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MEC President Perry Hayes Letter to Dave Siegel
July 2, 2003
Mr. Dave Siegel
President and CEO
US Airways
2345 Crystal Drive
Arlington, VA 22227
Re: 5% Salary Deferral
Dear Dave:
As I hope you are aware, employee morale is at an all-time low.
The events of the past year have truly taken their toll on all
the employees at the Company. I am sure that most employees had
a hope that once we emerged from bankruptcy, things would start
to improve.
The War Contingency salary deferral that was negotiated in
December was implemented at the onset of the conflict in Iraq.
Even though all the provisions that were negotiated may not have
been met, i.e., a pre-tax profit, if the Company were to cease
the 5% salary deferral and start paying those funds back to the
employees, I believe that would go a long way toward improving
employee morale.
The employees of this Company are angry. The Company continues
to beat down on those employees who will either make the Company
successful or ensure the Company¿s failure. The time has come
for the Board of this Company to review the 5% Salary Deferral
issue and take action that will attempt to improve morale.
Sincerely,
Perry L. Hayes
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Cleaning Station Reminder:
Flight Attendants are required to tidy up the aircraft cabin in
a limited number of stations. The current listing of those
stations can be found on The Hub.
We are not required to participate in aircraft cleaning in any
other stations and we should not do so. We are never required to
clean on the AIRCRAFT'S overnight. Utility personnel or contract
cleaners are employed by the Company for that purpose, and no
more than we, as flight attendants would like other employee
groups doing our work and potentially causing additional layoffs
of our employees, we cannot interfere with other employee
groups' job responsibilities. Please keep this in mind and only
tidy the cabin in those cities where we are required to do so.
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NOTICE OF ELECTION
US Airways Master Executive Council
POSITION AVAILABLE
CREW ACCOMODATIONS CHAIR
Position to be filled at the MEC Meeting on, July 21, 2003.
Sleep Inn, 2500 Market Place, Coraopolis PA 15108. This position
is available due to a vacancy. The term of office runs through
December 31, 2004. To request an application from the MEC
office, please call, 877-330-0449, ext. 21 or send resume to:
mecoffice@afausairways.org.
Qualifications:
1 US Airways Flight Attendant
2 AFA member in good standing
Position Summary
CREW ACCOMODATIONS
A. SCOPE
1. This Committee will act to investigate Flight Attendants'
complaints on current facilities and also to periodically check
these facilities for any decline in quality.
2. This Committee will act to survey potential facilities and
attempt to eliminate or avoid any possible problems involving
transportation or layover facilities.
B. POLICY
1. The Crew Accommodations Chairperson will be responsible for
the coordination of all hotel inspections.
2. This Committee will maintain a list of hotels for future
reference under the heading of long layover or short layover.
3. This Committee will serve as a liaison between the Flight
Attendants and the Company should any hotel or transportation
facilities prove to be inconvenient or unacceptable.
4. This Committee will communicate regularly with the MEC
President or designee and the ALPA Crew Accommodations
Representatives.
5. This Committee shall have regular meetings with the Company.
6. This Committee will establish a list of contingency hotels
for use only during emergency overflow at a regular hotel.
7. This Committee will act to assure Flight Attendants that any
hotel facility they occupy is safe, clean, and convenient.
C. GENERAL
1. Should the Company override the objections of the MEC Crew
Accommodations Committee Chairperson and proceed to use any
facility which compromises the safety or implied contractual
standards guaranteed to each Flight Attendant, the Chairperson
will immediately notify the MEC President so that appropriate
action can be taken against the Company.
2. A long layover shall be considered any layover, which exceeds
14 hours block to block.
3. Whenever practical and possible, the LEC Crew Accommodations
Chairperson will be actively involved in the hotel selections
and/or changes that pertain to her/his domicile.
4. The Committee Chairperson shall provide the MEC with the
lists of approved layover and emergency overflow hotels on a
quarterly basis. Changes in either list shall be communicated as
soon as known.
5. It is the policy of the US Airways MEC the all Flight
Attendant rooms at layover hotels be non-smoking.
