SECONDARY LINES CLOSING DELAYED

Secondary lines were originally scheduled to close this afternoon. However, due to an error in the printed pairings involving one particular flight, the closing of SEC lines has been delayed to Thursday, May 14 at 1800 and lines will be awarded no later than Friday, May 15 at 1800. Please note the new times and dates for the following:

Overprojection Drop: OPENS on May 15 at 1800 and CLOSES on June 1 at 1800
Line Augmentation: OPENS on May 15 at 1800** and CLOSES on May 21 at 1800
Reserve Lines: OPENS on May 15 at 1800 and CLOSES on May 21 at 1800
ETB: OPENS on May 22 at 1800
NFL Award: OPENS on May 23 at 0700 and CLOSES on May 27 at 1800

**Please note the time (1800) that Line Augmentation opens for this month only**

SCHENGEN VISA REQUIREMENT EXTENSION

PHL Inflight sent out a communication back on April 1, 2009 informing all PHL-based flight attendants that you had until May 15 to submit your up-to-date Schengen Visa information to PHL Inflight Services. We have worked with PHL Inflight to extend the deadline by one month, to June 15. The reason was two-fold; you can no longer mail in your Passport to receive the Schengen Visa and we also had a number of flight attendants return from the eight month VPLOA on May 2. If you have any questions or need to pick up the forms, please stop by either the B-16 or A-West Crew Service Centers or contact your supervisor. You must have this information in by June 15 or you will not be allowed to work any transatlantic trip on/after July 1, 2009.

PHL BLOCK TIME – JUNE ‘09

If you are keeping up with the number of block positions in PHL, there was an increase of approximately 62 positions for June.

In May, there were 1,195 PRI positions + 335 non-LOD/O SEC lines + 8 LOD/O lines for a total of 1,538 positions.

In June, there are 1,386 PRI positions + 210 non-LOD/O SEC lines + 4 LOD/O lines for a total of 1,600 positions.

RECURRENT TRAINING AND YOUR IEM

We continue to receive calls from members who have been sent home from recurrent training for having a non-compliant manual. Make sure that your Inflight Emergency Manual is up-to-date today, before you go to class. Just log on to the Hub and go to the Inflight Services page, click on the Forms/Pubs link and from there, click ‘Is Your Manual Up to Date http://thehub.usairways.com/divisions/operations/inflight/PDF/policiesandprocedures/CB-AB_01-2009.pdf 

Additionally, when you receive an Alert Bulletin, there is a chart that shows what bulletins you should currently have in your IEM. If you are missing an Alert Bulletin, you can pick one up at either Crew Service Center.

MEETINGS WITH YOUR SUPERVISOR

When you have a meeting with your supervisor, or any company representative, you are entitled to union representation, or another flight attendant, if you so choose. You do not have to attend a meeting without union representation. If you find yourself going to a meeting and, once there, you wish to have union representation, then tell your supervisor that you wish to have union representation before proceeding. At that point, your supervisor will contact AFA and the meeting will not proceed until you are represented.

If you choose not to have AFA representation, please remember that any disciplinary infractions older than 12 months cannot be used against you.

AFA FILE CABINETS

The company is in the process of updating their file cabinets in both crew rooms. AFA will be placing ‘AFA-only’ file cabinets in each crew room as well in the next few weeks. All company correspondence will continue to be placed in your company mail file and any AFA/CWA union correspondence will be placed in your AFA mail file.

BOARDING TIMES

Once again, please adhere to the boarding times according to your Inflight Emergency Manual. The company holds you accountable to your IEM, company work rules as well as their policies and procedures and you have every right to expect the same of company personnel. As the busy summer travel season approaches, you are more likely to have agents ask you to board early. Some may tell you that their supervisor or station manager have told them that they need to board early. Remind them that you will be ready to receive passengers according to your IEM and if you have any problems, please contact the PHL Council 70 office and let us know. Their excuses to board early (i.e. oversold flights, strong winds, etc.) are not your problem. If the company wants to negotiate early boarding pay, AFA is ready to discuss that.

DRUG TESTING IN PHL

We want to remind everyone that if you receive the white envelope and your number is called for random drug/alcohol testing, please remember that you must follow all instructions regarding this federally-mandated DOT test. Once selected, you must complete the test and you cannot leave until after doing so. If you leave, this is grounds for the company to terminate your employment.

In Regards,