PHL News-Line 70

 

 

 

In this Issue

December 20, 2005  

 
  • RESERVE OUT OF BASE
  • FEBRUARY VPLOA AWARDS
  • VAC REBID CLARIFICATION
  • BLACKOUT DAYS AND PROTECTED HOLIDAYS
  • RSV QUICK CALL SCREEN

RESERVE OUT OF BASE

I just wanted to pass along a heads up to all reserves on this very important subject of being out of base while on duty. It has become apparent that Inflight is tracking reserves and are coming down hard and heavy when dealing with this issue. Below is a copy of the ROB policy as stated in the memo from the company on 12/13/2003. While I know it's hard to sit in base, I thought it was important to pass along this trend of flight attendants being tracked while on duty. 

"Reserve Out of Base- A flight attendant is considered to be out of base is he/she is not positioned within one (1) hour of traveling time by surface transportation of the check-in point when he/she is on reserve duty. Effective December 19, 2003, a Reserve Out of Base may be considered both a dependability event in the Dependability Control Program (DCP) and a conduct event wherein the flight attendant will be put on notice that any future misconduct event of the same or similar nature will result in his/her termination."


FEBRUARY VPLOA AWARDS

50 flight attendants in the Philadelphia base were awarded the FEB VPLOA. The last person awarded has a seniority # of 3806 and 1st Hire Date of 9/27/1987. Systems wide 117 were awarded for the month of February.

VAC REBID CLARIFICATION

Several flight attendants have inquired on the movement of VAC. VAC can me moved forward and backward in the year granted those days are open during the rebid process.

For example, if you have June 2006 VAC and you see May 2006 has days open for rebid, you can move that June VAC backward. The process works both ways.

BLACKOUT DAYS AND PROTECTED HOLIDAYS

The Company has informed the MEC that in order to protect operations during the holidays they may be invoking the "blackout period" provision of the contract. The blackout period is part of the LTO Reserve System negotiated in the December 2002 Restructuring Agreement and subsequent mediation and arbitration that further defined various elements of the reserve system. If invoked, the blackout period would restrict Reserves from flying Company time on their OFF or INV days if those days off occur during the four calendar days prior to the protected holidays of December 24, 25, 31 and January 1. The other protected holidays during the year that fall under this provision are Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day and Thanksgiving Day. The blackout period provision does not apply to any time picked up by Reserves from the ETB. 

The specific contract language Section 11.D.6 (page 11-12) is copied below. The 2004 Agreement can be viewed on the AFA web site or theHub. 
In order to ensure adequate coverage during protected holidays, there will be a four-day blackout period beginning four (4) calendar days before the protected holiday. Reserves may fly into the blackout period in order to complete a pairing that originates outside the blackout period. Reserves having non-inviolable (OFF) or inviolable (INV) days off during the blackout period may be prohibited from picking up Company open time that originates on days off (OFF or INV) falling within the blackout period. Reserves having available days within the blackout period may be required to split for non-inviolable (OFF) or inviolable (INV) days falling within the blackout period. 

To date the Company has not decided if they will be invoking the blackout provision. The Company will notify Reserves via CBS and crew scheduling if that decision is made. 

Thank you,
The Master Executive Council

RSV QUICK CALL SCREEN

As promised the company implemented the Quick Call Screen provisions before the 12/31/05 deadline. This step should help gauge your availability to scheduling in the future.
The following CBS message was sent out to all flight attendants…

Date: Friday, 16 December 2005 15:03 ET
To: Emc2-News-c
From: GUNSTEENS.T
Subject: RESERVES - Quick Call screen

Please note that several changes have been made to CATCREW Option #18.

Option #18 has been modified to designate quick calls!

If you select Option #18 in CATCREW, you will notice a new column at the top right hand side of the screen. It is QCK (in yellow).
-If you only want to see who has made themselves available for quick call, enter a "Y" in the QCK field and press ENTER
- You will see a list of ONLY those people who are available for quick call in seniority order.
- To go back to the full list of reserves, remove the "Y" from the QCK field and press ENTER
- If you scroll down through the entire list of RSV's, you will note that f/a's on the "Quick Call" list have a '*' in the new column labeled "QCK".

We hope that this helps you more easily identify those who are on the quick call list.

Have a safe and pleasant holiday.

Michael Elias
Council 70 PHL


© Copyright 2005 Council 70 PHL - AFA/CWA - AFL-CIO council70@afausairways.org