AFA office CLOSED on Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Due to weather conditions today in Philadelphia, the AFA office
will be closed. If you have an emergency, we will be available by phone:
John McCorkle, LEC President – 215-300-4742
Grace Allen, LEC Vice President – 215-796-0060
Omar Bryant, LEC Secretary – 215-240-0339
Rick Cangey, LEC Representative – 714-307-8220
STAY INFORMED OF ROAD CONDITIONS
Delaware has declared a State of Emergency and ordered all vehicles off the
road. Stay up to date with the following links:
http://www.phila.gov/
click on ‘Snow Info’
http://delaware.gov/
http://www.state.nj.us/
CANCELLED TRIPS AND SCHEDULING
We received many calls in the office yesterday regarding claims
questions due to cancelled trips. An MEC E-Line was sent out this past weekend
and yet we continued to field calls asking about pay protection that the E-Line
answered. The most complained about issue is when scheduling calls a flight
attendant to notify them of their cancelled trip and the flight attendant asks
“am I pay protected?” As AFA has stated before, DO NOT ask schedulers if you
are pay protected. They are schedulers trying to cover trips, they do not work
in claims and in many cases, they are providing wrong information. What is
happening is that schedulers are telling flight attendants that they are not pay
protected and then asking “do you want to ride the bid sheet for daily?” If the
flight attendant does not know they are pay protected, they are riding the bid
sheet to make up time they don’t need to make up.
We have told scheduling, repeatedly, to instruct the schedulers to not do
this but the flight attendant bears responsibility as well. Flight attendants
are going on the bid sheet when they don’t need to be and I believe the ‘lure’
if you will, is intentional. Some of you have told me you are already here in
Philadelphia and can’t get a hotel room so you want to work, but if you are pay
protected for a three day trip, you are forfeiting you entire claim. You need
to read your contract. You are pay protected if it is your last trip of the
month; if it is your last series of trips (meaning no day off in between trips);
if it is an international trip (as was discussed in the MEC E-Line last
weekend). Please call the AFA office at 215-492-0840 if you have questions. If
the trip is cancelled and you are not pay protected, you do not have an
obligation to make up the time.
When talking to scheduling, remember to ALWAYS document the date, time and
most importantly, the name of the scheduler. This information is critical if we
have to do a tape pull. If you can’t get out of your driveway because of a 2 or
3 foot snow drift, take a picture with a camera or cell phone camera. NEVER
risk an accident getting to work – it is not worth it. If you are given a SCM
or anything else that you believe is not warranted, call your supervisor and
explain the situation. If you feel that is has not been resolved by your
supervisor, call the AFA office and we will investigate.
What I ask each of you to remember is this: There are 2,000+ flight attendants
in this base and there are 4 of us. We also have flight attendants that serve
on various committees that volunteer their time. However, we can’t always
answer your call because of the high volume of calls we receive, but we will
return your call as soon as possible. The main number for the AFA office is
215-492-0840.
The committee list is available at:
http://www.afausairways.org/PHL/phlcom.html
