• 321 Staffing- "A decent service"
• 321 Pre-departure Beverage Service
• Airbus Galley Pack Out
• Management Failures
• Cabin Cleaning
• LTO and Claims
• OPR
• ETB FIX
• Negotiations Update
• Accessing The Hub
• AFA Local Numbers

Dear Members,

321 Staffing- "A decent service"

As you know the Company has enhanced the First Class Service. Among other things, the enhancements require the plating of meals. This procedure takes more time to present and due to the minimum staffing levels the assistance of the C F/A is necessary to expedite the First Class service. This leaves the B and D F/As alone in the Coach cabin for a great deal of the coach service. 

AFA has been in discussions with the Company about adding an extra F/A on 321 meal flights. Our position has been the added service level can only be performed up to acceptable standards with five Flight Attendants. Last month I met with Ron Cole, VP of Inflight, to explain the rationale for our position. I explained there was no point in upgrading First Class service if the net effect would slow down and thus weaken the coach service. The 321 is unique to the fleet and a service increase could not be accomplished with minimum staffing levels. Mr. Cole promised to cost out the extra position and convey our concerns to senior management. 

Mr. Cole has informed me the Company will not add an extra Flight Attendant to the 321. The Company position is that the cost is not justified. The Company also states that because of the 321 reconfiguration scheduled for the first quarter of 2007 an extra will not be needed. The reconfiguration will be 16 First Class and 167 Coach Class seats. Mr. Cole said that one Flight Attendant will be able to serve First Class and the remaining three Flight Attendants will be able to provide a "decent service in both First Class and Coach". I thought we were the First Full Service, Low Cost Carrier. To me "decent" does not equate to Full Service. 

The MEC is considering its options. Contractually, the ADD position is "to meet the needs of service as determined by the Company", (Section 9K) but we will consider filing a grievance. I encourage you to file for understaffing on 321 meal flights. Although the claims will be denied they may help in our effort to change the Company's position and will serve as a basis for repayment if we were to win a grievance.

321 Pre-departure Beverage Service

Everyone knows the issue surrounding the Company's directive to offer a full First Class pre-departure beverage service if capacity is 16 or below. AFA was concerned with the Company directive as it would require the C F/A to assist in delivering the beverage service. We believe that would require the C F/A to be away from her/his boarding station and not be able to perform the required safety duties during the boarding process. AFA requested a meeting with the Company and the FAA to discuss the situation. The meeting was to determine the FAA position was with regard to the ability of the C F/A to "assist" the A in providing a pre-departure beverage service and also fulfill their safety duties during boarding.

At the meeting, the FAA Principle Operating Inspector (POI) initially indicated the FAA position was while the aircraft was at the gate the "C" could assist the "A" for a 'short period of time" and still be able to perform his/her required duties in the vicinity of their boarding station. MEC Safety and Health Chair Barrington Johnson and I explained to her that in most cases the A F/A was occupied with other duties such as monitoring the boarding process, monitoring the cockpit door and checking the galley and thus had very little time to provide a beverage service so the C would be away from the assigned boarding station for more than a "short period of time". The POI asked why all of these duties could not be performed prior to passenger boarding. I explained that there were primarily two reasons; 1) contractual requirements and 2) the real world. I stated that although we are where we are supposed to be when we are supposed to be there, often times the plane or the caterers are not. Yes, in a perfect world we would arrive at the aircraft and the security check would have been done and the aircraft catered. As we all know that is almost never the case and therefore, while on paper it looks like there is no problem in reality there is. 

Mr. Cole suggested that during the next two weeks that flights would be selected and the crews told to use a procedure whereby the C F/A assists the A F/A. Some type of feedback form would be provided to assess the service. This seemed to make the POI nervous as I believe she finally got our point that the C F/A would be away from the assigned boarding station for too long. In fact, her comment was that, "we (the FAA) would have to take a look at this and sign off on it."

The Policies and Procedures department is going to develop a program to assess Mr. Cole's idea. It is my opinion this is not going to work. 

Airbus Galley Pack Out

Earlier this month the Company rolled out a new Airbus galley pack out and beverage cart set up. Neither initiative worked. Catering czar, Maureen Dean issued a letter via CBS to Flight Attendants apologizing for the gaffe and offered a set of solutions. A meeting was held in PHL last week among members of Inflight, Dining and Cabin, Flight Attendants and AFA representative Council 70 President, Laura Albert.

The consensus of the participants was the biggest problems with the new pack out were:

• Ice not in the proper location or containers and therefore melting and causing water flow throughout the galleys
• No consistency in the catering in general
• Not enough of some soft drinks and liquor and too much of others (e.g. Sprite/Sprite Zero)
• The cart set up was unworkable on East aircraft due to a different cart than what the West utilizes

The group has produced a new galley pack out addressing all concerns in addition to a revised beverage cart stocking and setup procedure. The new procedures will be tested on all types of flights and after the testing phase is complete the group will meet again to discuss any necessary changes or modifications before a full roll out of the new pack out is implemented. 

Additionally, catering will stop bulk boarding BOB cutlery and condiments and will pre set the First Class meal trays. Plates will be bulk boarded so they can be placed in the oven for pre heating. These three changes will take place this month. I will also request that the breakfast muffins be boarded in a tin for heating (butter does not melt on stone cold muffins).

Management Failures

There are two problems with current management, 1) not enough hands on deck and 2) decisions are made without any input from the end user (us).

