If you want to hear our guy give Delta's results, go to
the Delta investor
relations site to listen to the results
webcast.
Item 1 "Oops, I did it again."
Speaking of financial results, the AFA finally got around to filing the
mandatory Government disclosures required by the Department of Labor.
While everyone else had a deadline of last April. The AFA finally
got around to filing its LM-2 near the end of June. Remember, if the AFA
cannot comply with government laws in a timely manner, what makes you
think that the AFA can timely handle our grievances?
We think that we know why the AFA waited so long to file its last
LM-2. Why, you ask? Because this LM-2 showed a $565,883
deficit. That's a whole lot of pizza, cool-aid and
activist slumber parties.
Other Highlights from the 2001 LM-2:
·
AFA International President Patricia Friend received a raise
in her base salary. Her 2000 salary was $90,768, and her 2001 salary was
$105,989. This does not include the $16,911 that she received this year
for “Disbursements for Official Business.”
·
The AFA had $981,912 in cash at the start of 2001.
It ended with $416,029.
·
In 2001, the AFA received a total of $22,468,525 while it
disbursed a total of $23,034,408. This
is a deficit of $565,883.
·
The AFL-CIO gave the AFA a grant of $567,884.
(Hint: these last two are related)
Another downside is this bailout is second AFA bailout by the AFL-CIO.
Two out of the last three years Pat Friend
has had to go crawling into the AFL-CIO headquarters, hat in hand,
to beg for money to meet the AFA's income deficit.
How can we expect the general public to respect our
profession and us as individuals if the largest flight attendant union
cannot manage its finances? AFA members should be ashamed of the AFA
International leadership. They make us all look bad.
In our unsolicited opinion, it is the AFA
International leadership's gamble to organize Delta flight attendants that ruined the
AFA's finances. This leadership gambled
with the financial security of its current membership base and lost. In a time when
all of its members need the AFA, it is getting financial support from the
AFL-CIO.
This October, it is time for the AFA membership to
change its leadership. Without the reckless Delta adventure and an Organizing Department that is looking for places to spend money,
the AFA might get back on track and become a respectable union like APFA.
Click
here to see the 2001 AFA LM-2
Item 1 "How much is that Organizer in the
window?"
Just what does an Organizing Department cost?
Well, we have compiled a list of salaries and "Disbursements
for Official Business." It does not include the cushy AFA
staff employee benefit package. It does not include the office
space in Atlanta leased through 2003. It does not include the
payments to member/volunteers that came to Atlanta to help with the
efforts. It does not include phone surveys, postage, printing,
electricity, and other items. It also excludes pizza.
Let us remember that so far this year, the AFA
Organizing Department is 0 and 2. (that is 0 wins and 2 losses for you
ballet/opera people).
Here is the chart of all of the AFA employees that
had the word "Organizer" as their position.
Elected leaders of Teamsters Local 2000 sued Teamsters President James
P. Hoffa in federal court Thursday, contending Hoffa illegally removed
them from office July 1.
Local 2000 represents more than 11,500 flight attendants at Northwest
Airlines and Sun Country Airlines. Hoffa ousted all seven members of the
Local 2000 executive board after they refused to follow his
directives
to fight an organizing effort by some Northwest attendants trying to form
an independent union.
Twin Cities-based flight attendant Mollie Reiley was appointed trustee
of the local after President Danny Campbell and other leaders were
relieved of their duties.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit, calls for
reinstatement of the elected leaders and withdrawal of the trusteeship.
Meanwhile, Teamsters officials today will conduct a hearing in
Minneapolis to consider whether Local 2000 should remain in a trusteeship.
A hearing panel, appointed by Hoffa, will take testimony from Local 2000
members.
Teamsters spokesman Brian Rainville called the lawsuit a "campaign
stunt to draw attention away from the legitimate hearing."
Campbell, who has returned to his job as a flight attendant, said he
plans to participate in the hearing. However, he said, that he and other
members of the executive board proceeded with the lawsuit because they
believe Hoffa violated the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act.
