On behalf of Chris and Zac, I want to send my personal sincere THANKS to those who were able to attend (50!) yesterday’s Council 9 meeting… as well as to those who couldn’t make it but were there in spirit – we will continue with setting up a more aggressive meeting schedule as long as we need to get information out to and questions asked by willing listeners.
I also want to thank all the sCO FAs who were able to attend. More this time than last and hopefully they found the meeting and information a positive experience! Please help by interacting with even more sCO FAs (as you already do) and get their email addresses to me so that we can include them in the newsletter recipient list as well as the discussion. THIS would truly help our outreach! We want to move forward TOGETHER!
And this is where I would also add we need more FAs to volunteer their time and energies to assist going forward. Please remember that while all the ‘higher profile’ issues are present, we at the Local and the MEC levels STILL must perform the work of the Union addressing and working through constant legality violations and grievances and pursuing a myriad of member questions on all topics. That work must continue. Even having volunteers to help answer phones (you are not expected to answer questions but just listen to the caller, note the facts of the question and pass on to the officer) – that saves us HOURS of time. Even committee work where someone may have a particular interest and the officer can pass a caller to the appropriate committee helps tremendously in time management. And yes, even our now putting together information where the Locals, the MECs, and the International can request volunteers to help spread the ACCURATE word to those who are either misinformed or just now starting to pay attention – all that is already in the works and is added to an already full workload. So the more FAs who can find a few hours to help your Locals will immediately help us get all the work done. I for one truly appreciate this sort of dialogue as do all the other officers.
For some time we in Council 9 have put forward the consideration to “Volunteer ONE DAY per YEAR” in assisting your Union officers. It has been successful and GREATLY APPRECIATED! In fact our most recent office volunteer was DEN FA Kristen Moga! THANK YOU KRISTEN!
Some of the issues covered at the meeting
- State of the Industry?: Every airline is making money, typically record profits.
- State of the Company?: UCH is making money in spite of itself, and could actually be the one at the top of the list IF AND WHEN they take advantage of all the synergies available to a merged operation. It is management’s decision to make – and the most obvious decision is to get the outstanding contracts completed, IBT and AFA! Sure it could have been done long ago… IF AFA HAD AGREED TO ALL THE CONCESSIONS MANAGEMENT HAS WANTED. So if ‘speed’ is the metric prompting dissatisfaction with your Union, then that was way to have gotten it done quickly. However, the membership is clear even today with not appreciating what they have heard so far as to the status of issue discussions at this point. We hear you, we know that, but who doesn’t hear you or know that and believes you WILL like all this when there is a complete package to vote on is management. Where the list of negotiations information shared with you started with AFA is far different from where we are now – due to management’s intransigence in making lives better for Flight Attendants. When there is a complete package to look at, you will be able to determine if there is truly a balance that you will accept. If you don’t like what you see, let management know. Please remember, as is usually included in any response from management – they are quick to say they want FAs to have a ‘fair agreement’, BUT it ALSO must be ‘fair to the company’. What does that look like to a company who is currently making BILLIONS of dollars in profits, has forecast to remain doing so for the next several years at least, and has already reaped BILLIONS of dollars from the bankruptcy filing of 12 years ago and yet to fulfill the promises to thousands of Flight Attendants – “SHARED REWARDS for you shared sacrifice”. That promise is no less expected just because there have been changes in the management who made the promises to begin with.
- State of the Operation?: This truly was the shortest discussion of the afternoon and was summed up in two words. Each FA of either subsidiary is capable of providing their own “two words”.
- Transfers to sUA DEN?: Yeah!!!! About time! Long overdue! A good sign for the future. Keep ‘em coming! One question I could not answer yesterday but am able to today – will those transfers from SFO to DEN who were accepted for the Enhanced Early-Out Program continue to fly or be released upon transfer effective date? Answer – those FAs who transfer and are on the EEOP list will be released as anticipated in August 2016.
- 787 and 777 Subsidiary Delivery Issues?: (See the article from the January 12th MEC ELines)
- Strike Preparedness Discussion and CHAOS?: This is what we spent most of the afternoon discussing and it was a really good dialogue… one that future meetings will focus on solely since there are many who want to know the facts surrounding why, when, where, and how? All great questions, and answers which then led to more questions… resulting in a confident position based on FACT. And more than one in attendance recognized the “coincidence” of an announcement by some who want to replace AFA as our representative Union ON THE SAME DAY as we began a strike preparedness and CHAOS education campaign.