NON REV

[heyray]

Nobody suffered more than I did with low wages at HP and now US. But I chose to stay. I worked two jobs for years to make ends meet but nobody put a gun to my head to force me to stay here. I had and have the option to leave and so do you. If you choose to stay, you need to find a way to make things work for you.

I think management wants to pay employees well, that is one of the reasons Doug is looking at options moving forward and I don't think our pay is that much lower than other airlines.

that is bound to get the "whoa is me" crowds panties in a wad

 

[cactusflyer]

Its not over till the fat lady sings...

AFA 66 --->

PLEASE WATCH FOR A SPECIAL EMAIL UPDATE FROM AFA ON WEDNESDAY REGARDING USAIRWAYS MANAGEMENT'S VIOLATATION OF THE AFA CONTRACT BY DIMINISHING OUR PASS-TRAVEL LANGUAGE AND BENEFITS.

AFA IS CALLING ON YOUR SUPPORT NOW!

Pass Travel Change Announced

"The current Company policy as it relates to flight attendants and their eligible dependants shall not be reduced or discontinued during the life of the agreement" -Section 27-Q-2 of the AWA/AFA Collective Bargaining Agreement



During Section 6 negotiations, management proposed to rewrite Section 27-Q-2 of the agreement, in order to eliminate their legal obligation of maintaining a benchmark level of pass benefits and change it to one that gave them the unilateral ability to alter the pass travel policy at the company’s discretion. AFA negotiators stood firm and would not accept any proposals that reduced or diminished the benefits associated with pass travel.



Yesterday, management altered the company's pass policy and change the policy to a mish-mashed, ill-conceived, and reduced policy that is a violation of our collective bargaining agreement.



It does not matter how you stand on the issue of First Come-First Serve or Date-of-Hire for non revenue pass travel, the issue is simply this; the company has chosen to ignore the status quo and violate a section of our contract. And to rub salt in the wound, they didn't even have the common decency of informing the unions, prior to yesterday's announcement, of their decision.



In a conference call yesterday afternoon with AFA International President Pat Friend and Associate General Councel Ed Gilmartin; MEC President Gary Richardson discussed management's actions and belief that by taking a unilateral approach - outside negotiations -, the Company has altered the status quo working conditions of the flight attendants and is in violation of Section 2, First and Seventh and Section 6 of the Railway Labor Act ("RLA").



AFA will continue to evaluate and pursue any and all course of action necessary to compel management to comply with the terms and conditions of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Just to be clear....it is the west that is considering the pursuit of further action. The above portion was part of a hotline put out by the west MEC. They believe a unilateral change to any portion of the contract outside of negotiations is a violation. It just so happens the company picked the pass travel section to violate. My guess is we may see more of this "unilateral change" if the company isn't called on the carpet. We have negotiations for a reason...and the company better hop to it they want full integration by May.

 

[ussnark]

I think we need to just let this go. Life is not always fair...you don't always get exactly what you want. We should be greatful we have flight benefits, free ones at that. Not all airlines let their employees fly free and if we keep bickering about this, we could join the pay to non rev group of airlines.

Not all airlines let their employees fly free.

Two items.

1. So you found someone with "lower" benefits than USAIrways. Isn't there an old saw about if you look hard enough you can always find someone worse off than you? Instead of looking toward the low end of the scale for sanity sake, shouldn't you always strive for better? Or, are you just in a hell-bent spiral for the bottom, like Jerry Glass would like you to think...?

2. Many times those who do not fly (non-rev?) for free are compensated extra so as to cover such contingencies. It is like the pilot who baulked at pay slightly below what he made at USAIrways working for a carrier overseas. When I pointed out his medical and retirement were not only taken care of by the state, but were transferable to other states, he jumped.

Look at the entire package before making a silly comment like you did.

 

[heyray]

Not all airlines let their employees fly free.

Two items.

1. So you found someone with "lower" benefits than USAIrways. Isn't there an old saw about if you look hard enough you can always find someone worse off than you? Instead of looking toward the low end of the scale for sanity sake, shouldn't you always strive for better? Or, are you just in a hell-bent spiral for the bottom, like Jerry Glass would like you to think...?

2. Many times those who do not fly (non-rev?) for free are compensated extra so as to cover such contingencies. It is like the pilot who baulked at pay slightly below what he made at USAIrways working for a carrier overseas. When I pointed out his medical and retirement were not only taken care of by the state, but were transferable to other states, he jumped.

Look at the entire package before making a silly comment like you did.

Bull

Non Rev benefits can be revoked at any time (excluding those tied to contracts.) It is a privilege, not a right. Times change, airlines change. We are a new company, still working out the kinks. Policy and procedures are being merged or revised. More to come....

 

[john john]

Bull

Non Rev benefits can be revoked at any time (excluding those tied to contracts.) It is a privilege, not a right. Times change, airlines change. We are a new company, still working out the kinks. Policy and procedures are being merged or revised. More to come....

The CWA did not agree to, nor did we negotiate, any changes to our travel benefits.

Update-Januray 31, 2007-Be assured, we will be filing an expedited staff level grievance on our boarding priority which the company has decided to change and blatantly violate our contract with their announcement yesterday. Our contract is very clear, we board based on "date" of hire not "year" of hire. (See Article 8 of our CWA CBA.) We also have scheduled arbitrations for Immediate Family boarding and Retiree boarding violations. We will keep you posted on our progress.
Article 8 – Seniority 1
A. Date of Hire Seniority is defined as continuous US Airways, Inc. service
in any department.
1. Date of Hire Seniority is applied to:
a. Vacation accrual
b. boarding for on-line non-revenue space available travel
c. service awards

 

[heyray]

The CWA did not agree to, nor did we negotiate, any changes to our travel benefits.

