Negotiations: They Have Begun!
Fellow Spirit Flight Attendants:
Negotiations have begun!
On September 27th, we flew to Fort Lauderdale to meet with the company’s negotiations team in person to exchange opening proposals. “Opening proposals” provide a general blueprint of changes that both parties plan to introduce in greater detail throughout negotiations.
AFA’s proposals focused on increasing FA pay and giving greater schedule control to FAs and stamping out the egregious abuse at the hands of scheduling. In the company’s opening proposals, management used the word “eliminate” 37 times regarding our current contract language and proposed some additional sweeping changes that would make our jobs so much worse! But please keep this in perspective and realize that this is what is expected from the company’s opening proposal and know that we will continue to push back against their unrealistic wishes.
John Bendoraitis attended early in the day and spoke about the fact that the company is looking forward to quick and productive negotiations. So, AFA came prepared with several individual sections. After exchanging opening proposals, we presented the company with Sections 5: Uniforms, Section 6: Seniority and Probation, Section 10: Training and Meetings, Section 15: Filling of Vacancies or Transfers, Section 16: Furlough and Recall, and Section 17: Moving Expenses. Typically, in negotiations, we begin with those sections that are the least controversial, which is why Scheduling and Compensation will not be discussed until later in the process. Not to say that the above sections don’t have their share of controversy though.
We will meet with the company again from October 12th through October 14th to continue discussing the above sections and propose additional sections. Once we reach a tentative agreement in a specific section, we will be reporting the details of the changes back to you.
In the meantime, please remember that you can always email the negotiations committee your concerns using negotiations@SpiritAFA.com and/or join the Official AFA-CWA Spirit Negotiations Facebook Group. What you can do to help us out RIGHT NOW is to always show solidarity and wear your AFA pin at work, and make sure you keep yourself informed throughout the negotiations process.
In Solidarity,
Your AFA Negotiations Committee
Jason Kachenmeister, MEC President
Colleen Burns, Negotiations Committee
Olson Santiago, Negotiations Committee
Paula Mastrangelo, AFA Staff Negotiator
