Association of Flight Attendants - Guild News

Tidbits from the Trenches

Are Furloughs in Our Future?

The simple answer to this question, is that at present we don't know. It depends on the decisions made by the AFA Board of Directors at their annual meeting in Pittsburgh next week. It is the AFA B.O.D. (Board of Directors) which ultimately will decide the future of their union, including what kind of staff support they want.

It is imperative that you know that AFA Management currently has not informed us of any planned furloughs.

The most valuable tool we have is our SIGNED CONTRACT. Because we have a contract, you enjoy the following protections that other workers not represented by a union do not have:

1. Guaranteed Rates of Pay for all AFA employees in our bargaining unit. These rates of pay are set in stone. (Section 13 and Appendix B, as amended) The rates cannot be changed by whim.

2. Written Furlough Procedure, including Voluntary Furlough in Lieu of Involuntary Furlough (Section 11)

3. Displacement Rights (Right to Bump Someone less Senior Whose Job you can Perform)

4. Furlough Pay (Section 11)

5. Continued Medical Protection for the First Six Months of a Furlough (Section 11)

6. Recall Rights (Section 11)

7. Mandatory Discussion with U.S.E. to Avoid Furloughs or Reduce Their Impact. (Section 11)

Even with the protections, we don't want to give anybody a false sense of security or a false sense of panic. Management does have the right to furlough if the need arises. The need will arise depending on how much money is made available via the AFA Budgeting Process to spend on salaries and benefits next year. To provide a full background on how the funding for our salaries comes to be, here is the process, step by step.

What is the background facing the B.O.D. as they convene?

As you are all aware, in the last two months, AFA has lost approximately 10,000 members through layoffs and release of probationaries (essentially the flight attendant probationaries were told to go home and never come back) at the various airlines it represents. Each of those individual members paid $39 per month in dues (once off probation). It isn't difficult to understand that their organization stands at a budgeting crisis. While we believe that AFA International President Patricia Friend was sincere in her desire to avoid layoffs, because the B.O.D. sets the budget, her hands may be tied. For example, there currently exists a vacancy for one of the International Staff Representative (ISR) positions. Because the vacancy arose between meetings of the B.O.D., by declaration of the Executive Board, President Friend is currently not permitted to fill this position.

Who ultimately decides the AFA Budget?

The Board of Directors is the governing body of AFA. It is composed of the LEC Presidents from each council in AFA. The B.O.D. convenes once each year to determine how their union will be run the following year. The AFA Executive Board is composed of all the MEC Presidents of AFA. If any issue comes up between meetings of the B.O.D., the Executive Board can render a decision.

One of the most important items on the agenda at the B.O.D. is to set the budget for the following year. Part of that budget includes funding for our salaries and benefits. Although they begin their meeting with a proposed budget, that's all it is - a proposal. Before the final budget has been set, there is a lot of give and take and "moving the numbers around." Until the final vote is taken and the budget is approved, anything is subject to change at any time. Because deciding the budget is one of the more difficult tasks they must accomplish, it is usually one of the last issues tackled.

Do we have any advance news about how the B.O.D. is thinking?

Again, the answer is an unfortunate no. There are as many alternatives to dealing with a budget crisis as there are stars in the night sky. It is important to remember that not all of the possible alternatives will be considered by the Board or, if considered, will be ratified.

Nonetheless, to clarify what I mean, let me give you a couple of examples. This list is certainly not all the possibilities that exist. The most obvious solution would be to raise the monthly dues an individual member pays to AFA. Since the last dues increase, the cost of doing business in America has gone up. There will come a point (sooner rather than later, we hope) that the Board will realize it is impossible to run a 2002 organization on a 1996 dues structure. An AFA dues increase, however, would not be the only alternative available. The AFA Representatives may decide to tighten their own belts and take reduced expenses for when they do union work. They may decide to reduce the amount they take in salaries for when they do AFA work. (If you have ever heard the term "Flight Pay Loss," or FPL, it means the amount they pay themselves to do union work.) The point is that whatever decision they make will be determined by their own vote. Each LEC President casts votes equal to the number of members in her or his council.

