As of now there are no changes to the October bid process.

AFA TO HAVE SEAT ON THE BOARD DIRECTORS OF US AIRWAYS

During negotiations AFA was able to obtain a Labor seat on the Board of Directors (page 26). AFA was told that no other labor group would have their own seat except ALPA. However in negotiations with IAM the Company has offered a seat to IAM. Where does this leave us? Whether or not IAM ratifies their agreement AFA will now have a seat on the US Airways Board of Directors.

NEW STOCK OFFER

During negotiations AFA was offered a profit sharing plan and an equity plan based on the performance of the US Airways stock. However since the bankruptcy filing US Airways has offered a new stock option plan. AFA will hire a firm to evaluate this new offer and compare it to what we currently have.

To put it simply AFA will be offered 2.2% of the common stock issued after we emerge from bankruptcy. The stock will vest 1/7 each year for the life of the agreement. Each flight attendant will receive stock based on some criteria (not yet determined) to do with, as they want. There are no other details at this time I will let you know more as soon as possible. The best advice I got from our analysts is to sit back and have the proposal thoroughly reviewed.

MEMORIAL T-SHIRTS

An America West flight attendant and her husband have designed a memorial T-shirt to honor the memory of our fallen crewmembers on September 11. A portion of the proceeds is being donated to the Flight Attendant Disaster Relief Fund. Please visit their Website at www.theholdingpattern.com.
 

SAP ISSUES

• If you picked up a trip in SAP or were awarded a Secondary line you do not hold the position you only hold a place on that trip. For example: If you picked up a trip in SAP and were placed in the “B” position anyone senior to you can take that position 30 minutes prior to departure (Section 9.L.2). The same thing applies to secondary lines.
• To sign in for your SAP trips you must do so via the voice response or by calling crew scheduling. Many flight attendants have received “no sign in” due to the fact that they did not call the voice response. Please verify you are signed in by checking option 2 in catcrew.

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