I have been wondering the same thing! What's going on with our contract??? I can't believe it's taking forever! I thought they hired a mediator????
They need to get the ball rolling!
Here maybe this will help: This was an update from AFA 66:
Cut two weeks of vacation and the company will put some money into your contract.†That’s what the Federal Mediator told you AFA Negotiations Team (NT) and that is what caused negotiations for our AWA contract to come to a screeching halt.
“You have the right to negotiate your contract at America West,†said the Federal Mediator. Despite those assurances, the Federal Mediator will soon put our Section 6 contract talks – for our AWA contract – in recess for an indefinite period of time.
Recess means that the Federal Mediator will not schedule future negotiations for our AWA contract. We can request to resume our AWA contract talks if negotiations for a Single Agreement with US Airways AFA and management falter.
So on we move to Single Contract negotiations, which will hopefully produce a fair contract for all US Airways flight attendants. But be warned, negotiating a Single Contract with management and AFA reps at US Airways will not be an easy task as there as significant differences between our contract and the agreement at US Airways. More on this issue later.
During negotiations last week your NT would not give up two weeks of your vacation for minor wage increases, it’s just moving money around and its insulting.
Your Negotiations Team would not move off our demand that you get a wage increase in our AWA contract. We would not move off our Sick Leave proposal to fix that inadequate policy. We would not back-track on our proposal to improve rest times in Section 5 and our proposals to improve Section 6, Bid Administration.
Yes, we could have reached an agreement on an AWA contract for you during the operational separation between AWA and US Airways, but you would have rightfully voted it down. We would not bring an insulting offer to you and we would not back down from our proposals to improve our current contract, just to get a deal.
Why Attempt To Negotiate Our Contract, Why Not Move To Single Agreement Earlier?
Management simply wanted your NT to drop all of our proposals, drop all the progress we made in revamping the Reserve Section, streamlining the grievance process, fixing our sick leave and improvements we made in our Deadhead section such as jet way trades for commuters and dead headers and a host of improvements in our contract that we negotiated since 2004.
And the company refused to put any money into our pay rates, despite no raises since 2002 for those with 16-23 years of service and no pay raises for those with 1-10 years of service, who are the most underpaid flight attendants in the industry.
Instead, the company wants to initiate Single Contract talks with management and US Airways AFA representatives, as if somehow those talks will result in money being poured into our contract.
The company pretends there is some sort of pot-of-gold in Single Contract talks, but that’s only half the real story.
Significant differences separate our two contracts and resolving those differences will cost significant amounts of money and will likely mean that one contract or the other will be stripped of a benefit will all enjoy. Here is a brief summary on the major differences between the AWA and US Airways contract.
1. Vacation. Our AWA contract vacation section is far superior to the US Airways agreement in terms of number of vacation days and pay for those days. The most senior flight attendant at US has 25 days of vacation at 4.0 hours per day or 3.3 hours per day paid if they take their vacation in groups of less than 7 days.
It takes a US flight attendant to work to their 30th year of service – and by 2009 – to reach 35 days of vacation.
For the vast majority of AWA flight attendants, the US vacation section would mean steep cuts in our vacation and less pay and take you more years of service just to get ou back to your current vacation days.
To bring all of the active US flight attendants back up to our AWA contract vacation days and pay would evaporate millions of dollars that could otherwise go towards our salaries.
This will be a major issue in Single Contract talks.
2. Deadhead.
The US contract provides, for most of their Flight Attendants, only 50% pay for deadhead segments. Our contract provides 100% pay for deadhead. Again, improving this area for US flight attendants absorbs money that could be used for our wage rates.
3. Insurance.
AWA Flight Attendants and mechanics are the only two work groups at AWA who have the UHC Platinum health care plan. This is because our contract has language that says the company cannot diminish our health care plan, meaning the elements of the health care plan cannot diminish. This language mandates that a certain level of benefit services are available in the plan. The company can change health care vendors or providers, but the level of services can’t diminish.
The US Airways East flight attendants have a different medical plan that mirrors, somewhat, our UHC Choice plan. Their Blue Cross/Blue Shield plan charges them paycheck deduction rates similar to our Platinum rates, but provides a benefit level about par with our UHC Choice Plan, meaning they pay more for basic services and then pay more co-pay or out-of-pocket costs than we do.
We either eliminate our Platinum Plan and implement UHC Choice for all of us to produce some savings to place into wages or attempt to keep our Platinum Plan, which is popular with many America West flight attendants and their amilies.
4. Scheduling
It’s a mixed bag between the two contract regarding Scheduling, Bid administration and Hours of Service issues, which are important to the quality of the bid and your duty limits and re-routes and re-schedules while working.
A key distinction between our two contracts in the areas of Scheduling language is that US Airways east Flight Attendants and Pilot pairings are identical, meaning that if they are on a 4-day trip, they fly with the same pilots much like we did years ago. So the pilot pairing and line construction parameters dictate Flight Attendant pairings and lines at US East.
The AWA contract provides better domicile rest parameters. We have better cancellation pay and Guaranteed Reserve rules and the US contract contain better reroute and reschedule parameters.
5. PBS
Preferential Bidding System – commonly called PBS – was agreed to by the US Airways flight attendants although it is not yet implemented. PBS is a bidding system wherein you input desired pairings or specifics on what type of pairings, segments, overnights, days or nights.AM’s or PM’s you wish to fly. You don’t bid on lines with PBS, just your specific or generic flying preferences.
Your AWA AFA Negotiations Team rejected PBS in May, 2005 for a variety of sound reasons.
With PBS, there is no conflict bidding. PBS recognizes Vacation, month-to-month transition periods, recurrent or other scheduled trainings as pre-planned days off and builds your line around those days.
Coupled with potentially less vacation days – if the company tries to force us on their vacation section – PBS virtually eliminates vacation conflict bidding, a serious dent in your scheduling flexibility. You can place vacation drops into the PBS program, however, those flexible options can cost money that could otherwise go toward wages or additional vacation days.
These are just a few of the issues we will face in negotiations for a Single Contract. So despite company claims that getting into these negotiations is the “best dealâ€, there are serious issues to resolve and the potential to lose hard-fought benefits in our contract.
Your MEC
I hope this helps, sorry it is so long.