Negotiations: Update Thirteen
Fellow Spirit Flight Attendants,
This past week, your AFA Negotiations Committee met with the company virtually because of Hurricane Ian. This week marks the one-year anniversary of the start of our current contract negotiations.
Thank you for all your support and the immense showing of solidarity. Please continue to wear your AFA pin with a green ribbon behind it every time you report for work!
After seeing the company’s disappointing pay proposal, we decided it would be best to work on other sections of the CBA this week before responding on compensation. So, we are pleased to announce that we have reached tentative agreements (TA) on Section 4: Travel Expenses, Section 7: Hours of Service, Section 13: Leaves of Absence, and Section 21: Union Activities, Union Security, and Dues Check Off! Other sections that were discussed this session were Section 8: Scheduling, Section 11: Vacation, Section 12: Sick Leave, and Section 25: Commuter Policy. Go make yourself a sandwich and settle in; this is a pretty big update…
Please keep in mind that any of the changes below will only become effective once all sections of the CBA have been tentatively agreed on, you have voted in favor of this new CBA, AND the contract has been ratified. These improvements are not happening today.
Section 4: Travel Expenses – TENTATIVE AGREEMENT REACHED!
We were able to achieve multiple improvements in this section, a quick summary of the most dramatic changes is listed below:
We were NOT able to negotiate strictly “long” and “short” layover hotels; however, the company eventually agreed to language requiring that, in any city where two hotels are required (there are currently 10), that one of the hotels will be in an urban area, or an area of cultural or historical significance, within convenient walking distance to restaurants, shopping, or tourist attractions for any scheduled layovers greater than 16:40 (18 hours block in to block out).
You will see (further down) that we were able to achieve a minimum rest of 10 hours out of base in section 7, however, we also negotiated for a minimum of “behind the door” rest of 8 hours. So, if your hotel room is not ready upon your arrival, you will at least receive a minimum of 8 hours rest from the time you receive your hotel room keys until your scheduled shuttle time.
As mentioned in a previous Negotiations Update, the company has greed to reimburse us for Global Entry, which we included here in Section 4; however, we were also able to negotiate that the company will ALSO reimburse us for our passport renewals, including the expediting fee.
Section 7: Hours of Service – TENTATIVE AGREEMENT REACHED!
We were able to achieve multiple improvements in this section, a quick summary of the most dramatic changes is listed below:
All the confusing compensatory rest and the multiple pages of various rest rules have been removed from the contract. In their place, we have condensed the language into the simplest possible form. ALL REST (in base and out of base, on layovers) must be scheduled to a minimum of 11 hours but can be reduced to a minimum of 10 hours.
We were able to remove the 110-hour cap on block hours. Flight attendants will be able to pick up without any limitations on maximum block or credit so long as they are legal to do so (minimum rest between pairings).
Reserves will receive a minimum of 13 days off in bid periods with 31 days, closing the “free day” loophole on the longest bid periods of the year.
Alternate deadheading at the front end of a trip WILL BE GRANTED if you are already in position and the company is not in severe IROP. So, if you live in PHL, and you have a pairing that starts with a deadhead from your base to PHL, you can skip crew room check in requirements and just meet your crew in PHL.
Section 8: Scheduling
Although we did not pass this section back and forth during this bargaining session, we had a fairly long but mostly productive conversation with the company regarding some of the areas of this section where we are still apart. These include, but are not limited to, the following areas:
Redeye + 1: Although we have already agreed on language prohibiting the practice of the company scheduling us a morning departure following a redeye flight, the company also wants to eliminate the “2 segment maximum” that we currently have in this section. Without some segment protection, the company could theoretically schedule you to work LAS-LAX, LAX-OAK, OAK-LAX, LAX-LAS, and then LAS-PIT, with LAS-PIT being an overnight flight segment… Our position is to keep the segment limitation in place as well as the, already agreed to, “redeye+1” restriction.
Holiday Weekends: The company is currently designating 11 holiday weekends per year. We would like to keep it this way, as there is nothing in the contract now preventing the company from declaring more (i.e., imagine “Flag Day Weekend” or “Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday Weekend” or even “Chipotle Worker Appreciation Weekend”) … Obviously, we are just seeking a protection from this somehow being irrationally implemented in the future by limiting the number of weekends each year the company can designate as a holiday. The company would like to continue to have no limit…
Open Time: We continue to have discussions regarding seniority based or “first come/first served” open time. We have been discussing the advantages and disadvantages of each system. Not just one or the other, but possibly a hybrid system (i.e., a few days of seniority-based DOT followed by a “first come/first serve” period) but also the rules surrounding each potential system (i.e., when does the trip become the “company’s property” to assign to a reserve, how CBA waivers would work, and trip trading). We are still a long way from agreeing on these issues.
