Your Union Needs Your
Help
By: Debora Sutor AFA MEC
Grievance Chair
Last
March, AFA sent you an
update notifying you of a
new MEC grievance filed on
behalf of all American Eagle
Flight Attendants. I write
today to advise you, we are
still in need of information
and documentation if we are
to pursue this grievance in
arbitration. Below you will
find a brief description of
the grievance and the
information we need from
you, to show the violation.
Description of MEC Grievance
#22-99-2-12-07 OT
Replacement Flying
This
grievance challenges the
company’s action of
requiring a flight attendant
to accept a replacement OT
trip in order to receive
compensation, when
swaps/drops has first
awarded an OT trip and then
taken it away. Sometimes,
the OT is taken from the
flight attendant wrongfully
and sometimes it is taken
because a mistake was made
in the first place and it
never should have been
awarded (i.e. legality
problems). Nonetheless, past
practice has shown us a
lineholding Flight
Attendant need only be
awarded the time, in
order to receive credit for
the trip. If a trip had been
removed, whether rightfully
or wrongfully in the past,
the flight attendant would
still receive credit for the
trip and was not required to
accept any substitute flying
in order such credit.
You may
also hear the Company tell
you that they have 24 hours
within which to correct the
error. Again, this is not
consistent with the past
practice in which a Flight
Attendant need only be
awarded the time in order to
receive credit. In fact in
June 2006, the Company
attempted to get AFA to
agree to give them a 24-hour
period within which they
would have the ability to
correct errors by removing
the trip award and replacing
it with another, at their
discretion. AFA rejected
this concept entirely.
AFA
believes that these new
conditions the company has
imposed are in violation of
Section 4.F and past
practice. If you have been
required to accept a new or
replacement OT trip sequence
(this does not include those
instances in which you have
lost all or a portion of a
sequence and thus have an
obligation to accept
assigned new flying pursuant
to Section 8.D.2.) in order
to receive proper credit
following the removal of an
OT trip, previously awarded.
Additionally, if the Company
has removed OT flying which
was previously awarded
because they claim to have
24 hours within which to
correct errors without
penalty, please gather the
following evidence and remit
it to your Local Union
Representatives:
1.
Copy of your HI1
showing original OT trip
awarded
2.
Copy of the HI3 for
the original OT trip awarded
3.
Copy of any e-mail or
other correspondence between
you and Swaps/Drops
4.
Copy of HI3 for
new/replacement OT trip
5.
Name of Flight
Attendant who was assigned
to your originally awarded
OT trip
6.
Write up giving a
brief description of the
events that transpired
What Other Information Do We
Need?
I know
that many of you are or have
been, high time flyers and
have pay records that are
essential to AFA’s ability
to prove that a Flight
Attendant need only be
awarded open time in order
to receive pay and credit
for the trip. If you have
ever been awarded an OT
trip, were subsequently
removed from it and yet were
still credited the flight
time of the trip, we need
your records. This
information will help us to
prove how situations such as
these were paid out in the
past. Please remit the
following documents to your
Local AFA representatives as
soon as possible:
1.
Copy of your HI1
showing original OT trip
awarded
2.
Copy of the HI3 for
the original OT trip awarded
3.
Copy of HI1 and/or
HI3 showing that trip was
removed
4.
Copy of any e-mail or
other correspondence between
you and Swaps/Drops
5.
Copy of Pay Stub
showing receipt of pay and
credit for the removed OT
trip
6.
Write up giving a
brief description of the
events that transpired
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