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The following article is reprinted from the June 30, 2003 US
Airways Update newsletter. This is the only information we have
about MidAtlantic's startup. Our Inflight department is
currently working on a Question and Answer guide. As soon as it
becomes available it will be posted.
MidAtlantic pushes forward
despite postponement of
certification of Embraer 170
By John Bronson
US Airways is moving ahead with plans to launch its MidAtlantic
Airways regional jet division early in the first quarter of
2004, while keeping a close eye on a software certification
issue Embraer is addressing.
Embraer announced recently that it has postponed the
certification of its new 70-seat Embraer 170, which was
originally scheduled in June. Embraer CEO Mauricio Botelho told
Aviation Daily certification is now expected in November. The
issue centers on avionics software developed by Honeywell.
The Embraer 170 and the slightly larger Embraer 175 will form
MidAtlantic's fleet. Bruce Ashby, president of US Airways
Express, said that Embraer can continue to manufacture aircraft
on its original schedule and that the corrected, certified
software can be plugged into the airframes "at the last minute."
"We're operating on the assumption that there will be no impact
on our targeted entry-into-service date of Jan. 4, but we are
reviewing the impact of the software issue," Ashby said. The
first deliveries of Embraer 170 aircraft to US Airways are
scheduled for November. US Airways is the North American launch
customer for the 170, and has 85 of the aircraft on firm order,
all of which will be delivered by September 2006.
Ashby said US Airways aims to use Honeywell's corrected software
for training simultaneous to the Federal Aviation
Administration's certification process. "If we are required to
wait until the FAA completes its certification, that may trigger
a delay, but it would likely be weeks, not months," he said.
Pilot training on the new airplane is slated to begin later this
summer. MidAtlantic will hire pilots from among those who have
been furloughed from the mainline. Jobs also will be offered
first to furloughed flight attendants, mechanics and certain
other job classifications by seniority, Ashby said.
Behind the scenes, project teams are working on a myriad of
issues to prepare for MidAtlantic's startup. "The main thrust is
working with the FAA to review all the flight, inflight,
maintenance and other manuals and mapping out a timeline of what
resources we need to bring together to make this launch happen,"
Ashby said.
As the first North American airline to fly the Embraer 170,
Ashby expects US Airways to reap competitive advantages, both
from its technical capability and its customer appeal.
"We're pleased with its range (2,000 nautical miles with a full
passenger load), but we're really impressed with its comfort
level," he said, citing its spacious 6-foot, 7-inch cabin
height, large overhead bins and two-by-two seating arrangement.
"This is an aircraft that belongs in premium business markets,"
he said.
Ashby declined to be specific about the future schedule of the
regional jets for competitive reasons. But he said one could
logically assume to see more RJs operating in places such as
Boston, LaGuardia and Washington National, which have premium
business opportunities to many medium and small cities that
can't profitably support mainline aircraft.
"We will use these aircraft to take advantage of our network. A
lot of people have asked me if they will replace mainline
aircraft in Pittsburgh. That 's not what they're for," he said,
explaining that the delivery of more RJs will allow US Airways
to use the proper size equipment for the amount of demand in a
given market across the whole system, and to recapture revenue
lost to competitors.
There are three basic missions for the RJs, he said. "We'll
replace turboprops in many markets, either for competitive
reasons or because they're too full and too slow." RJs also will
be used to profitably back fill some frequencies were eliminated
due to the downsizing of the mainline. "That will make our
system more attractive to business travelers," Ashby said. And,
the new aircraft will be used to open new markets. "They can be
used successfully in long, thin routes that we couldn't have
possibly flown with a larger mainline aircraft," he said.
Ashby also said he has been asked by many employees about the
location of a base for MidAtlantic operations due to the
uncertainty of US Airways' lease arrangements at Pittsburgh.
"It's premature to say Pittsburgh will be the base. That
determination will depend in part on the result of negotiations
regarding costs there," he said. He added, however, that in the
near term, the first deliveries will be centered on Pittsburgh.
"In the end, the ultimate schedule of the aircraft and their
overnight locations will drive this issue," he said.
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