• LAS HOTEL

• 2006 GUEST PASS DEADLINE EXTENDED

• MEC SAFETY NEWSLETTER CLARIFICATION

• AIRBUS 320

• SECONDARY LINE CONSTRUCTION

• 24/7 - WHERE AND WHY

• NEGOTIATIONS UPDATE

• Accessing The Hub

• AFA Local Numbers

LAS HOTEL

Last week one of our Flight Attendant was accosted and "pepper sprayed" just yards from our property in LAS. Fortunately she was able to partially shield her face and run to our property. The police were called and a report was filed. The Company has been advised as well. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department made comments to this Flight Attendant the area surrounding our property has deteriorated and similar incidents have occurred in the past few weeks.

I had a discussion with the Manager of Crew Accommodations, Kelly Pound, and expressed the Union's concern for our members. She is sending a representative from US Airways Corporate Security to LAS to talk to the LAS police and the hotel to assess the situation and make a determination if this was an isolated incident or not.

The current property has its pros and cons, but safety and security must be at the top of the list. If it is determined the property is unsuitable a change will be made.

In the meantime please exercise the utmost caution.


2006 GUEST PASS DEADLINE EXTENDED-NEW JAN. 31 DEADLINE

The Company issued the following statement regarding an extension for obtaining 2006 Guest passes:

If you spent New Year's Eve trying to ticket your unused 2006 guest passes for 2007 but couldn't, you're not alone. Due to high demand, the system was not able to handle all the requests before it rolled over to 2007. However, the deadline will be extended and employees will be able to book and pay for 2006 passes through midnight MST on Jan. 31, 2007.

Your ETC Guest Pass profile now shows your 2006 unused passes plus remaining 2007 unused passes. For example, if you had four unused passes at the end of 2006 and you received eight passes in 2007 (and have not used any of them so far), you will see 12 passes in your profile on ETC.

Remember, Jan. 31 at midnight MST is the deadline to book (online only) and pay (either online or at a ticket counter). After that your guest pass bank will be restored to the 2007 guest pass allotment (minus any 2007 passes you may have already used).

Don't wait until the last minute to complete your 2006 transactions - we cannot estimate how many employees will want to use these passes, so don't be late and be sorry (again)!

As a reminder, you cannot change passenger names on these tickets, but you can change dates/times of travel and destination after you have completed ticketing and tickets are good for use up to one year after the ticketing date.
 

MEC SAFETY NEWSLETTER CLARIFICATION

The January 9, 2007 MEC Safety Committee newsletter contained the following reference regarding inadvertent slide deployments:

Inadvertent Slide Deployments

2006 was a terrible year for inadvertent slide deployments. While not all slide deployments are the fault of flight attendants, some are. The ISD's are not A/C specific, nor are the seniority related. Therefore, there must be a common thread to this. Beginning last month, the Company, after an investigation into the cause of the specific ISD, may issue a "Letter of Warning" to you if you are the party involved. This letter will stay in your file for the duration of your career, and may be used against you if you pop another slide. Bottom line, the company now will use this for grounds of termination with the company.

The Union's position regarding the letter of warning is that it cannot stay in your file for the duration of your career. We have the following contract language to support our position:

Section 24.F.2 - Any disciplinary or derogatory letters shall be removed from a Flight Attendants file after twelve (12) active months. The Company will review such files annually and discard any disciplinary or derogatory letters that are no longer applicable.

It is the Union's position the Company would be violating the Collective Bargaining Agreement if discipline was issued using a letter that was more than twelve (12) calendar months old.

AIRBUS 320

"Horrible!"

"The most passenger unfriendly airplane I have ever been on"

"It makes the DC-9 look like the Boeing Dreamliner"

These are just a few of the comments I have received from customers regarding the reconfigured Airbus 320.

The Company is in the process of reconfiguring the Airbus 320, reducing seats in First Class and adding seats to Coach. Part of the reconfiguration is the removal of the First Class closet. When the Union was initially told of the change we objected vehemently. The Company overlooked our concerns and proceeded with their plans. The removal of the closet started a domino effect that forced the relocation of the emergency equipment and the Inflight Entertainment system, previously housed in the valet closet, to the First Class overhead compartments. All the First Class overheads on a/c left were thus dedicated to this equipment. The a/c right overhead compartments contain the survival kits. The obvious problems and complaints followed this reconfiguration-no overhead space for passengers or Flight Attendants. This was a typical America West shoot from the hip move. The America West 320 fleet is not EOW certified therefore there are no survival kits. The Inflight Entertainment system on the America West 320 fleet is located in the last overhead bin a/c left. The US Airways Inflight Entertainment system will eventually be relocated to match the America West 320 location but that is a very involved process and will take some time to complete.

