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On 4/9/2003 11:42:33 PM FA Mikey wrote:
The APFA National Officers, along with the leaders of the Allied Pilots Association (APA) and the Transport Workers Union (TWU) met with American CEO Don Carty last week to express to Carty and other members of senior management their concerns over two aspects of the tentative Restructuring Proposals now out for ratification: the 6-year duration and the 1.5% pay increases in the out years.
The union leaders were unanimous in their belief that unless management did something more in the area of "upsides" that the agreements were likely to fail. Management did respond back with a proposal that would provide for the possibility of an annual wage arbitration beginning in 2006. This Variable Wage Adjustment Provision would allow for an arbitrator, pursuant to a number of criteria established by the Company, to award a wage adjustment of up to 4.5% so long as that amount would not cause the Company''s unit labor costs for each represented group to exceed the unit labor cost of the six largest domestic passenger carriers.
Any award would not become a part of the base rate and would be paid in 12 equal monthly installments following the award.
In a nutshell, this "empty bag" was not met with the greatest of enthusiasm by the Unions. Although all three Unions have attempted to engage the Company in further serious negotiations on this issue, the Company responded with a "take it or leave it". The press has reported that the TWU has accepted this offer. The APFA and APA are currently still analyzing the situation and have not yet responded to Management. The APFA Board of Directors will meet via conference call tomorrow, Thursday, April 10 to discuss this issue. Please continue to call this hotline and visit the APFA web site as additional information will be provided as it becomes available.
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Not sure I would call it an empty bag. The empty bag is folks who still think they will get a better deal in BK. Let''s see what UA FAs got in BK.
Wages - 9% wage cut, but they already make 6% less than AA f/As so the wage cut is equal to AA at best.
No pay raise until the year 2007, then 2% until 2009. AA offered 1/5 % starting in 2004
Medical benefits - Escalation of their medical premiums. They will pay 10% of the company insurance premium this year and it jumps two percent each year until it hits 20%. Same with dental. AA F/A medical doubled current payroll deduction to cover premium.
Retirement - UA retirement caps retirement years of service at 35 years. AA left retirement alone
VC - United will no longer pay overlap for VC trip this year. 2004 - 2.8 hours per day for each VC day. Instead of ending up with 20 hours for a three day trip on your VC, it would be worth around 9 hrs. AA reduced amount of VC
Work rigs - increase maximums into the 90 hr range. And everybody''s favorite - UA will institute preferential bidding. You know, preferential bidding, the item that sent AA flight Attendants on strike in ''93
If you thonk that is a better deal out of BK, I''d hate to see what you think is worse/
RDU