Negotiations: Update Eight
Fellow Spirit Flight Attendants,
Your negotiations committee met with the company virtually last week on 3/14/22-3/16/22. Sections that we discussed were Section 3: Compensation, Section 7: Hours of Service, Section 9: Reserve, Section 16: Furlough and Recall, and Section 21: Union Activities, Union Security, and Dues Check Off.
Section 3: Compensation
We kicked off the week by delivering our compensation proposal to the company. We are proposing top of the industry pay increases, increasing our current premiums, and introducing new pay incentives. We have reached a point in our negotiations where the economic implications will be at the forefront when discussing most of the other open issues, so it was important to present the company with our expectations for compensation. The company’s reaction could only be described as stoic after being presented with our proposal. Many more discussions will follow when it comes to Section 3, as this was only our initial proposal and management has yet to respond.
Section 7: Hours of Service
With the continued assistance of our Scheduling Committee, David Bedene and Aimee Herman, we are continuing to push for increased rest between duty periods (both in base and out of base), decreasing the maximum scheduled hours on duty, protection against the “redeye plus one” (the practice of having flight attendants operate a morning flight after arriving in from an overnight flight), and more explicit rules regarding notification of delays and cancellations. We are also seeking premium pay for anytime a flight attendant is “stood up” on a scheduled deadhead and made to operate the flight. The company has not yet responded to our most recent proposal.
Section 9: Reserve
Both sides traded proposals on this section. Our proposal includes increases to how many days off per month reserves should receive, minimum reserve pay, improvements to how reserves are assigned, scheduled (and rescheduled), and “extended,” eliminating the “6-day” reserve pairing, capping the number of times you can be assigned to ready reserve (if you do not indicate a preference for ready reserve), and gaining the ability for reserves to be able to drop reserve days. This is not an all-inclusive list, as we have many other additional proposals in this section that will help improve the lives of Reserve Flight Attendants at Spirit…
The company has already agreed to some of our proposals, including making FIVE different reserve shifts instead of the three reserve shifts we have today to allow for some additional variety in reserve schedules… The new proposed shifts would be:
Reserve A: 0001-1000
Reserve B: 0401-1400
Reserve C: 0701-1700
Reserve D: 1101-2100
Reserve E: 1401-2400
We have also had productive conversations with the company regarding reserve self-notification (the ability to see a trip on your schedule and “notify” yourself of it, without having to wait for crew scheduling to call). Although the details have yet to be worked out, this idea seems to be making progress.
On the other side of things, the company is pushing for their own ideas of how Reserve Life should be. The company wants the ability to call a reserve flight attendant to the airport without an assignment, basically like: “Just go to the airport and wait there until you hear from us…” which sounds an awful lot like how they operate during IROP, but they want the ability to do this every single day to our reserves! The company is also seeking to eliminate the Ready Reserve Exemption status and have NO LIMIT on the number of times a reserve flight attendant can be assigned to a ready reserve assignment. The company seems committed to maintaining the WORST parts of being on reserve and (in some places) even expanding on them. The company’s excuse for this? “Reserve is only a small portion of your career…” which is true, but that doesn’t mean that we should allow reserves to be abused… More discussions will need to be had regarding reserves in future collective bargaining sessions.
Section 16: Furlough and Recall
The final remaining issue that has yet to be resolved is the company’s proposal for us to give up 6 years of paid medical while on voluntary furlough in exchange for a seniority-based call-back procedure including those on voluntary furlough. Currently, flight attendants who accept a voluntary furlough are provided with up to 6 years of benefits coverage but are the LAST to be called back. We are seeking for voluntarily furloughed flight attendants to be called back in seniority order with an option to bypass the recall. In exchange for this, the company is trying to cap the continuation of the medical insurance to 90 days. More conversations need to be had on this section before we reach an agreement.
Section 21: Union Activities, Union Security, and Dues Check Off
We are continuing discussions in this section which includes having more protected and defined representation and input regarding our Uniforms, Hotels, and other topics. We continue to make progress and are hoping to have an agreement on this section soon.
Flight Attendant Survey will be coming your way soon! Please ensure that your email address is updated with the AFA so that you receive our next membership survey! You can update your email with AFA by going here. The next survey will focus on clarifying some of the topics from our last survey and some new questions to prepare us for our continued discussions on sections 4, 7, 8, 9, 22, and 23. Please watch for the survey (coming soon) and complete it as soon as possible!
What’s next?
Our next negotiations session with the company is scheduled for April 26th – April 28th in Fort Lauderdale. The company is preparing responses to section 7, 8, 9, and their proposed modifications to section 22… Please continue to wear your AFA pin as a sign of solidarity and remember that you can always contact the negotiating committee by emailing Negotiations@SpiritAFA.com. Please feel free to email us anytime you have a thought, comment, idea, or suggestion!
In Solidarity,
Your AFA Negotiations Committee -
Jason Kachenmeister
Colleen Burns
Rick Santiago
Paula Mastrangelo
