Negotiations: Update Fourteen

Fellow Spirit Flight Attendants,

On November 7th and 8th, your AFA negotiations committee met with the company virtually to exchange proposals.  The sections that were discussed were Section 3: Compensation, Section 8: Scheduling, Section 9: Reserve, and Section 12: Sick Leave.

Section 3: Compensation

We countered the company’s last compensation proposal with our own.  We have all made it clear to the company, with our continued green ribbon campaign, that their proposed pay rates (which were less than the cost-of-living increases) will simply not fly with us.  The company has not responded to our most recent proposal.  

Obviously, we continue to propose across the board pay increases, not just in our rate, but in the way our minimum pairing pay is calculated as well.  Included in our proposal are additional pairing rigs based on our time spent on duty (boarding, deplaning, airport sit time, etc.) that would allow us to be compensated for all the time that we spend on duty, not just the time when we are “off the blocks.”  We will keep you posted when the company provides us with a response.

Section 8: Scheduling

We are getting much closer to a tentative agreement on this section.  Some of the issues that we resolved in this past session are as follows:

• We have successfully negotiated language explicitly prohibiting the “redeye plus one,” (This is where you work a redeye flight followed by a morning departure).  Multiple segments that include a redeye will still be possible (i.e., the “redeye turns” from the east coast and Midwest bases), however, the final flight will always be the redeye.  No one should have to work all night followed by all day.

• The Company has agreed to limit the number of “Holiday Weekends” they designate each year.  Holiday weekends currently inflate our reserve grid, and under the current CBA, there is no limit.  However, the company has finally agreed to a maximum number of Holiday Weekends, just like critical days.

• We have negotiated to keep “MDDs”, and they will continue just as they are today.  If you don’t know what an MDD is, click here to read the settlement agreement we reached in mediation a few years ago.

• We have agreed to a concept of a “hybrid” type system for Daily Open Time.  The details still must be worked out yet, but basically, the first few days of DOT will be seniority based, just as it is today.  After just a few days of seniority based open time, the open time will then go “live” and be governed by first come/first serve transactions.  The open time will remain open for trades/pickups/drops for 24 hours a day with no open and close times and will NOT be based on seniority.  As I mentioned, the details are still being worked out, but the company has pretty much agreed to the concept.  This system will both protect seniority (allowing senior FAs in each base a few days to adjust their schedule) followed by the rest of the month being first come first serve transactions (to allow everyone equal opportunity to drop/swap/pickup).  

• We are in the process of negotiating a means for flight attendants to pick up out of base as well.  The company has agreed to this in concept, but we are a still working on the details on how this will work.  More information on this system and the above should become clearer as we continue negotiations.

• We continue to get closer on time recoverable, rescheduling, and rerouting.  We have divided up each section of the contract to be specific to each case.  For example, if you are cancelled as part of your first leg of a trip vs. if you are cancelled on the second day of a 4day…  All these instances will be specifically spelled out in the CBA so you will know exactly what scheduling can and cannot do to you.  The company has also lowered their proposed number of times we can be rerouted per year to 12, but this is still 12 too many.  We continue to get closer on these sections and we believe an agreement on these hotly debated issues is finally within our grasp.

Section 9: Reserve

Just as in the scheduling section, we continue to make progress, albeit just not as quickly.  We were able to convince the company that it was in their best interests to allow reserves to pick up additional flying on their movable days following a GDO and they eventually relented.  This will give reserves far more flexibility in gaining additional hours above guarantee.  The company has also agreed to limit “reserve extensions” (when you arrive home from a trip and they immediately send you out on another one) to only those times when there is a late sick call, no show, or IROP; so, the number of reserve extensions should dramatically decrease, giving our reserves a slightly more controllable schedule and some peace of mind on their last leg of a reserve assigned trip. 

Among the open issues in this section, we are still apart on the issue of assigning reserves to trips outside of their notification period.  The example in today’s world is when a Reserve B (0701-1700) is called for redeye turn in the last 5 minutes of their notification period.  We are trying our best to make this the exception rather than the standard.  We are also working towards self-notification for reserves.  If you see a trip on your schedule, you should be able to mark yourself notified and go to sleep without worrying about scheduling trying to call you for a report time you are already aware of.  Although we are getting closer on this concept, there are still a few more parameters we need to agree on.  

Section 12: Sick Leave

The company seems adamantly opposed to combining the sick banks into a single bank, while we remain adamant that a flight attendant’s sick time is time that they have earned, and it should be theirs to decide how and when they need to use it.  

However, the company has agreed to increase the cap on sick time, so for those of you who are nearing your maximum amount of sick time will continue to accrue additional hours under this new agreement.

What’s next?

As of now, we have NO DATES on the calendar due to ALPA negotiations and the holidays. However, the company has committed to us (just this past week) that they will give us 2 full weeks in person in January to begin hammering out our open issues. Please continue to show your support by wearing your AFA pin on your uniform with a green ribbon behind it. We will continue to pressure the company to meet with us to push through until we are in agreement on all open issues.

Please remember, THERE IS NO NEED TO WONDER…  If you have questions, concerns, ideas, or comments, please remember that you can email Negotiations@SpiritAFA.com at any time.  All emails go to all committee members and every email will receive a personal response!

Your AFA Negotiations Committee,

Jason Kachenmeister

Colleen Burns

Rick Santiago

Paula Mastrangelo