He also said the removal violated his free-speech rights.
"Essentially that law was designed to provide a more democratic
infrastructure in local unions," Campbell said. He argues that top
Teamsters officials "removed us from office for political reasons,
rather than what they cited we were unwilling to do."
In mid-June, some flight attendants revealed plans for an independent
union, the Professional Flight Attendants Association (PFAA). They asked
attendants to sign cards authorizing a representational election, which
would allow them to choose between the Teamsters and the PFAA.
Hoffa called on Local 2000 leaders to denounce the organizing campaign
and take eight specific actions. In response, Campbell, Vice President
Anne Meyer and Secretary-Treasurer Bob Krabbe sought a meeting with Hoffa
to discuss an alternative strategy. In the 28-page complaint, the
plaintiffs said, "Hoffa never engaged in two-way communication,
face-to-face or in any other way."
Barbara Harvey, a Detroit attorney representing the plaintiffs, said
the Local 2000 officers had a "free speech right to refuse to endorse
the policies and tactics of the international union."
She added, "It looks very much to the members and to me that this
trusteeship has been imposed as an excuse to remove from office some of
the most effective and prominent remaining opponents of the Hoffa
administration."
Joining Harvey as co-counsel on the case is Betty Grdina,
who served as an attorney in the administration of former Teamsters
President Ron Carey.
Teamsters spokesman Rainville disputed Harvey's assertion. He said
Local 2000 officials were removed from office because of "their
absolute refusal to do anything about the raid" by the PFAA.
"Instead of taking affirmative steps to inform the membership of the
serious threat this raid posed to their collective bargaining agreement
and their local union and their ability to be protected, they did
nothing."
Rainville said the elected leaders tried to "use the raid to gain
further advantage for their political aspirations." He said the
behavior of the Local 2000 leaders has given "aid and comfort to the
PFAA."
On Thursday, PFAA spokesman Gary Helton issued a statement of support
for the lawsuit.
"Once again, the Teamster president failed to listen to the
leadership of the Northwest Airlines flight attendants," Helton said,
adding that the attendants are "sick and tired of being dictated to
and are reaching out by the thousands in support of PFAA." Helton
said, "This has never been an issue of PFAA vs. Local 2000. It has
been, and always will be, an issue of the NWA flight attendants against
the Teamsters."
The PFAA needs at least half of the flight attendants to sign cards
before the National Mediation Board will call an election.
Today's
trusteeship hearing is open to Local 2000 members, but closed to the
public. The hearing panel is not expected to issue an immediate decision.
Item 1
Last month, we reported that US Airways was in serious financial
trouble and was looking at bankruptcy. US Airways
management has been working with its unions in an attempt to remain
viable. The tentative agreement with the AFA is now
on line. We have posted a few highlights.
- Wage
rates for years 6 and above will be reduced by 8.4% effective
July 1, 2002.
- Crew
Meals eliminated.
- Work
rule efficiencies.
- The current no-furlough clause in Section
1.E of the contract will be deleted and replaced with a
guaranteed minimum fleet size of 275, provided the carrier stays out
of bankruptcy. If the Company goes into bankruptcy, the fleet size
could be reduced to 245.
- New health insurance provider
insurance - premiums will increase.
- Profit sharing plan styled on
Southwest's plan.
- Section 1113 letter (protection from
further cuts).
- New Regional Jet subsidiary.
It is never easy to agree to cuts.
Hopefully, these agreements will allow their company to return to
profitability.
In other US
Airways news, it will be offering (4)
737-300s, (3) 737-400s, (33)
757-200s and (4) 767-200ERs for sale or lease.
You can also read the USAirways AFA website
E-lines for more US Airways AFA news.
Item 1
As our colleagues at US airways are taking pay cuts, benefit
reductions, and are paying more for its health insurance, we should
remember that the staff members at AFA International are somewhat
protected from the economic downturn. For a look back at their
benefits and salaries, look at Finally,
A Good AFA Contract
Item 1 "What we have here is failure to communicate .
