1.25.19 – CLT Base Brief – Voting, Vacation, CQ and Professional Standards

Friday, January 25, 2019

 

Voting Reminder

In order to vote in the upcoming base election, you must be a member in good standing and dues current. To verify you are dues current, you may contact the APFA Dues department via email at [email protected].
You can also call the Dues Dept at APFA Headquarters (817) 540-0108, ext 8151.

Vacation 2018-2019

•    Primary Bid Opens:  Mon Jan 28, 2019 1200 CT
•    Primary Bid Closes:  Thu Feb 28, 2019 1200 CT
•    Primary Bid Results Posted:  Wed Mar 6, 2019 1200 CT
•    Secondary Bid Opens: Wed Mar 6, 2019 1200 CT
•    Secondary Bid Closes:  Wed Mar 13, 2019 1200 CT
•    Final Results Posted (secondary and assignment): Wed Mar 20, 2019 1200 CT
Final Vacation Accruals posted by January 28th 2019

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Vacation Matrix Meeting/Summary by Scott Hazlewood CLT VP

Good day.  Last week we had the yearly vacation matrix meeting in Dallas. this is where the company shows us how the vacation days are spread out and available for the next year.

With vacation bidding opening on the 28th, I thought I’d throw some numbers around so you can have a better Idea of what to bid. The head count in Charlotte is roughly 2,806 Flight Attendants (give or take transfers and any new hires we will get), 384 Flight Attendants elected to take the pay out for their days.

While this does not necessarily add days to the matrix, it does work to “move you up” with regards to seniority. There are 54,229 vacation slots (days) available to bid for our base. The number of days is consistent with our head count and is based on your longevity and the number of days you get. One of the first things you will notice when the matrix is officially posted is the percentages are the same for every base. In past years this was not the case. The percentages for April in Charlotte would differ from the percentages in PHL. This was based on need and scheduled flying.

With the company being able to schedule more efficiently post FOI and with PBS looming for every base, I suspect it has made it easier to predict need and the matrix was standardized. As a result of this, Charlotte faired pretty well. The breakdown for percentages are as follows; May-6.2% of the vacation days will be in May; June- 5.4%, July-4.7%, August- 6.4%, September-9.5%, October- 10.7%, November- 15.3%, December- 6.0%, January-(2020) 7.0% February- 12.3%, March- 10.1%, April-6.5%.

So what does that mean? We saw increases in the number of days for every month except July, December (stayed the same) and decreases in January, February and April. This is kind of what we wanted, take vacation from the big months of February and January and put those days in the summer months. Remember, the contract does not give us a lot of say in how the days are distributed other than no less than 4.5% of the days must be in July, August and December. The rest only have to have a minimum of 3%. The company met and exceeded their contractual obligation.

We met with the company to examine the matrix and submit requests for improvement where we think it will benefit our base. Charlotte’s first request was to add more vacation days to June, July, August and December by taking days from February and November. With the increased flying schedule in those months and the gains they have already given us in June and August, it is unlikely there will be much of an increase. The matrix also showed the number of days available for each day of the year. This is where we examined for anomalies that could not be explained by holidays (for instance, there were fewer vacation days over the weekends in May and June, hence graduation time or a weekend in the middle of September-Nascar race).

When we see an anomaly, we ask for an explanation and request that more days be moved into those periods, this can create difficulties elsewhere in the same month so we had to be careful. (Rest assured, we did not mess up the Nascar event.)

We decided to go after the Stradivarius of all vacation types, holding 3 days at the end of one month and 4 days at the beginning of the next. This is hard to hold but can help you spread out 7 days’ vacation into 2 months and still get the max pay. The matrix identified 4 months with a disproportionate number of days at the end of one month compared to the number of days at the beginning of the next. For instance, the last 2 days of November have 211 and 210 days for bid while the first 2 days of December have 133 and 156. After we identified the months with the largest disparity, we asked for some type of smoothing in the days. This may mean they have to take some days from one month and put them in the other so they will have their reservations on this. We also have a lead in-lead out conflict now as a result of the latest arbitration that only blocks the last 3 days of the month, so I’m sure the company will want to be very careful before granting this request.

We basically looked at each month and looked for ways to improve, including filler days. Contractually, you can bid up to 20% of your vacation days as filler and bid in the monthly re-bid process, but there are only 2,879 days (as of now) set aside for fillers. Again, the contract gives us very little say in the filler day process so our request to increase these days may fall on deaf ears.

All in all, Charlotte did pretty well compared to other bases. When the matrix is finalized, it will be posted before bidding opens.

Good luck. I hope this helps and hope to see you at the race in September.

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CQ (recurrent) training by Wanda Sarnacki

Over the past several weeks this issue has been brought to Scott Hazlewood and I . We want everyone to be very careful. Please check your standing bid for CQ (recurrent) training.

Our contract allows for a Flight Attendant to attend training a month early. You will see a standing bid section on the dashboard for CQ training on the right-hand side, just like the PBS dashboard layout. You will see 4 choices that your able to check, waive to FAR, waive to vacation, waive to VLOA, and DO NOT ALLOW EARLY AWARD. Just know if you have anyof these checked the computer will Read it as a Bid 2 months out when your CQ material is loaded in for online.

Please go in and check it and make sure nothing is checked, you could be shocked when you go to bid and see they have assigned you CQ training a month early and you cannot get it rescheduled until the PBS award is final on the 20th. Just don’t check anything if you want to go in the same month you do every year. You will also be hurt by this when you do PBS as it blocks out those 2 days and you can’t bid trips. Please check your standing bid. You may of put something in a year ago you have forgot about. REMEMBER ….. If your Standing Bid is Empty, the computer Will Not Read it and you can Bid the training in your Normal bid process for your CQ month. If you want to go a month early this is how you can bid for it.

I hope this clears up any confusion you might have. Thanks for all your hard work.

Professional Standards:

APFA Professional Standards is a voluntary and confidential service providing members the opportunity to resolve conflicts/concerns about co-workers without management involvement.

If you have experienced a conflict or have a concern with a coworker and need confidential assistance from your Base Representative (800) 540-0108 ext 8608.