November 25, 1998
ALPA, Intl
Committees
MEC Meeting with Management
The MEC met with management on Tuesday of this week to confront head-on the deteriorating
relationship between ALPA and Labor Relations. The MEC delivered the message in no
uncertain terms that company moves to cut-off ALPA access to pilot boxes or abandon
negotiated crew separation language are provocative and confrontational, and threaten to
undermine the cooperative relationship required for such undertakings as FOQA and PBS. The
MEC feels that continued ALPA access to pilot boxes is important enough that it should be
defined by side letter, and that the crew separation agreement mutually agreed to by ALPA,
Crew Resources and Flight Operations should stand. ALPA will participate in no further PBS
or FOQA discussions with the company until these issues are resolved.
AFA Negotiations
The National Mediation Board informed America West flight attendants and management that
contract negotiations are to resume on December 1st and continue through December 4th. The
NMB will not act on AFA’s request to terminate negotiations until America West has had an
opportunity to reply, and gave management until December 11, 1998 to submit its response.
The NMB’s action means that the earliest the parties could be released to a thirty-day
cooling off period is mid-December.
Low-line Adjustment & Vacation Cancellations
Several new scheduling problems are under review. It appears that Crew Resources has
decided unilaterally to limit low-line adjustment requests, as revealed by an amendment to
the form. Such limitations were not agreed to by ALPA, and represent a breach of past
practice. In addition, we’ve received reports that the daily reserve assignment recording
has been less than 100 percent reliable. In at least one instance, a reserve pilot was
actually assigned to a different standby status than the one given on the tape. Until this
system can be shown to be reliable, the MEC suggests that reserve pilots call scheduling
live, rather than the using the recorded message, to obtain their reserve assignments.
Further, the MEC would like to remind pilots who’ve
received vacation cancellation letters to reschedule your vacation in 1999 rather than
sell it back to the company. Don’t sell out. Take your vacation: you earned it.
PBS
On the PBS front, PBS committee chairman Del Brummet visited TWA in St. Louis last week to
watch the software in action. Committee vice chairman David Weeks, along with MEC vice
chairman Darcy Pierce, visited AdOpt’s headquarters in Toronto to get a better
understanding of how the software works.
Insurance Enrollment Forms
We’ve received a number of questions concerning the insurance enrollment form distributed
to pilot boxes. Remember, first of all, that in 1999 pilots will have the same medical
benefits program is in 1998 and previous years under the contract. The form serves the
same purpose as in previous years. In other words, you only need to submit the form if you
are making a change to your coverage, or if you are enrolling or re-enrolling in a
tax-free spending account. New this year, however, is the requirement to submit the form
by fax. In order to submit the form, you must follow the fax directions at the bottom of
the page.
EasyBid
Flightline Software has updated EasyBid to enable the program to work with our new pairing
format. The software upgrade is available on Flightline’s electronic bulletin board. Check
your EasyBid manual or the program’s configuration page for access information. Note that
the area code has changed to 770.
Pilots-For-Kids Volunteers
Captain Win Copeland is looking for volunteers who would like to join in this year’s
Pilots-for-Kids effort. Captain Copeland is looking for pilots in uniform for hospital
visits at Phoenix Children’s on the morning of December 3rd, and Maricopa Medical Center
the morning of December 9th. For details, and for information on how to contribute to the
program in other ways, call Captain Copeland at 492-9912.
Franke to Speak at Local Council Meeting
The MEC is delighted that America West Holdings CEO and Chairman Bill Franke has accepted
our invitation to address the pilot group at our next local council meeting on Thursday,
December 17th. We’ve invited Mr. Franke to address two themes in his discussion: the state
of the airline, and our plans for the future. Although we anticipate that some time will
be available for questions and answers, this time may be limited. Therefore, we would like
to encourage pilots to submit questions in advance via the ALPA box in the Terminal 4
computer room.
The meeting will be at the Double Tree Hotel, at 44th
street and Van Buren in Phoenix. The meeting will begin with officer reports and local
business at 1:00. And please note, this meeting will only be open to ALPA members of
Council 62.
Thanksgiving Holiday Office Closing
Finally, the MEC Office will be closed on Thursday the 26th for the Thanksgiving holiday,
and will remain closed through the holiday weekend. We’d like to send the best of holiday
wishes to all, but especially to those of you flying the line, far away from home and
family. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.
The next scheduled hotline update will be Thursday,
December 3rd.
| MEC Hotline | ||
| Don Steinman for the MEC |