90 replies to this topic

[Juniority]

jimntx, on 13 February 2012 - 12:41 PM, said:

We (the flight attendants) need to discuss every item on that term sheet to make sure how we feel about each item, how we intend to vote once we understand the terms and the final TA is presented, what we will each do given the situation that the company gets most/all the items on the term sheet==either through negotiation or the court.

Please, please, please, if you are not an American flight attendant, butt out. I just want to know how other AA flight attendants feel about the items on the term sheet.

Well jimntx, you gave it a valiant effort and I highly respect you for trying, but the Buttinski's have already hijacked your thread by the sixth comment. We certainly are dealing with an "overage" of flight attendants!

[eolesen]

My apologies to Jim for entering the thread, but this needs to be addressed...

rifbound, on 13 February 2012 - 04:11 PM, said:

I would just like to say that we are all in this together and for you to tell anyone to "butt out" is fairly rude of you.

Sorry, but no. It's not rude at all to ask that a discussion be limited to flight attendants. Especially when it comes from someone with a relatively senior post count... Frankly, I've got an empty QuikTrip cup on my desk that's been part of the forum longer than you have been...

I don't tell my brother how to run the family business, and we know each other well enough not to try and tell each other how to raise or discipline each other's kids.

Unfortunately, that same common sense etiquette doesn't show up here very often. It's crap like this that makes me want to volunteer to be moderAAtor again...

Absent a "butt out" instruction, any given thread is guaranteed to migrate towards the workgroup-which-shall-not-be named who dominates this particular forum. We also seem to have a bunch of "not remotely qualified to be an in-law yet" types who think they know what is best for the family business....

There's more than enough threads active where the in-laws can gloat, or the "unnamed workgroup" can piss & moan about decades of injustices.

So.... do try to respect what I thought was a reasonable request from a long-time member, which again was to limit discussion for the people who have to live under the revised working conditions.

[WorldTraveler]

"honey is that your phone ringing?"


"it's only call return"

[Duke787]

BartlettAve, on 13 February 2012 - 04:07 PM, said:

Eliminating a premium pay rate on International kind of goes hand-in-hand with combining the DOM/INT bid sheet and pref bidding.

If all 16,000 FAs have the opportunity to fly an international trip now and then, theoretically, the quality of service could suffer.

Perrhaps the International FAs were being compensated for theri experience?

decided to respect F/A only request.

[s80dude]

jimntx, on 13 February 2012 - 12:53 PM, said:

International Pay Rates: The company is proposing to eliminate base pay rate differences between Domestic and International Flight attendants (because they will be eliminating separate f/a corps), along with eliminating Incentive pay for over 70 hours.
My concern is item 2 quoted below:

2. Pay an override for International segments. An International flight is any
flight which operates outside the contiguous forty-­‐eight (48) states,
Mexico, Canada and Alaska, which requires a flight attendant overwater
qualification (e.g., raft ditching training). Override will be paid in the following manner based on classification seniority:
Years 1–5 $1.00
Years 6–10 $2.00
Years 11–15 $3.00
No current flight attendant will be negatively impacted by the scaling of
the International override.

First off does the override for Years 11-15 (for instance) mean $3.00/hr or just that you will get an extra $3.00 for flying an International trip. And, is that $3.00 per flight hour? Does the override apply to pay and credit hours in the sequence? The term sheet doesn't say. Also, note that the override qualifier (o/w training) will mean that for all practical purpose, no Mexico flights other than from MIA will qualify for the override.
And, what the heck does that last sentence that I bolded mean? If you eliminate the International differential in base pay AND eliminate incentive pay, how do you not "negatively impact" the pay check of a current flight attendant in International? Does the company intend to meet you at the gate on your return from each your trips and give you an extra attaboy and pat on the back? That should make the hurt of $300-$500/mo missing from future paychecks go away, don't you think?

Cancun and Cozumel will require an international (over water) qualification from any city in the US.... Mexico City only requires an international qual from Miami as all DFW and ORD routes are overland.

[damajagua]

jimntx, on 13 February 2012 - 12:53 PM, said:

International Pay Rates: The company is proposing to eliminate base pay rate differences between Domestic and International Flight attendants (because they will be eliminating separate f/a corps), along with eliminating Incentive pay for over 70 hours.
My concern is item 2 quoted below:

2. Pay an override for International segments. An International flight is any
flight which operates outside the contiguous forty-­‐eight (48) states,
Mexico, Canada and Alaska, which requires a flight attendant overwater
qualification (e.g., raft ditching training). Override will be paid in the following manner based on classification seniority:
Years 1–5 $1.00
Years 6–10 $2.00
Years 11–15 $3.00
No current flight attendant will be negatively impacted by the scaling of
the International override.

First off does the override for Years 11-15 (for instance) mean $3.00/hr or just that you will get an extra $3.00 for flying an International trip. And, is that $3.00 per flight hour? Does the override apply to pay and credit hours in the sequence? The term sheet doesn't say. Also, note that the override qualifier (o/w training) will mean that for all practical purpose, no Mexico flights other than from MIA will qualify for the override.
And, what the heck does that last sentence that I bolded mean? If you eliminate the International differential in base pay AND eliminate incentive pay, how do you not "negatively impact" the pay check of a current flight attendant in International? Does the company intend to meet you at the gate on your return from each your trips and give you an extra attaboy and pat on the back? That should make the hurt of $300-$500/mo missing from future paychecks go away, don't you think?

The way I read the term sheet the override for international will be paid
for every hour that you flight that is overwater.

I have a lot of questions regarding the preferential bidding system that the company
want. That was one of the issues why we went on strike in 1993. So I can tell you
the majority of flight attendants do no want a PBS system.

The only thing that I like from the term sheet is the new reserve system that the
company is proposing. I like the idea of one reserve list for both domestic and
international. With one reserve list we will need less flight attendants on reserve.
Again I have a lot question how this new reserve system is going to work.
Are we going to be allow to trade the days that we are on reserve. Can we plot trip
That are on open time, etc etc.
After reading the term sheet I have many questions but no answers.

[crazystnic]

Why don't they just give you a dollar amount they want and let the union figure out how to come up with it

[czerny]

Jim, you and I are in that 2,500 pool of fas subject to furlough if the Term sheet passes as is. I figure I wouldn't be around to sample any of it. If we are furloughing 500 at a time, I'd be gone by fall. Kinda ironic to be bidding for vacation tomorrow when I probably wouldn't be around to enjoy it. I like the Delta style reserve system being proposed. If they get rid of language speakers, fine with me. I'll just go back to LGA/JFK. The union doesn't care about us and AA is not interested in staffing speakers like the major international carriers do. I recently non-reved on an international carrier and they had 2 speakers. On a recent AA China flight, the purser ended up asking a passenger to make chinese announcements due to a critical situation on board. I find that disgraceful but nothing will be done until the foreign country the airline flies into insists on having native speakers on board.