CWA update

Thursday, August 29, 2002
The CWA Local Presidents have been in Washington DC all week drafting proposals and exchanging information with management in an attempt to reach agreement on management''s restructuring proposals. On Friday, 8/16 following the bankruptcy filing, CWA''ers made a new proposal to management, and they made another post-bankruptcy proposal again this week on Tuesday, 8/27. On Wednesday, 8/28, representatives of the committee, along with legal and financial advisors met with management to try to iron out financial questions.
Attorneys and financial advisors, along with staff and committee members have been in touch with management virtually every day on various subjects. They have been trying to get accurate and consistent costing of the recent CWA proposals. One difficulty we are having is that the evaluations of our proposals by management are not always consistent, and that makes the management''s "bogey" number a moving target.
Our goals remain the same: we are trying to reach agreement on structural changes to benefit the airline, but at the same time maintain the highest passenger service rate of pay possible, keep our healthcare plan affordable, and limit, as much as possible, the damages to our benefits and paid time off.
These are very difficult negotiations. Over the last 3 months CWA''ers have made 12 written, comprehensive proposals to management, attempting to resolve our differences (proposals were made on 5/22, 5/29, 6/5, 6/6, 6/10, 6/12, 7/3, 7/16, 7/24, 8/10, 8/16, and 8/27). We continue work on this.
We are continuing to exchange information daily with management and are trying to reach agreement on an acceptable proposal that agents can vote to accept or reject.
If we are able to reach that agreement the vote will be conducted by a third party (the American Arbitration Association) and each agent will have the option of voting via phone or internet. We will keep you posted of any progress.
CWA Local Officers and Staff