Negotiations: Update Two
Dear Spirit Flight Attendants,
Continuing our commitment to transparency in these negotiations, your Negotiating Committee (NC) and MEC leaders made the decision to publish the opening proposals exchanged by both teams at our first meeting in September. Both proposals are linked below:
Spirit Airlines’ Opening Statement
Spirit Airlines AFA-CWA Opening Statement
What are opening proposals? You can consider these as the “wish list” that each side brings to the table. It gives each party a “heads up” about what will be discussed during bargaining. The company presented us with their “opener” which reflects the changes they want to achieve. As you can see, their proposed changes would greatly diminish the quality of our work life. AFA’s opener reflects the priorities of members determined by the Negotiations Survey and strives to increase Flight Attendant control over our schedules and bring our pay and work rules in line with industry standards.
Why are there no specific pay rates proposed? For economics – no specifics are listed because the financial items (pay, premiums, per diem, etc.) are always negotiated at the end and we wait to see what the pay landscape in the industry looks like when those items are addressed.
Why are you not proposing [insert my concern here]?! Are negotiations limited to just what is in the opener? Basically, this will be the “outside bounds” of what will be negotiated. However, items outside of those listed in the openers can be brought to the bargaining table.
Because the company is making a demand in their opener, does that mean we will entertain it? Not necessarily. Just like they will try and ignore some of our demands that they find overreaching, we do not have to discuss all their items. Negotiations is a fight, and it is about leverage. When we get down to the significant economic items, negotiations will slow down, and we will have to ramp up solidarity activities. The company must see that the AFA members support the efforts of the NC. When they look at the NC across the table, they must see all 4,500 Spirit Flight Attendants standing strong behind us!
How will the NC respond to the company’s demands? The NC will not respond to specific management opener “asks” until we pass proposals on that specific section of the Contract. That is why we don’t discuss specifics about the items you will see in the openers.
What happens during the negotiation’s session? Management’s and AFA’s teams meet to exchange proposals. Normally, a proposal consists of changes each party wants to make in one section (e.g., SEC 6: Seniority, SEC 11: Vacation, etc.). Management wants to make changes too – and most of us would consider those to be bad changes! Proposals on several sections are exchanged at each session, and there is a lot of discussion about each issue. Significant time is spent in caucus, preparing full-language proposals, and discussing what changes we will make to our proposals.
How often will we meet? Typically, we will meet for one session a month, and we will update you after each session.
Negotiations Start!
AFA and management just wrapped up our first negotiations session. We had it remotely over Zoom. Both parties exchanged many proposals, and the following sections were discussed:
SEC 4: Travel Expenses
SEC 5: Uniforms
SEC 6: Seniority and Probation
SEC 10: Trainings and Meetings
SEC 12: Sick Leave
SEC 13: Leaves of Absence
SEC 15: Filling of Vacancies or Transfers
SEC 16: Furlough and Recall
SEC 17: Moving Expenses
SEC 21: Union Security and Union Activities
SEC 22: Grievance Procedure
SEC 23: General
We did not reach full agreement on any of the above entire sections, but our positions are getting closer. Management needed time to cost some of our demands and will respon on some items at our next session. This is very typical in negotiations and management is always costing out everything. Once we reach a tentative agreement on a full section, we will report out the details of the agreement reached on that section of our Contract.
Our next bargaining session is November 2-4.
In the meantime, please demonstrate your support for your Negotiation Committee’s efforts at the bargaining table and WEAR YOUR PIN!
Your AFA Negotiating Committee
Jason Kachenmeister, MEC President
Colleen Burns, Negotiations Committee
Rick Santiago, Negotiations Committee
Paula Mastrangelo, Sr. Staff Negotiator
