CLT DISPLACEMENTS RESCINDED AND JUNE RECALL
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Dear Member,
CLT DISPLACEMENTS RESCINDED AND JUNE RECALL
The Company informed the Union this afternoon the previously announced displacement notice to 90 (active) CLT based Flight Attendants will be rescinded. The displacements were due to Company staffing projections for the upcoming summer months that indicated CLT and PIT would be overstaffed and other bases understaffed.
After a more than spirited debate in the CLT Training Center several weeks ago between Flight Attendants and US Airways President, Scott Kirby, as well as many conversations with the Union, the Company has decided on a different method to solve the staffing imbalances. That debate focused on two issues-were the staffing models accurate and disruptions to the lives of our members. Mr. Kirby is sending a letter to the Flight Attendants affected by the planned displacements and I was given an advance draft of the letter this afternoon (while attending merger training).
Current Company projections indicate staffing shortages in PHL, BOS, LGA and DCA and excess staffing in PIT and CLT. The Union does agree with the Company's staffing projections for all of the above bases with the exception of CLT. The Company disagrees with our assessment of CLT staffing, but in order to avoid the disruption of as many of our members lives as possible (displacements from one base have a domino effect throughout the system) the Company has decided minimize the "unwanted disruption to your lives" in the following manner (quoted from the advance copy of Mr. Kirby's letter):
First, we will reach out to furloughed Flight Attendants to fill shortages in PHL, BOS, DCA, and LGA with recalls. We plan to fill roughly 90 positions in those bases by recalling furloughed Flight Attendants rather than displacing CLT Flight Attendants.
In PIT, unfortunately we still need to displace 40 Flight Attendants. Those Flight Attendants will bid on their displacements.
In CLT, we will use voluntary unpaid leaves (VPLOA) to reduce overstaffing at CLT.
Further details regarding the recalls will be communicated as soon as they are known.
The Union does realize that any displacements from any of our bases have potentially devastating consequences. The PIT displacements are going to cause hardships for those affected members and, while the models indicate a need to displace more than 40 PIT Flight Attendants, the Union has tried to limit the number as much as possible. Any PIT Flight Attendants displaced into CLT will not create a further displacement out of CLT.
The Union's intent was to limit the overall number of displacements (and the domino effect of such displacements) as much as possible. We will continue to analyze the Company's staffing models and strive to create models that put the right number of Flight Attendants in each of our bases, limit out of base flying as much as possible and work in single agreement negotiations to develop a Reserve system that allows our members to earn a living and enjoy a decent quality of life.
While writing this Eline I received the final draft of Mr. Kirby's letter and have included the letter in this Eline. The meeting mentioned in Mr. Kirby's letter is intended for those Flight Attendants who received displacement notification letter only. As noted in the letter, further meetings open to all Flight Attendants, are scheduled later this month.
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April 3, 2007
Dear US Airways Flight Attendant,
A few weeks ago, we had a rather energetic (to put it mildly) Crew News session with flight attendants in Charlotte. Many flight attendants have also watched the meeting on Compass or theHub via the Internet.
The discussion focused on upcoming seasonal flying changes at Charlotte, which were going to result in about 130 displacements from the CLT and PIT bases to PHL, BOS, DCA and LGA this summer. Emotions were high as you told Sherri Shamblin, our vice president of inflight services, and myself that a decision to displace flight attendants makes you feel like you are being treated like a seniority number and not a person with real lives, families and other commitments that you can’t simply move or walk away from for a few months.
We agreed to go back and take another look at this decision and we’ve come up with the following solution, which we hope will provide most of you with more options and minimize unwanted disruption to your lives:
First, we will reach out to furloughed flight attendants to fill shortages in PHL, BOS, DCA and LGA with recalls. We plan to fill roughly 90 positions in those bases by recalling furloughed flight attendants rather than displacing CLT flight attendants.
In PIT, unfortunately we will still need to displace 40 flight attendants to other domiciles. Those flight attendants will bid on their displacements.
In CLT, we will use voluntary unpaid leaves to reduce overstaffing at Charlotte.
Many of you have asked how we can be overstaffed in CLT especially given the scramble for crews at CLT in March. To be clear, crew shortages in March stemmed primarily from ice storms and our Res cutover, which left aircraft and crews out of position. The fact is, we do have too many flight attendants at CLT than we need because of reductions in flight attendant block hours during the summer months in Charlotte, and not enough in Boston, LaGuardia, DCA and Philadelphia.
In that set of circumstances, a large displacement is a logical and financially sound alternative. However, when people are continually uprooted and displaced, the morale issues that result are very real and we heard you loud and clear about this fact.
Sherri and Mike Finn, who runs our crew scheduling team, will be in Charlotte on Wednesday, April 4 to discuss the change in CLT displacements with flight attendants in more detail. Sherri also will be sending more details in the next few days.
Many of you reminded me of the sacrifices you’ve made to keep US Airways flying over the years and the personal toll that these sacrifices have taken on your family lives and career expectations. I hope today’s news sends a strong signal that we take those issues seriously, and more importantly, that we’re willing to work together to find alternatives whenever possible that work for all of us.
Keep those questions coming and we’ll see you again in April at the next Crew News session and on April 26 when we host the first quarter’s State of the Airline meeting/webcast. Thanks for continuing to take care of our customers.
Scott Kirby
