• PREFERENTIAL BID SYSTEM (PBS) PRESENTATIONS
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PREFERENTIAL BID SYSTEM (PBS) PRESENTATIONS

Many East members have either heard about or read the Council 66 E-Communication regarding a PBS presentation for Council 66 members. That communication is copied below:

Preferential Bidding System (PBS) Awareness Presentation

AFA Council 66 invites you to join the Joint Negotiating Committee at the AFA Council 66 Office to attend a PBS presentation on January 22nd at 1pm. The negotiating team would like to involve our members and ask your help in providing feedback and discussion on the potential PBS process. This is the second presentation offered by Advanced Optimization Systems, Inc. (AOS) for our members. AFA will continue to offer these presentations throughout the year. In September of 2008, the Joint Negotiating Committee and AFA Council 66 Scheduling Chairperson, Jane Flinn, interviewed four PBS vendors.

AOS has agreed to provide a live remote presentation. You will have the opportunity to ask questions of the developers and programmers of the system. The Council 66 negotiating team will also be available for any questions, issues, or concerns.

I have received several emails asking if PBS presentations are going available for the East Flight Attendants. The answer is yes.

As mentioned in the January 8, 2009 Eline regarding the Joint Negotiating Committee's Scheduling proposal there are many significant differences between the East and West Scheduling systems. There are also many significant cultural and philosophical differences between the two Flight Attendant groups. The JNC took the approach of trying to build a proposal that creates the greatest amount of flexibility and benefit for all of our members. The proposal includes a provision to, under certain conditions, change the way both East and West bid for lines of flying by adopting a Preferential Bid System (PBS).

The East has had PBS in our contract since the December 2002 Restructuring Agreement. There were local council meetings at the time of the agreement that explained the overall concept of PBS. PBS was never implemented because the contractual conditions that AFA and the Company would have to agree on the vendor, the program and the parameters were never met.

Once the merger was announced and work began on the single agreement began, it was very clear the Company wanted the Flight Attendants to adopt PBS. At every Local Council meeting I have attended since negotiations began PBS has been discussed. The discussions have focused on what PBS is and what the benefits are for the Flight Attendants and the Company.

For West Flight Attendants, the concept of adopting PBS is at a different stage than for East Flight Attendants. Council 66 is conducting meetings to introduce PBS to their members. That has already happened on the East.

Transitioning to a PBS system requires several further steps. The first step the JNC took was to receive presentations from four PBS vendors- Advanced Optimization Systems, Inc. was one of the four. Additional negotiations will have to take place between the JNC and the Company to determine the PBS vendor, the program itself and the line building parameters. The Company and the JNC will have to reach agreement on these provisions before the JNC agrees to PBS.

If and when that all takes place, East Flight Attendants will have the opportunity to attend presentations from the selected vendor demonstrating the actual PBS program prior to a contract ratification vote. If a contract is ratified that includes PBS, there will be several months of "practice" PBS bidding prior to the implementation of PBS.

Council 66 is taking an important step holding these initial meetings with their members and those meetings will bring their members to the same place the East members are now.

One additional comment that needs to be made in this Eline is this- the rumor still persists on the East that the Reserve LTO system could not be implemented until PBS was implemented. There is no contractual requirement in the East contract that states that.

Thank you,

Mike Flores, President
The US Airways Master Executive Council
AFA-CWA

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AFA Local Numbers
 
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

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