12.15.06 – (LAA) – NOD on Family Leave, Skyword, WINGS, Luggage Safety

This is Leslie Mayo, National Communications Coordinator, with the APFA Hotline for Friday, December 15, 2006.

APFA News: The System Board Department would like to inform those FAs who filed an individual Notice of Dispute on Family Leave but did not receive a personalized HI6 message that your cases are being reviewed by the FML Team and the SBA Department. You will be contacted by the end of January regarding the status of your NOD.

The APFA Contract Department would like to remind all FAs that uniform points do not carryover from one year to the next. VF solutions will accept phone orders through 1500 EST on Friday, December 29, 2006. Web orders can be placed until 2359 EST on Sunday, December 31, 2006. VF Solutionsí Web site is busier than usual during the last few days of the year. When placing a Web order remember to click on the ‘submit’ button listed under the shipment date, and retain the order number on the next screen. APFA suggests that you provide your email address in order to receive a confirmation email of your order along with the shipping information.

On December 1st, the company issued Bulletin 56, which outlines a company test of varying departure times at a few gates in DFW. Part of this bulletin describes a procedure for early departures which could involve early boarding. APFA wants to remind our members that there is no change to your required report times to the aircraft. In addition, we have reminded Flight Service and requested that they advise Passenger Service that our connect times are frequently the only opportunity we have to obtain food. FAs will not be required to board early as a result of this test. If, during a particular boarding process, ground, flight, and cabin decide the circumstances warrant an earlier target departure time, you should submit a HICLAIM to receive Ground Time as specified in Art.3.J.1. of our Contract.

APFA sent a letter to DOT Secretary Mary Peters this week in support of AA’s amended application to fly DFW-PEK. You may view this letter online at www.apfa.org.

The winter ’06 edition of Skyword may have already arrived at some of your homes. This edition includes Willingness-to-Serve (WTS) forms for two Executive Committee positions and Base Chair, Vice Chair and OCR positions at all 18 bases. AdHocs of the Executive Committee are elected by the Board of Directors for a three-year term and Base Reps are elected by the local membership for two-year terms. If you are interested in getting involved at your Base or putting your name forward as an AdHoc to the Executive Committee, you can either download Skyword online and print and mail the WTS forms, or send the form to the appropriate mailbox once Skyword arrives in the mail.

Recently, a Flight Attendant’s purse was stolen in the lobby of our Paris layover hotel while a crewmember was standing nearby. The APFA Hotel Department would like to remind Flight Attendants to keep an eye on your luggage at all times while in hotel lobbies, at the airport or any public area.

As most of us are aware, Wings is a volunteer organization run by Flight Attendants for Flight Attendants in need. Currently, the Wings Foundation is selling cookbooks and PJs in base operations to raise money for Flight Attendants. APFA would like to encourage all Flight Attendants to sign up for monthly donations to Wings that can be deducted directly from your paycheck. For more information, you can either email them at [email protected] or give them a call at 817.571.7177.

American Airlines contributed $100 million to the AA employees’ defined benefit pension plans bringing the total contributed for the year to $323 million. This contribution satisfies the minimum required pension funding obligation for 2006.

Bankruptcy Watch: Despite a few hundred retired Delta pilots’ protests, a bankruptcy judge approved Deltaís request to terminate the pilotsí pension plan. Deltaís active pilots did not object to the termination of their pension plan as part of their restructuring agreement earlier this year.

Fuel Watch: As of Wednesday, December 13th, a barrel of crude oil cost $61.37, down $1.06 from last week’s price. The crack spread price was $14.84, down .30 cents from last week’s price. This brings the cost of one barrel of jet fuel to $76.21 – down $1.36 from the price of jet fuel a week ago.

The total for one barrel of jet fuel a year ago December was $72.72 – about $1.50 more than the price of a barrel of jet fuel today.

Please remember that we have 2,654 APFA members still on furlough.

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