What are the alternatives that could affect us, the employees of AFA?

Once the Board determines what the AFA budget will be for next year, Management will know how much they have to spend on employee salaries and benefits. There are two alternatives possible:

1. The AFA Board of Directors realizes our worth to the organization. Acknowledging this value, as true trade unionists they decide that the staff and the services we provide are too precious to disturb, the rights of the workers to a decent wage and decent standard of living are paramount and allocate the amounts necessary to compensate us all for next year.

2. The AFA Board fails to realize our worth, turns their collective back on us, their colleagues in the labor movement, and either fails to increase or cuts the dollar amounts allocated to compensate staff.

What happens if alternative "two" occurs?

If alternative two comes to pass, the management of AFA must decide what to do with the amount of money they have to spend on staff. They may decide that any relief taken from the employees will be restricted to non-bargaining unit positions (i.e. management and confidential staff). But they may also decide to inquire as to whether U.S.E. would be interested in helping to bail them out.

What rights does management have?

Management (and this includes the AFA Board of Directors as well as our managers) maintains the right to direct the workforce and to determine what work will be done. This means that ultimately, they maintain the right to determine what services AFA will offer its members via the various departments AFA has and how many people will be employed in those departments. They could, and I stress could, decide to reduce the number of services AFA offers and eliminate departments. They could decide to offer the same types of services and attempt to do it with fewer employees. Again, they do NOT have the right to unilaterally change our wage rates or contractual benefits levels.

This brings us back to that Furlough concept. Could this happen?

As distasteful as the concept sounds, a furlough could happen. We can't make any predictions about furloughs or any other effects on our jobs until after the Board.

If a furlough becomes a possibility, before it can occur, Management must by contract meet with U.S.E. to discuss ways to avoid furloughs or minimize their impact. If this happens, we can discuss whatever we choose to discuss. At that point, AFA may or may not ask us to engage in bargaining to grant them economic relief. (If this sounds like airline management reaching into the pockets of its flight attendants to balance their budgets on the backs of the workers, you are right on target.) Whatever actions we, your officers take, will be driven by you, the members. Because we have a signed contract, nothing compels us to give anything up. You will be asked to vote to give us your clear direction before we would even consider such a draconion, objectionable, anti-worker move.

What sections of my contract should I review?

Review section 11. It provides what would happen in the event a furlough becomes a reality. If you have read it, and it still seems confusing, the following points are important:

11.A. A furlough at AFA is not done in straight seniority order. Furloughs would be done among those individuals qualified to perform a specific function.

Explanation:

This means that if a furlough were to become a reality, it would probably happen department by department and it may even happen within a department. It depends on what one's qualifications are. It would be the job functions that AFA would cut in the event of a furlough, not merely people off the bottom of the seniority list. This could mean that more junior employees maintain their employment while relatively more senior employees are furloughed.

11.B. An employee who is to be furloughed may displace an employee in any other department who is junior in seniority, if she/he previously held the job and can perform the job.

Explanation:

If you have been employed in more than one job with AFA, you should consider those other jobs. If you become a potential furloughee, you have the right to take that job back, if you are qualified to perform it.

11.F.2. Would you like to take a voluntary furlough? If two are more employees are performing the same job, the more senior employee can take a voluntary furlough. This allows the junior employee to keep working. The more senior employee can change her/his mind at any time and come back to work with four weeks notice to AFA.

What comes next?

What comes next is that the AFA Board of Directors meets next week in Pittsburgh. Not until they are finished convening will we know what the future holds. In the meantime, while they are at the Board, we will be having the AFA Lunch Hour Pizza Party. For those of you with questions, we can meet informally at that time to evaluate who we are, what we are, and what we want.

The week after the Board of Directors is Thanksgiving week. Many of you will be on vacation that week. Hopefully, the AFA Officers will be able to brief us on the results of the Board. We will have an idea of what our future holds. Because we may not have enough time prior to Thanksgiving to evaluate whatever information we may receive, we will convene a general membership union meeting on November 28th from 12:00 noon until 1:00 p.m.

Stay unified! Stay strong!

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