8.16.06 – (LAA) – Liquid Ban, Leave of Absence Rules and Instructions Letter

This is Leslie Mayo, National Communications Coordinator, with the APFA Hotline for Wednesday, August 16, 2006.

APFA News: Things have somewhat settled down after last Thursday’s carry-on procedures changed to include the banning of all liquids in the cabin in passengers’ on board luggage, and even banned carry on bags in total in the U.K. Crewmembers were also included in the ban on liquids system wide for several days as well as no carry-on baggage out of the U.K. APFA would like to commend our professional Flight Attendant corps for their ability to adapt to any situation put before them. In light of these new procedures, and particularly the fact that crew members are included in the ban after being subjected to fingerprinting and background checks as a requisite to continued employment at any U.S. airline following 9/11, it is clear that we must take this issue to Capitol Hill. APFA intends to address this issue with the TSA in order to recognize that flight crews are part of the operation, not part of the problem.

Once again, the Contract Department would like to remind you that if you take a Leave of Absence for more than 30 days, you must make contributions in order to maintain your health benefits, prefunding and any other benefits/insurance you have elected. You should receive a Leave of Absence Rules and Instructions letter in the mail shortly after your Leave begins. However, to avoid any disruption or cancellation of benefits you can immediately locate this letter on Jetnet’s Leave of Absence section. Please contact Employee Services at 800-447-2000 if there is any doubt as to whether your Leave requires contributions, as well as the total amount of those contributions and deadlines to submit payment. You can also Live Chat with Employee Services from the link on Jetnet.

AA has informed us that there was a programming error when the Chicago Domestic bidsheets were generated for the month of September that built a few S-80 sequences out of ORD with MSP Satellite flying. These sequences have since been corrected and changes to the master bidsheet for ORD can be found in DECS – RF 2028 ORDD and RF 2028A ORDD.

Bankruptcy Watch: Northwest Flight Attendants previously announced they may strike as early as August 15th; however, they have pushed a possible strike back 10 days following the terrorist threats in London last week. A bankruptcy judge has still not ruled on whether the strike would be considered legal. Northwest Airlines is suing the flight attendant union AFA-CWA to stop any strike against the airline which was generated from the abrogation of their Contract in bankruptcy a few weeks ago.

Delta Airlines reported a 2^nd quarter loss of $2.21 billion. When excluding items related to the reorganization of Delta in bankruptcy, the airline would’ve reported its first profit in nearly six years – $175 million.

Fuel Watch: As of Monday, August 14, a barrel of crude oil cost $76.31, down $2.78 from last week’s price. The crack spread price was $12.65, down $3.03 from last week’s price. This brings the cost of one barrel of jet fuel to $86.18 – down $5.81 from the price of jet fuel a week ago.

One year ago August, the price of a barrel of crude was $64.99, and the crack-spread price was $13.70. The total for one barrel of jet fuel a year ago was $78.69, about $13 less than the price of a barrel of jet fuel today.

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We have 3,882 APFA members on furlough and ten APFA members serving full time in the military.

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