5.10.06 – (LAA/LUS) – APFA Hotline, Donating AA Items to Charity

This is Leslie Mayo, National Communications Coordinator, with the APFA Hotline for Wednesday, May 10, 2006. We have 3,949 members on furlough and 10 members serving full time in the military. The reduced number of furloughs is due to attrition. Please keep them in your thoughts.

APFA News: APFA has decided that; based on budgetary constraints, beginning this week, we will publish the APFA Hotline on Wednesdays. By recording earlier in the week from APFA Headquarters rather than from a home office on Friday afternoons, the extra costs associated with maintaining a landline would be deemed unnecessary. This will save the Union almost $800 a year – nearly the total amount of two APFA members’ annual dues. As always, we will continue to update the Hotline throughout the week with any late breaking news. Publishing the Hotline mid-week should also expedite responses to any questions our members have about Hotline issues rather than waiting until Monday for clarification.

On May 17, there will be a retirement seminar hosted by Jill Frank and a Company representative at St. Louis from noon to 2:00 p.m. In order to accommodate all STL FAs who are eligible for retirement, this session will be held in the Joann Wayne Room located outside of security. Again, due to the size of the room we are asking for reservations – please leave a VM for APFA STL Chair Greg Bertolini at 817-540-0108, ext. 8445 to reserve your spot. Due to the positive response from F/A’s a second retirement seminar has been planned for BOS. The first will begin at 11:30 on May 23rd in the Flight Service Conference Room. The second seminar will begin at 2pm on the same day and is limited to 20 attendees. Reservations are required so please contact the BOS Flight Service MOD at 617-634-5351.

If you plan to attend a retirement seminar please go to Jetnet, and follow this path: BENEFITS, RETIREMENT PLANNING, MY PENSION, REQUEST/VIEW ESTIMATES and create then print an estimate. On the estimate page, there is a highlighted link called PLAN CALCULATION FORMULAS. Open the link, print out the information and bring both documents with you to the seminar. If you are eligible to retire and unable to access Jetnet, please call HR at 800-447-2000 extension 5 and request a pension estimate be sent to your home.

From the APFA Hotel Department, renovations began at our newly-secured HNL hotel this week. The hotel’s management has indicated that renovations on the new crew room floors should be completed within six weeks. Once renovations are finished, crewmembers will be housed exclusively on floors 24-25-26 in these remodeled, updated rooms.

There was an error in the Hotel Department’s article regarding this hotel in the most recent edition of Skyword. The continental grab and go breakfast is not complimentary. The charge is $5 and includes a free small tote-like cooler. APFA apologizes for any inconvenience this has caused our members.

Also, the hotel is offering a limited number of complimentary passes for the use of the adjacent exercise facility. The hotel has notified AA that there are ten passes available per day. These passes may be obtained from the front desk and are distributed to F/As and pilots on a first-come first-served basis.

Please be very careful when donating your uniform items to charity. All AA-identifying marks including stripes, buttons, logos, etc… must be removed prior to relinquishing your uniform pieces. This could result in a very serious security issue for your coworkers in the event the items fall into the hands of someone with bad intentions.

Bankruptcy Watch: The Northwest Flight Attendants, represented by the Professional Flight Attendants Association (PFAA) are about to engage in several critical votes. First, the flight attendants will be voting on whether to ratify a new Tentative Agreement. Those results will be announced June 6th. Next, the NW flight attendants will be voting on whether they want to affiliate with the Transport Workers Union (TWU). Late last week, the PFAA Executive Board voted unanimously to affiliate with the TWU, subject to approval by the membership. Finally, the NMB announced today that a representational election will occur between PFAA and AFA-CWA on whether the flight attendants want to continue to be represented by the Professional Flight Attendants Association (PFAA) or if they want new representation from AFA-CWA. The date has not yet been set for balloting for either of these issues. We will keep you posted on these events as they unfold.

Rumor Control: A few Flight Attendants wrote or called this week about a possible new early-out for F/A’s. To clarify, the Company has given the Union no indication that they are going to offer any early-retirement incentives other than those that have been in place for years to Flight Attendants. This includes the 50-55 year rule which is AA policy and can be found on Jetnet, or the provisions of Article 30 in your Bargaining Agreement.

Fuel Watch: As of Tuesday, May 9th, a barrel of crude oil cost $70.69, down $1.59 from last Wednesday’s price. The crack spread price was $16.57, up $1.15 from last week’s price. This brings the cost of one barrel of jet fuel to $87.26 – down .44 cents from the price of jet fuel last week. One year ago May, the price of a barrel of crude was $49.87, and the crack spread price was $11.86. The total for one barrel of jet fuel a year ago was $61.73, nearly $26 less per barrel than the price of a barrel today.

If you are not already receiving this Hotline automatically and would like to, please reply with the words “Add me to the Hotline list” in the subject line and your email address will be included in APFA’s weekly updates. If you no longer wish to receive these updates via email, please reply with “Please Remove Me” in the subject.

That’s it for this week. Thanks for calling the APFA Hotline.

Leslie Mayo
National Communications Coordinator
APFA
817.540.0108 x. 8308
[email protected]