Negotiations: Update Ten

Fellow Spirit Flight Attendants,

This past week, your AFA Negotiations Committee met with the company virtually. Joining us again in negotiations this week was our Scheduling Committee Chairperson, David Bedene as well as our Hotel Committee Chairperson, Jessica Boothe.  The sections that were discussed in this section were Section 4: Travel Expenses, Section 8: Scheduling, Section 9: Reserve, and Section 22: Grievance Procedure. We are pleased to announce that we have reached a tentative agreement on Section 22: Grievance Procedure!  

Section 4: Travel Expenses:

The company’s latest proposal seeks to remove the “grab and go” requirement for early morning departures at our layover hotels and leaves no consideration or compensation for the often-extended waits for a hotel reservation when your schedule has been changed.  The company has also completely ignored some of our previous proposed language that includes “long and short” layover hotels, something that MANY other airlines have (including our pilots) and some additional “required” items that we proposed including into the hotel minimum standards in current section 4.A.3., like restaurant discounts and access to a fitness center!

The good news is that the company has agreed to continue to include our cost-of-living adjustment to our per diem rate (something they were looking to eliminate) and they agreed to continue to provide us with hotels during long airport sits (and a single occupancy room instead of one-room per gender).

Section 8: Scheduling

The company has made their second scheduling proposal and we are still VERY far apart.  The company is still holding out on their position that we should have a MONTHLY MINIMUM of 50 hours of flying, which means that you would not be able to drop below 50 hours EVERY SINGLE MONTH.  The company also wants to be able to Reroute us SIXTY TIMES per year (which is much higher than the five times we have now in our current contract).  The company has also proposed that the contract contain an “OFF BUTTON” whenever they are experiencing irregular operations, which is the time we need our contractual protections THE MOST.  The company also wants an increase in the number of critical days they are allowed per year and NO LIMIT to the amount of holiday weekends they can designate…  Clearly, we are very far apart from the company on this section.

We returned Section 8 to them, obviously rejecting all the above.  We have continued to propose that drops NOT be limited, we proposed additional protections for flight attendants concerning reroute-reschedule; we are seeking a much more structured approach to reschedules and decreasing the amount of “company discretion” involved with these transactions.  We are seeking to limit the number of critical days/holiday weekend AND have the company provide a PAY INCENTIVE for working on these days, regardless of how you acquired the trip or reserve day. 

Despite our differences, we have made some progress in this section.  We have agreed that the redemption of a DOR (Day off restoration) be standardized and be at a flight attendant’s discretion (so long as the request meets certain criteria).  We also agreed to record the SOD lines and provide your AFA representation copies of these recordings when requested.  Obviously, there is still more work to be done on this section…

Section 9: Reserve

We returned the company’s last reserve section proposal as well.  We are continuing to seek a “Long Call” reserve shift, allowing a 12-hour call out for reserve assignment.  The company has agreed to the idea of long call reserve shift but has NOT agreed on building a minimum number of long call reserve lines in each base.  So, whereas they have agreed to the concept, there is currently no guarantee that we would ever actually see it.  We are also seeking a reprieve from the rash of “Reserve extensions” by limiting the ability of the company to keeps reserves out for multiple consecutive trips...

On the other side, the company is seeking to ELIMINATE our Ready Reserve Exemption; they want EVERY RESERVE to be able to be assigned to Ready Reserve Shifts.  However, we were able to secure language closing a Ready Reserve “loophole” in our current CBA, allowing the company to assign a ready reserve to a trip departing long after their ready reserve shift was scheduled to end.  We can thankfully report that, with our new CBA, this practice will end.  

Section 22: Grievance Procedure – TENTATIVE AGREEMENT REACHED!!

There have been several significant changes to this section detailed below:

First, the amount of time your AFA representation has to file a contractual complaint has DOUBLED.  Rather than having to open a ticket and file a complaint within 30 days, we now have 60 days from the date of the incident.  This will allow for your AFA reps to have additional time to research contractual violations, gather evidence, and file complaints on your behalf.  We were also able to secure limitations on the amount of time the COMPANY has to issue an NOI.  The company now only has 90 days to issue an NOI from the date they “reasonably should have known” of an incident giving rise to potential discipline.

As for Notices of Investigation, we have worked with the company to modernize and create an eco-friendlier way of sending out communications.  With the implementation of this new CBA, NOIs will now be delivered via company e-mail instead of overnight delivery.  The cost savings to the company with this change enabled us to secure PAY for any flight attendant who is subjected to an NOI meeting.  For any NOI required to be held in person on a day off, flight attendants will receive 4 hours of additional pay.  Flight attendants attending an NOI on their day off virtually will receive 1 hour of additional pay.  We were also able to extend all the times that flight attendants must respond to and schedule a NOI meeting.

Lastly, we were able to secure “pre-mediation” (without a mediator) sessions on a quarterly basis and we also made significant changes to our mediation/arbitration panel to allow for a more streamlined process when mediating and arbitrating future grievances.

What’s next?

The next negotiations session is scheduled to happen in Fort Lauderdale from June 14th through June 16th.  Remember, when it comes time to VOTE for this new CBA, only members in GOOD STANDING are allowed to vote.  If you believe you may be in arrears with your AFA dues, please check with your local officers to make a plan to get current!  We want EVERYONE to have a vote!  Please continue to show your support for our negotiations committee and your new contract by WEARING YOUR AFA PIN ABOVE YOUR WINGS every time you go to work! 

 
In Solidarity,

Your AFA Negotiations Committee -

Jason Kachenmeister

Colleen Burns

Rick Santiago

Paula Mastrangelo