AFA Council 66 eCommunication - Wednesday, June 6, 2012
A Follow Up on Yesterday's Announcement of the Seniority Exploratory Committee
Yesterday’s eCommunication announcing the formation of the Seniority Exploratory Committee has caused concern, especially for our co-workers based in CLT, DCA and PHL. To be clear, the seniority lists of pre-merger US Airways and America West have already been merged according to the AFA Constitution and Bylaws. There will be no attempt to revisit that process. AFA Council 66 supports the language in our Constitution addressing seniority when merging two AFA carriers. However, there is a concern among some our PHX Flight Attendants on how seniority would be addressed if a merger occurs between two carriers who are not represented by the same union.
The AFA Constitution and Bylaws indicates that AFA will attempt to negotiate a “Date of Hire” or full bidding seniority integration with APFA as specified in AFA’s Constitution and Bylaws. Should AFA not be able to reach agreement on a “fair and equitable” seniority integration with the AA Flight Attendants, the issue could then be taken to arbitration for a “fair and equitable” integration as spelled out in the McCaskill-Bond legislation. AFA was instrumental in ensuring that McCaskill-Bond was enacted following the stapling of the TWA Flight Attendants to the bottom of the AA list.
At that point, both sides would make their argument to an arbitrator of what should be considered “fair and equitable”. The arbitrator would then make a binding decision on how the list would be merged. It is important to remember though that there are no guarantees in an arbitration process. “Fair and equitable” really speaks to the process, not the outcome. One of the items the SEC will research is how “fair and equitable” has been applied in past mergers.
In Solidarity,
MEC President, Deborah Volpe mecpresident66@aol.com
MEC Secretary-Treasurer, Brian Clark brian@afa66.org
LEC Council Representative, Leslie Lara leslie.lara2@gmail.com
LEC Council Representative, Nicole Sartain nicole@afa66.org
AFA Council 66 Website www.afa66.org
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