Positive Contact: Currently, crew scheduling is the only company department that can reschedule you. The company would like the contract to read “crew scheduling or designee.” Imagine living a world where you can be directed to work another flight by Esmerelda the gate agent or Victoria the aircraft cleaner or Chuck the catering guy… We don’t see the problem with just having crew scheduling being the ones who schedule the crews…
Schedule Integrity: As discussed briefly in the last negotiations update, the company seems bent on eroding our schedule integrity as much as possible. They want “control of the operation” to the point of basically turning every flight attendant into a reserve once they check in for a trip. Although we understand that the company requires operational flexibility, we still believe that reschedules/reroutes/cancellations/time available should follow fix sets of rules. There should be no ambiguity in the language dictating what scheduling can or cannot do. If they need to reschedule you, it should either be a, b, or c… Specifically spelled out language with examples for every possible scenario is all that we are looking for (as well as compensation for when these changes disrupt our lives). …And your notification of these changes to your schedule should not be delivered to you by Chuck from LSG…
Equipment Substitution: We are simply seeking clarification to the language surrounding chasers and mixed pairings. The company wants to use this section to continue their misguided crusade to rid the words “schedule integrity” from the CBA.
Reserve Grid: The company is seeking to increase the duty day percentages used to calculate the minimum number of reserves needed on the reserve grid to determine whether a day is “green” or “red.” The company’s current proposal would make almost every day in almost every base red. We are obviously against this. From our perspective, the grid percentages have been the exact same since their inception in 2009. Why change what isn’t broken? I mean, they have worked fine for over a decade.
Clearly, we still have a long way to go in Section 8, but we do continue to make progress. As stated above, we felt the conversation was mostly productive and we will continue to negotiate for the best possible outcome on all the above.
Section 11: Vacation
We made another proposal to the company regarding vacation. We are seeking to clarify the “new base” vacation slot issue that is currently an open grievance, as the company maintains that they do not have to provide flight attendants in new bases the opportunity to bid their open vacation days on certain weeks of the year. We are also seeking improvements in float vacation usage language and allowing flight attendants to do any combination of either rolling over or cashing out their unused vacation weeks at the end of the year (currently, you must choose one or the other, potentially LOSING some of your unused vacation). The company has not yet responded to our most recent proposal.
Section 12: Sick Leave
In our most recent proposal to the company, we continue to advocate for getting rid of the “secondary sick bank” and allowing flight attendants just ONE BANK of sick time that they can use without the additional restrictions that come along with the current secondary sick bank. We are also proposing a “negative point” incentive for flight attendants that maintain perfect attendance. The company has not yet responded to our most recent proposal.
Section 13: Leaves of Absence - Tentative Agreement Reached!
We made almost no changes to the leave of absence section; however, the changes that we did make do not affect any flight attendant that is currently working here. However, new hire flight attendants (hired in the future, no one that is here today) will need to work here for a minimum of one year before they will qualify to take contractual maternity leave. Unfortunately, we agreed to this minor change (for no one that currently works here) to achieve improvements in other sections.
Section 21: Union Activities, Union Security & Dues Checkoff - Tentative Agreement Reached!
We only made a few changes to this section, a quick summary of the more important changes are listed detailed below:
Of the long list of things that the company proposals wanted to “eliminate” from our CBA, we had to give in somewhere, so we have agreed to eliminate the v-files from the crew rooms.
We have agreed to work with the company to create an “alternate hotel list” for those times when the company is in IROP, and our regular layover hotels are full.
Section 25: Commuter Policy
We are still seeking protections for ALL FAs, whether they commute by air, car, or public transportation. Currently, if you are delayed driving to work, through no fault of our own, your only options are to accept discipline or call out sick (and possibly receive discipline). We continue to firmly believe that there should be a third option.
So, What’s Next?
We are still working on the dates for our next bargaining session. As many of you are already aware, our pilots have begun their negotiations and it seems to us that the company is making ALPA a priority. It is possible that they will give us a couple of hours in October after the pilots have left the building. We will keep you updated.
In the meantime, please continue to wear your AFA pin with a green ribbon behind it!
We will also have GREEN AFA BAG TAGS available in the coming days/weeks. Keep on the lookout for your local officers and reps.
Finally, please take a moment to pay any dues that you may owe in arrears. Remember, only those flight attendants in good standing will have a vote when we reach a tentative agreement on the entire contract.
Thank you all again for your continued support!
Your AFA Negotiations Committee,
Jason Kachenmeister
Colleen Burns
Rick Santiago
Paula Mastrangelo
