Contents:

• Senate Abandons Effort to Boost the Economy

But Extends Unemployment Benefits for Additional 13 Weeks
• Report Inappropriate Conduct of Security Screeners
• Midwest Express Flight Attendants Seek Release from Mediated Contract Talks
• On-line AFA Hotel Report Form
• US Airways January Load Factor Falls

WASHINGTON, Feb.  6   The Senate today abandoned its effort to pass a plan to boost the economy, but then briefly put aside partisan recriminations to approve a narrow measure extending unemployment benefits for 13 weeks beyond the current 26-week limit.

Read the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/07/politics/07STIM.html?todaysheadlines

We continue to hear stories about flight attendants reporting that they are the targets of abusive behavior, including illicit touching by security screeners.

If you are targeted for a hand pat-down and are uncomfortable being patted-down by a screener of another sex, ask for a "same sex pat-down."  If the screener refuses, ask to see the security supervisor on duty or ask to see airport police.

Here's what you should do if a security screener targets you for abusive behavior:

• Ask to see the security supervisor on duty.  If the supervisor is unavailable, ask the screener to call airport police.  Let them know that you are not objecting to the increased security and screening, but feel that you are being abused by the screener.
• File a report of the incident with the supervisor or airport police. Be sure to also report the incident to your AFA Local Council.  In your report, include your name, airline, domicile, location of the incident, time, date, and if possible, the name of the security company and the name of the screener.  You can also report an incident on-line at www.afanet.org.
• Report abuse to the FAA and AFA by going to the Online Reporting Form: http://www.afanet.org/inappropriate_screening.htm

The only way action can be taken to correct the abuse, is to report the incident.  To stop abuse of crew members by security screening personnel and to pursue any potential legal action that's appropriate, we must have factual reports of incidents.

WASHINGTON, DC - Midwest Express flight attendants, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants, AFL-CIO, requested a release on Friday from mediated contract negotiations with the airline.

The parties have been in negotiations for a first contract for two years and the National Mediation Board, the government agency responsible for labor relations in the airline industry, has been mediating the talks since October 2000.

Midwest Express management has stonewalled negotiations. The company is demanding that future compensation, insurance and retirement benefit increases be left to the discretion of management, refusing to set future fixed raises, health benefits or retirement improvements in a contract. In many contract sections still in dispute, the company is demanding terms that are worse than what is currently in effect. The company will not even sign off on many sections where the parties completely agree on both content and language. The company's strategy appears designed to ensure that no agreement is reached with the flight attendants.

"We might as well be sitting at the negotiations table by ourselves," said AFA Midwest Express Master Executive Council Secretary Toni Phillips. "Management isn't even attempting to reach an agreement. A release into a thirty-day cooling off period is the only way to compel Midwest Express to deal with us fairly."

If the NMB finds that the negotiations are at an impasse, the Board will proffer arbitration to the parties to resolve all remaining issues. If either party rejects arbitration, the parties will be released from mediation and the clock starts on a 30-day "cooling-off" period. The parties will continue to negotiate during the 30-day period. If the cooling-off period expires without the parties reaching an agreement, the flight attendants can begin strike actions.

Midwest Express' 500 flight attendants are joined together in AFA, the world's largest flight attendant union. Visit us at www.afanet.org.

Crew member complaints of sub-standard and unacceptable hotel properties used for RON's are on the rise. However, when approached with requests for action to improve overnight hotels for crews, the Company invariably responds that there are not enough complaints on file to move them to do anything.

Your MEC Crew Accommodations Committee encourages you to report problem properties which you encounter on your overnights.  The only way to improve this important area of our working conditions is to document hotel complaints.

A new on-lne Hotel Report Form more resembles the OF-310 found in the Crew Rooms.  Please fill out this form with as much detail as you can and submit it electronically.  http://www.afausairways.org/FAForm.html
 
Thank You,
Your AFA Hotel Accommodations Committee

US Airways January Load Factor Falls

ARLINGTON, Va., Feb 5 (Reuters) - US Airways Group Inc. said on Tuesdayn its load factor, measuring the amount of seats filled on airplanes, was 60.1 percent in January, down 0.2 percentage points on a much smaller schedule from the year-earlier period.

Available seat miles, known as capacity, fell 19.3 percent as US Airways and most other major U.S.  airlines cut back schedules following the Sept.  11 attacks.  Traffic, or revenue passenger miles, fell 19.5 percent in January from a year earlier.