We have all discovered that there are not enough management types to implement the decisions they make in a timely manner. There are not enough Company people to staff the benefits or travel departments or to run an airline that is now three times the size of the former AWA. I brought this to Doug Parker's attention at last weeks Labor Committee meeting. The former America West philosophy of cutting costs to the bone in order to stay in business will not work at an airline this size. 

The galley pack out decision was a prime example of the AWA "no input" policy. It is necessary to standardize the fleets and systems but if our input is not solicited then the Company ends up fixing things twice and that costs money.

Cabin Cleaning

Our contract states that cabin cleaning will not be performed, "following any segment that originates or terminates in an airport west of Kansas City", (Section 30E). Recently parings have been built that include segments such as PHX-SAN, SAN-PHX, PHX-SEA and SEA-PHX. I have written the Company a letter stating our position that we not perform cabin cleaning following these segments or any others that meet the contractual exceptions to cabin cleaning. If you encounter any problems from station personnel regarding cabin cleaning please advise your local representatives. The solution is the Company's responsibility. We are not interested in adding additional cleaning segments. The contract language is clear and unambiguous. 

LTO AND CLAIMS

Any claim filed for credit that occurs on a weekends or holiday is not put into the system until the claims department does so on the following business day. That obviously has a direct affect on LTO and we believe is a violation of our contract. The Contract does not limit LTO calculations to business days. I have brought this to the attention of the Company. We believe the Company has the burden of processing claims seven days a week. Director of Crew Scheduling, Mike Finn has told me he will address this problem and I will report the Company's response to you. Hopefully this issue can be solved without a grievance. 

OPR 

We have discovered an inequity with the way OPR pay is calculated. An OPR can work part of an OPR shift and then fly a split trip and end up being paid less than an OPR who did not fly and solely completed her/his 4 hour OPR shift. For example, an OPR might sit OPR for 30 minutes and then get called out to fly a CLT-MYR-CLT. Pay would be the daily rig of 1-2.25 for 30 minutes (13 Minutes), 56minutes for CLT-MYR and 55 minutes for MYR-CLT for a grand total of 2+04. This pay inequity is due to our concessionary contract provision whereby split trips are paid actual time rather than a minimum day of five hours. It is our position that in no case should an OPR who is assigned a flight assignment be paid less than 3+30 due to a contractual quirk. I have also discussed this with Mr. Finn and Labor relations. Their consensus was this may have been overlooked during the 2004 contract negotiation and needs to be fixed. I will keep you informed on when this problem is fixed. Obviously we will address split trip pay during merged contract negotiations. 

ETB FIX

The Company issued the following CBS on Friday:

Several weeks ago, AFA and the Company met to discuss the current ETB system and together they confirmed that there was a programming issue that was not meeting the needs of the flight attendants. This brainstorming session identified a problem area as it relates to flight attendants deleting one person while leaving the bid/s of another/s. As a result, Flightline has made a small change to the way that ETB processes bids. Now, if you delete one person's bid associated with your bid/pairing, you delete all bids for that specific bid/pairing.

For example:

-Patty wants to drop pairing 12345 and puts it up on the ETB.
-Jim wants to pick up pairing 12345 and puts in a request on ETB.
-Sandy wants to pick up pairing 12345 and puts in a request on ETB.

Patty logs on to ETB and sees that 2 people have PENDING requests to pick up her pairing. She decides that she does not want to do the "trade" (for whatever reason she may have) so she clicks in the "DEL" column on Jim's request. Previously, only Jim's request would now be checked (and subsequently deleted). Since the change, BOTH Jim's and Sandy's requests are checked and when Patty clicks the "DEL" button, BOTH Jim and Sandy's requests will be deleted. Patty's Drop will still be posted on the ETB, but all requests to pick it up will have been deleted.

If Jim or Sandy still want to pick it up, they will have to once again go out to ETB and submit a new request.

This fix will eliminate the ability for a Flight Attendant who has posted a drop from selectively deleting one or more Flight Attendants while the transaction is in the pending phase. Now all Flight Attendants will be deleted if a Flight Attendant tries to do this. AFA was initially told by Flightline this was impossible but upon further investigation it was determined it was possible and has now been corrected. 

Negotiations Update

The Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) met with the Company committee last week in PHX. Negotiations focused on Moving Expenses, Uniform, EAP and LOD/O sections. While there were no sections closed out there have been improvements to both contracts agreed to in the Moving Expense and EAP sections. We are still far apart with the Uniform section as the two contracts are vastly different with regard to the number of uniform pieces allotted to each Flight Attendant as well as the replacement procedures. 

US Airways East Flight Attendants are not going to pay for this merger in any way. A reduction in uniform pieces or a disadvantageous replacement system would mean East Flight Attendants would be doing just that 

The next sessions are scheduled for September 6-8 in CLT and September 18-21 in PHX.

Thank you,

Mike Flores, President
US Airways MEC, AFA-CWA

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AFA US Airways website

http://www.afausairways.org/

Accessing The Hub:

http://thehub.usairways.com 
Questions about the Hub? Please contact the EDS Help Desk at 336-744-6000 for assistance. More information can also be found HERE.

AFA Local Numbers

Council 40 PIT 724-695-3329
Council 41 DCA 703-212-8090
Council 69 BOS 781-289-8454
Council 70 PHL 215-492-0840
Council 82 LGA 315-736-3483
Council 89 CLT 704-527-0325

New Hotline Number Toll Free: 866-USA-AFA2
US AIRWAYS Benefits Information 800-872-4780

Reply to Inflight: askinflight@usairways.com