. . "
Pat Friend speaks on cabin security and the recent bills passed in the
House and Senate:
“Once again, the training
and tools necessary for flight attendants to minimize risks in the
passenger cabin and potentially save lives have been blatantly ignored,”
said AFA International President Patricia Friend. “Under the current
system, we are no better prepared to fight off an attacker in the cabin
than we were on September 11, and that is unacceptable.”
Delta flight attendants are
better prepared. We can already
attend paid self defense training. We see no union
advantage.
We do note that if the AFA had
not come out in opposition to arming the pilots, maybe ALPA would have
helped the AFA get some language into the bill that would protect flight
attendants. Review Update 2002-05
to see how the AFA's position has devolved.
Item 1
If you thought that losing 341 Million dollars in the last quarter was
enough bad news for UAL employees, it gets worse. The IAM now has the mortgage for UAL HQ and other
property.
UAL mortgages HQ for machinists' back pay - Collateral includes other
holdings
July 15, 2002
By Paul Merrion
United Airlines parent UAL Corp. has put up its Elk Grove Township
world headquarters building for collateral to secure a half-billion-dollar
back-pay obligation to the machinists union.
In addition, the troubled carrier has pledged several major real estate
holdings in Denver and Honolulu, as well as flight simulators, spare
engines, parts and even ground vehicles.
The collateral, required under labor contracts reached earlier this
year, doesn't provide new financing for the troubled carrier, but it does
ease some current cash needs by deferring retroactive pay increases won by
the union.
"They have a seat on the board; now, they have a mortgage on the
building. How symbolic," says Philip Baggaley, airline bond analyst
at New York credit rating firm Standard & Poor's.
Mechanics and ramp workers won $495 million in retroactive pay
increases in labor agreements earlier this year, normally payable in a
lump sum. But, given the airline's tremendous financial losses, the union
agreed to spread payment over the next two years if United would put up
collateral.
"It's a prudent way to approach a large obligation," says a
spokesman for the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
(IAM). "We certainly expect United to fulfill its obligation, but
it's appropriate to protect our members' interests."
The IAM views the deferral of retroactive pay as a significant
contribution to United's recovery, part of the reason it refused wage
concessions that would have given the carrier some
financial lift.
However, employee concessions may be critical to UAL's
application for a $1.8-billion federal guarantee to obtain a lower
interest rate for a $2-billion secured loan, which the airline has said it
needs for loan repayments and future cash needs.
While the company collateralized much of its properties and equipment,
it avoided using aircraft, gates or other assets that airlines
traditionally borrow against, keeping them available when UAL taps the
commercial markets in the future.
"They wanted to look for assets other than planes," says an
IAM spokesman. "Planes would have worked just as well for us."
A UAL spokesman says the type of collateral was "just agreed to by
both sides," but he declines to elaborate.
The IAM local representing mechanics and airplane cleaners, District
141-M, is owed $239 million in deferred retroactive pay increases,
according to an IAM spokesman, while District 141, which represents
baggage handlers, gate agents and
other ground workers, is owed $260 million.
District 141-M has a lien on the headquarters building, plus United's
flight training center and reservations center in Denver, an office
building in nearby Englewood and UAL's Seaside Hotel in Honolulu.
Mechanics also have "duly perfected security interests" in 20
flight simulators and specified auxiliary power unit engines and related
spare parts.
District 141's collateral comprises numerous pieces of ground equipment
and ground vehicles, according to a message posted on the union's Web site
by S. Randy Canale, president of that IAM branch and the union's
representative on the board of directors of UAL, which is 55%-owned by
employees.
"Members are advised to drive and care for this equipment as if
they owned it," he adds.
Item 1
Speaking of UAL, they did receive a pay raise as a result of their
recent wage arbitration. A panel found that UAL flight
attendants were compensated below the average of their peers at the other
major airlines. To rectify this, they will receive a 5.9% pay
increase to bring them up to industry average pay. click
here to read it on the UAL website.
Item 1
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