Management initially tried to solve the problem by relocating the fire extinguisher, PBE and O2 bottles in the forward galley. Yes, you read that correctly. The fire extinguisher was to be mounted in the galley on the side wall, forward of the 1R door and the O2 bottles were going to be placed in galley compartments next to the oven. Yes, you read that correctly as well. So let's see, if a fire starts in the galley a Flight Attendant would have to go through the fire to get the fire extinguisher, assuming the O2 bottles had not exploded. After a series of conference call between myself, MEC Safety Chairperson Barrington Johnson and the Company this will not take place. The O2 bottles will be mounted low on the First Class side of the class divider. The fire extinguisher and PBE will be placed in the top left 1-1 galley compartment. While not the ideal solution, at least Flight Attendant's will not have to traverse the galley to reach the fire extinguisher. The aircraft are being re-reconfigured at this time. The Union will continue to lobby the Company and the FAA to have the closet reinstated.

The coat hooks on the class divider are also problematic. According to the Company they are approved by the FAA on West aircraft. We are not in agreement the hooks should be used during taxi, takeoff or landing. This is the East, and customers have heavy overcoats. The combination of weight and unrestrained hangers and coats are not acceptable to us. We are working with the FAA to issue a directive to US Airways not to use the coat hooks on the class dividers.

The Company is intent on cramming as many seats on the entire Airbus fleet at the expense of customer satisfaction and safety.

All of this leads to complaints to Flight Attendants from our customers. Flight Attendants should not bear the brunt of Company blunders. The comment cards have been removed from the Inflight magazine. I asked the Vice President of Inflight, Sherri Shamblin, to have the cards re-introduced to the fleet two weeks ago. To date I have not received a response. Please direct all comments from yourselves and passengers regarding the reconfiguration to:

Sherri.Shamblin@usairways.com
 

SECONDARY LINE CONSTRUCTION

As you know the Union prevailed and the Company agreed to increase the Secondary line building window to twenty hours. In a 90 hour month that allows Secondary lines to be built between 70 and 90 hours. In the past, the window in a 90 hour month would have been 75-90 hours. The following represents a list, by base of the number of lines that were constructed between 70-75 hours, that for the most part would not have been built without increasing the window.

SECONDARLY LINES BUILT BETWEEN 70-75 HOURS:

BOS - 8
LGA - 10
CLT - 105
PHL - 80
DCA - 8
PIT - 21
TOTAL - 232

Secondary lines are constructed using trips that are dropped for vacation, trips dropped in SAP, and other conflicts that cause awarded lines to be given up. The number of trips available to create Secondary lines varies from month to month. In a 90 hour month Secondary lines also have an average target of 83 hours. The 232 line total constructed between 70-75 hours does not mean that 232 extra lines would have been built because the computer would have pumped up the lines between 75-90 to reach the line average target but according to our analysis a significant portion 70-80 % of the 232 lines between 70-75 hours would not have been created without expanding the window.

24/7 - WHERE AND WHY

In a September 2006 meeting with the Company and the Union the FAA informed US Airways that Reserve on call (AVL) days must be included in the FAR that requires a 24 consecutive hour period free from all restraint and duty to the Company in a seven (7) day period. The FAR has existed for years, but for years the FAA allowed US Airways and other airlines to not count time spent on call in the 24/7 equation. The FAA had previously determined that for Lineholders the 24 consecutive hour (check out to check in) rest period could be satisfied on a layover. The FAA informed the Union and the Company the same determination applied to Reserves. There have been questions regarding this determination. For the record, the Union believed that Reserves should be treated the same as Lineholders. The FAA determination is based on the facts that at US Airways, Reserves do not have to maintain contact with the Company while on a layover. Reserves are therefore are free of any restraint while on a qualifying layover rest period. In short, the FAR treats Reserves and Lineholders equally.

NEGOTIATIONS UPDATE
Earlier this month the Company and the Joint Negotiating Committee met in PHX. Proposals including Training, LODO, Uniform, Filling of Vacancies and Reduction in Personnel were passed between the two sides. Improvements in all proposals have been agreed to but none of the Sections have been finalized.

The Company and the JNC will meet this week, Tuesday-Thursday, in CLT. Our goal is to finalize these Sections. It is our intent to secure improvements in every Section of our contract. We are being very detail oriented-in other words we are negotiating the exact language that will appear in a single agreement. The JNC will not agree to a "term sheet" and then flesh out the details later. This approach takes time. We are going to take all the time necessary in order to achieve a single agreement that meets the needs of our members.
I will update you after this week's session.

Thank you,

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

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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

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