Update-Januray 31, 2007-Be assured, we will be filing an expedited staff level grievance on our boarding priority which the company has decided to change and blatantly violate our contract with their announcement yesterday. Our contract is very clear, we board based on "date" of hire not "year" of hire. (See Article 8 of our CWA CBA.) We also have scheduled arbitrations for Immediate Family boarding and Retiree boarding violations. We will keep you posted on our progress.
Article 8 – Seniority 1
A. Date of Hire Seniority is defined as continuous US Airways, Inc. service
in any department.
1. Date of Hire Seniority is applied to:
a. Vacation accrual
b. boarding for on-line non-revenue space available travel
c. service awards

As I said....excluding those tied to a contract.

 

[Itestwell]

Nobody suffered more than I did with low wages at HP and now US. But I chose to stay. I worked two jobs for years to make ends meet but nobody put a gun to my head to force me to stay here. I had and have the option to leave and so do you. If you choose to stay, you need to find a way to make things work for you.

So we should just all leave a job that we love, instead of negotiating to secure a contract that provides a livable wage? Hey, maybe I could take a few more concessions for ya before I go? Brilliant....

I think management wants to pay employees well, that is one of the reasons Doug is looking at options moving forward and I don't think our pay is that much lower than other airlines.

Ok. You need to do a bit of research. I will tell you that the US/HP FA's are underpaid in comparison to every other airline operating in the USA. I am not just talking about pay rates, I am talking benefits and work rules as well. I would guess that other employee groups would agree, but I cannot speak for them.

 

[gaucho99]

Not all airlines let their employees fly free.

Two items.

1. So you found someone with "lower" benefits than USAIrways. Isn't there an old saw about if you look hard enough you can always find someone worse off than you? Instead of looking toward the low end of the scale for sanity sake, shouldn't you always strive for better? Or, are you just in a hell-bent spiral for the bottom, like Jerry Glass would like you to think...?

2. Many times those who do not fly (non-rev?) for free are compensated extra so as to cover such contingencies. It is like the pilot who baulked at pay slightly below what he made at USAIrways working for a carrier overseas. When I pointed out his medical and retirement were not only taken care of by the state, but were transferable to other states, he jumped.

Look at the entire package before making a silly comment like you did.

It's not a silly comment. The company lets us fly free of charge. It's a great perk. I say leave it alone. What difference does it make if it is date of hire or year of hire? Those who continue to attack this just might find the company invoking a fee to fly some day. We need to pick our battles.

 

[Itestwell]

It's not a silly comment. The company lets us fly free of charge. It's a great perk. I say leave it alone. What difference does it make if it is date of hire or year of hire? Those who continue to attack this just might find the company invoking a fee to fly some day. We need to pick our battles.

No, we need to improve every area of our contract, and not allow management to violate the contracts. If they do it now on something small, they will do it later on something larger. Do you see the big picture?

 

[AP Tech]

With the failed merger propsal, you would have been making the higher of the three airlines HP-US-DL.

Well, with the failed merger, I don't see what is holding Doug up from paying? He was willing before, but what is holding him up now? Knock off that company koolaide!!!!

 

[flyingcat]

No, we need to improve every area of our contract, and not allow management to violate the contracts. If they do it now on something small, they will do it later on something larger. Do you see the big picture?

And that is the problem HP AFA wants one thing and US AFA wants another if anything the new policy is sort of a compromise. Management has forced your choice becasue neither side has come up with one.


That is the big picture.

What are you going to do, go in with a seperate agenda from you new brothers and sisters. Heck we have not even gone into sucessorship language or that generally speaking AFA's bedrock default is DOH.
The entire union must settle on the one solution they want and then pursue it.

This schizophrenic approach is self defeating.

 

[Itestwell]

And that is the problem HP AFA wants one thing and US AFA wants another if anything the new policy is sort of a compromise. Management has forced your choice becasue neither side has come up with one.
That is the big picture.

Wrong. The AFA was never asked to come up with a solution, and the big picture is that the Company may be violating the West contract. That is the real "big picture."

What are you going to do, go in with a seperate agenda from you new brothers and sisters. Heck we have not even gone into sucessorship language or that generally speaking AFA's bedrock default is DOH.
The entire union must settle on the one solution they want and then pursue it.

Do not want a "separate agenda", want the company to honor the contracts it has in place, and negotiate a solution. Is that hard to understand?

This schizophrenic approach is self defeating.
Huh?

 

[ussnark]

Bull

Non Rev benefits can be revoked at any time (excluding those tied to contracts.) It is a privilege, not a right. Times change, airlines change. We are a new company, still working out the kinks. Policy and procedures are being merged or revised. More to come....

Non Rev benefits can only be revoked for "cause", something you might wish to acquaint yourself with, not that I think you are intelligent enough to do so.

"More to come...." would, of course, include your disclaimer that you really didn't know the law and just spewed idiocy and please ignore it.

"Working out the kinks?" What, do you think the USAirways employees are rookies? They have already allowed themselves to be boinked 42 ways from Sunday.

Why does ignorance seem to be considered an asset at USAirways management?

 

[hula-flyguy]

Wrong. If management wants to revoke travel benefits, they can, company wide. Get over yourself.

 

[john john]

Wrong. If management wants to revoke travel benefits, they can, company wide. Get over yourself.

How long would that last?