• WEEKEND AIL RESTRICTION REMINDERS
• RESERVES AND AFA
• Accessing The Hub
• AFA Local Numbers

Dear Members,

WEEKEND AIL RESTRICTION REMINDERS

In order to avoid any confusion that could result in disciplinary measures, a few clarifications to the Weekend AIL Restriction are in order. 

As you know the Weekend AIL Restriction requires that a Flight Attendant who has a pairing touching a weekend day/s must fly on the particular weekend day/s. 

As an example, Joe has a three-day pairing originating on Friday. Joe can elect to touch Friday with another pairing originating earlier in the week. If he does so, Crew Scheduling will automatically place Joe on the AIL for Saturday. At that point Joe must do one of the following:

• Contact Crew Scheduling by noon on Friday to leave a list of choices/parameters.
• Be available for Crew Scheduling to contact him when the AIL is processed.
• Contact Crew Scheduling by noon on Friday and request that he not be required to fly on Saturday. If Crew Scheduling has sufficient coverage, he would not be required to originate a pairing on Saturday but would be placed on the AIL for Sunday and would be required to originate a pairing on Sunday. 

Schedulers will not automatically assign a trip to a Flight Attendant who has not made contact with Crew Scheduling. If no contact is made with Crew Scheduling the Flight Attendant would receive an AIN notification indicating a Flight Attendant was on the AIL but was a no contact. At that point, InFlight would note the Flight Attendant illegally trip improved and the Flight Attendant could be subject to discipline per the Dependability Control Program. 

There are two other points to remember:

• When leaving a list of choices you must be careful not to leave too narrow a list. For example, Joe decides to leave a list for "any one-day trip". If scheduling gets to him and there is no one-day trip available Joe would be assigned a two-day trip if one was available. If there were not any two-day trips available he would be assigned a three-day trip and so on.
• In the original example, if Joe had another trip originating on Monday he would be required to fulfill his weekend obligation even if it meant he would be illegal for his trip on Monday. This could also lead to an illegal trip improvement notation since it is Joe's responsibility to remain legal for trips in his block. Furthermore, if on Saturday, the only trips available flew into Joe's next trip, he would still be required to accept such a trip and would have give up his block trip. 

The most important thing to remember regarding the Weekend AIL Restriction is that although Crew Scheduling automatically places a Flight Attendant required to touch a weekend day/s the Flight Attendant must make contact with Crew Scheduling. 


RESERVES AND AFA

It is important for you to know your AFA leadership is not content with the LTO system. We (the leadership) all know the LTO system causes a variety of hardships for our Reserve population. I was on Reserve when the LTO system was implemented, and understand the financial and quality of life hardships that result from the system.

I have spoken at length to the Director of Crew Resources, Mike Finn, about the LTO system and the problems it causes. Even with the system in place, some of the same problems that were part of the seniority system remain. There are times when there is too much coverage on some days and not enough on others as well as shortages at the beginning and end of each month. I have stressed to Mr. Finn that a seniority based system can work and have showed him how.

The Reserve LTO system was the result of the December 2002 Restructuring Agreement. That agreement was ratified by the majority of the members who voted. There are three frequently expressed comments regarding LTO and what was ratified that I would like to address: 

1. There is a belief that LTO could only be implemented in conjunction with a Preferential Bid system. There is no language that ties the implementation of the LTO system to Preferential Bid. Both the LTO and the Preferential BID language required the Company to implement each system no later than June 2004, however in the case of Preferential Bid there was additional language stating the vendor and algorithms and parameters used in the system had to be mutually agreed upon. Since AFA and the Company were never able to agree to either Preferential Bid has not been implemented. 

2. I have also heard the comment that the Reserves were "sold out" by AFA and/or the "blockholders". There was never a plan to pit one group against the other. The Agreement was negotiated in good faith and sent to the membership for ratification. The membership ultimately holds the power in their hands.

3. Another comment we have heard is that "AFA does not care about Reserves". Since the implementation of the LTO system in November of 2003 not a day has gone by that at least one member of this or previous MECs have not been told the system does not work. The negotiating committee attempted to change the Reserve system during the 2004 Transformation Agreement negotiations. Although they were unsuccessful in replacing the system they were able to negotiate several changes. The five hour groupings have added some semblance of seniority to LTO. The pay/no credit component of the ETB has allowed reserves who utilize the ETB to be paid above guarantee for trips picked up from the ETB. While that has added some earning power for Reserves, we are not satisfied that is the answer to the problems inherent in the LTO system.

If we could change the system tomorrow we would. The reality is that we can't. The LTO system is part of a ratified agreement with the Company and we are contractually bound to it. While this is not the answer that any Reserve wants to hear I will never try to "sugar coat" anything for political or person reasons. I can assure you that your local officers hear you; the other MEC officers hear you and I hear you. While I can't guarantee any particular result I can also assure you of the following:

• As I stated earlier, I have had discussions with the Company about the LTO system and I will continue that dialogue with anyone who will listen. 
• We will also try to negotiate a better system during the merged contract negotiations. 

Thank you,

Mike Flores, President
The US Airways MEC

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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

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