1.30.23 – APFA LGA Base Brief – Monday, January 30, 2023

Monday, January 30, 2023

NEW YORK STANDS WITH SAN FRANCISCO – SFO

Today, January 30, 2023, the San Francisco – SFO base will serve its last day as one of the longest-standing domiciles for American Airlines Flight Attendants and Pilots. New York stands in unity with each of these union members who face a difficult day, but with us standing with them. New York will always be a safe space for all SFO Flight Attendants to join our family. While somber and hard to process, we can make this transition easier for all of them together. I want to give a massive shoutout to Tim Schwartz, SFO Base President & Brian Yan, SFO Base Vice President, for their professionalism and advocacy through a tough time. Tim has supported New York in many ways, and I will always be grateful to him.

NEW YORK – CRITICAL INCIDENTS

The past three weeks have presented our base with some challenging critical incidents that have affected Flight Attendants and highlighted operational intricacies that I feel need revisiting and improvement. When critical incidents occur, one of the most significant barriers is communication. On January 13, 2023, an incident occurred at JFK airport involving one of our aircraft that carried two Flight Attendant crews, one working, and one deadheading. The FAA announced on Sunday, January 15, investigating a near-miss between two passenger airplanes, one Delta and the other American. Due to this investigation, I cannot provide further details about the incident, but you have a right to know this. In all these critical incidents, as a base council, we have done all we can to ensure that the Flight Attendants have all resources available to them, and I am engaging management in discussions about how we can step up where necessary to ensure we are meeting the demands of a more extensive base with a more complex structure. Flight Attendants must understand the value of CERS, ASAP, and other reporting avenues when dealing with issues in operation and while on duty. We plan to send out more information in the coming weeks to do our part while working with management at all levels and our safety department to ensure we fully support Flight Attendants.

New EWR Terminal A

On January 12, 2023, Newark Liberty Airport unveiled its brand-new Terminal A. While the terminal is modern and state-of-the-art, the operations for AA Flight Attendants are subpar. Several alarming details are basic common sense and only require collaborating with the unions, as stated in our JCBA and APAs. I have filed a base grievance on American’s contract violation by not consulting with APFA to ensure the contractual language was met when finalizing the crew lounge move. For the past year, I have repeatedly brought management numerous opportunities to share with me directly details that would have helped avoid what today is an entirely unacceptable space. If you visit EWR on a reserve assignment or to work a trip, please share your feedback with flight service management and copy us in your emails. We need to hear your feedback for our grievance and to ensure we collaboratively attain the crew lounge we deserve. If you do not fly out of EWR, we encourage you to support this station as it is a part of New York, and we take care of one another.

New York Contract Action – Take 2

On Tuesday, January 24, 2023, Flight Attendants in New York came out in true bold New York fashion. There is no doubt about the need for a Contract that reflects our hard work. Despite still working under a global pandemic, our contribution to the survival and profits American Airlines reported. All employees should enjoy the rewards of hard work. Please stay tuned for more information on future contract action items. Participation in these negotiations is essential for the contract we deserve. Here are some photos of our energized members and others who joined in support, including local leadership from the pilot’s union APA, TWU agent union leadership, and colleagues from other departments who passed by and showed support. A classic that never gets old is when customers driving past the picket lines honk in solidarity. This second picket event was a success because you showed up and made it happen; thank you. Shoutout to CA Lawrence Cutler, APA LGA Chair & CA James Scanian, APA LGA Vice Chair, who showed up early and stayed with us in solidarity. Thank you.

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Attendance Flight Service Managers

We continue to see contractual violations by the AFSMs who have not been adequately trained per our JCBA. While we always protect Flight Attendant rights, we need you to be proactive and check your MyView on the flight service website, respond to correspondence for meetings, and always copy us in your emails. You can always question any errors or inaccuracies in your attendance record by emailing the AFSM team at [email protected]. You have a limited number of days to respond to requests to schedule a meeting, which includes contacting us if you would like union representation. Please do not give up this flexibility by ignoring a request. Get ahead of notice so we can be available when you need us. There are only a few of us and nearly 3K of you, so we need you to please reach out to us before you commit to a meeting on any given date. Suppose you schedule a meeting with your AFSM without first checking with us for availability or do not respond to a notice and one is planned for you. In that case, we cannot deny representation to a member we are already assisting on any given date. You can always reach out to us if you have questions or concerns. AFSMs have a lot of time to schedule meetings that could lead to corrective action, but you will not see them meeting you to commend you on good attendance or other important acknowledgments that come with a role of advocacy. The program is almost seemingly designed to be solely based on punitive intent.

New York In-Person Base Meeting

I wanted to give you a heads-up on our next In-Person base meeting in early April. We will soon be thinking about bidding for March. Some of you may bid on carry-over trips, so I wanted to let you know that we plan on April 3, 2023, 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM. We will share the location and more details soon. This meeting is significant and will entail many important topics, including negotiations, reserve, and airport facilities, to mention a few. All members in good standing are welcome to join us. If you have issues accessing the APFA website, please get in touch with [email protected] to ensure your sign-in credentials are up to date. If you have issues with dues, you can log in to APFA.org and go to the Account section to see your balance and other important account information.

We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the base meeting. The meeting will be recorded live and uploaded to the LGA Base page on the APFA website.

Please fly safe & take care of one another.

In Solidarity,

Christian M. Santana
APFA LGA Base President 
[email protected]

Penelope King
APFA LGA Base Vice President
[email protected]

PROUD to represent New York-LGA