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United & AFA Reach TA For Flight Attendants-24 June 2016 - ratified 12 Aug 2016

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Old Jun 24, 2016, 9:03 am
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http://unitednegotiations.com/

AFA - United is United
We have a ratified contract. With some of the highest numbers in AFA history, over 90 percent participated in the vote with 53% voting to ratify the agreement. You have participated in a historic vote and there is no doubt that every single one of you is deeply engaged and cares about our future.

United Airlines Flight Attendants Ratify Joint Contract

August 12, 2016

CHICAGO, Aug. 12, 2016 – The flight attendants at United Airlines, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA), today ratified a contract covering 25,000 flight attendants. Over 90 percent participated in the vote with 53 percent voting to ratify the agreement. This agreement was reached on June 24, 2016, with assistance from the National Mediation Board.

“The high participation in this historic vote demonstrates the deep care Flight Attendants have for their future at the new United Airlines. The contract provides immediate economic gains, sets a new industry standard and ensures Flight Attendants can achieve the benefits of a fully integrated airline," said Sara Nelson, AFA-CWA International President. "This contract would not have been possible without the commitment of Oscar Munoz to unite United Airlines. We appreciate his leadership and the assistance of National Mediation Board Chair Linda Puchala, who was instrumental in helping the parties reach agreement. With the ratification of this contract, we look forward to a great spirit of labor relations at United that fully recognizes the contributions of the people who breathe life into the friendly skies."

Under the new agreement, all United flight attendants will be joined by a single contract, and united by a shared purpose to build the best airline in the world.

“Our flight attendants are the best in the business and deserve this industry-leading contract. I want to recognize the efforts of both negotiating teams, and in particular AFA President, Sara Nelson, for her strong partnership to get the agreement done to move us all forward together in the new spirit of United. When I took this job last year, I promised to turn the page and write a new chapter in our approach to labor and management relations at United. What matters is proof, however, not promises. Thanks to today’s vote, I am proud to say that so far this year we’ve ratified new agreements covering more than 65,000 of our employees,” said Oscar Munoz, United Airlines President and Chief Executive Officer.

The five-year agreement includes double digit pay increases, enhanced job security provisions, maintains and improves healthcare, protects retirement and increases flexibility.
AFA's "Comprehensive Summary of Our Tentative Agreement" - July 2, 2016 (31 pages)

Complete TA - July 11, 2016 (373 pages)

AFA-CWA United Airlines 2016 Tentative Agreement Video


United And AFA Reach Agreement For Flight Attendants

CHICAGO, June 24, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- United and the Association of Flight Attendants announced today that they have reached an agreement on terms of a joint contract that would bring the airline's more than 25,000 flight attendants together into a single work group. The agreement is subject to approval by the Joint Master Executive Council, including all Local Presidents, after which it will become a tentative agreement and will be put out for ratification by flight attendants. The parties will work this weekend to finalize the contract language.
"Today's agreement honors the invaluable role that our flight attendants contribute to United's success and brings us closer than ever to uniting them under a single contract," said United President and Chief Executive Officer Oscar Munoz. "It's been a long journey and I'm grateful to our outstanding flight attendants – the most talented and professional inflight team anywhere in the world – for all they do to keep our customers safe and comfortable."
United thanks both negotiating teams and the National Mediation Board for working to reach this agreement.
United has joint collective bargaining agreements covering the majority of its represented employees and has reached new agreements with three work groups so far this year. Recently, the company's employees who are represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers voted to ratify new contracts. Earlier this year, United's pilots voted to ratify a contract extension more than a year ahead of their contract's amendable date, following an expedited negotiations process with the Air Line Pilots Association. The company's dispatchers also voted recently to ratify a contract extension. Additionally, the airline is engaged in mediated negotiations with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
AFA statement - June 24

A few moments ago, our Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) and the company came to an agreement on the terms of a joint collective bargaining agreement. The parties will work to finalize the language this weekend for review by the Joint Master Executive Council (MEC), including all (CAL, CMI, UAL) Local Presidents. These directly elected leaders of all 25,000 Flight Attendants, will meet in Chicago on Monday and Tuesday, June 27 & 28.
AA Joint MEC Unanimously Approves Tentative Agreement - June 28

AFA contract site

Some of these provisions include:
  • Improved single pay scale with base rates topping out in the 13th year at $62.00 and moving to $67.11 throughout the agreement.
  • $2.00 international override per hour and reimbursement for Global Entry.
  • $5.00 incentive rate of pay for all flying between 200 and 330 hours in a quarter.
  • Preserved our Flight Attendant-specific healthcare plan, with additional Medical Plan options.
  • Profit Sharing
  • Protected Scope language that defines Flight Attendant work as belonging to AFA members on the United Airlines System Seniority list – all CAL/UAL/CMI.
  • No Furlough Letter for all Flight Attendants on seniority list at date of ratification.
  • Holiday Pay for 5 holidays each year.
  • Per diem at $2.20 Domestic / $2.70 for International with automatic $0.05 increase every other year
  • Three (3) hours flight time pay and credit for training, plus up to five (5) hours deadhead pay each way to and from training.
  • Industry-leading Reassignment protections and pay.
  • Commuter Program without usage limit and cabin jumpseat qualifies as an available seat for commuting purposes.
  • No weight restrictions for CJA.
  • 12 days off for Reserves and 12 hours free from duty at home between trips.
  • Reserves have ability to trade assigned trips with Lineholders or other Reserves.
  • New ability for Reserves to pick up flying from Lineholders on days off.
  • Domestic 10 hours free from duty on layovers, with at least 8 hours place of lodging at hotel.
  • 12 hours free from duty at home between trips for Domestic Lineholders, but waivable at Flight Attendant option to 10 hours when trading or picking up.
  • Contractual hotel standards with downtown/downtown-like hotels for layovers of 19 hours or more.
  • Hotel Gainsharing, domestic and International
  • Vacation days ranging from 12 days to 40 days, with an additional 7 day Flex Vacation and optional Vacation Fly Through.
  • Maintained and improved Retirement Plans
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United & AFA Reach TA For Flight Attendants-24 June 2016 - ratified 12 Aug 2016

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Old Sep 27, 2018, 2:25 am
  #181  
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Originally Posted by dordal
No particular disagreement, but I'm not sure how you'd practically implement a better system. You've got a bunch of people who should all be identical, doing an identical job. Sure we can say we had a good/bad experience with an FA, but at an organizational level how can you figure that out? Just about any system I can think up is game-able: based on customer feedback? I'll have my friends write in. Based on co-worker reviews? I'll bribe them to give me good marks. Based on how long I take to complete the dinner service? I'll rush through it ignoring my pax.

Not saying its right; just not sure I see the alternative.
Once could easily rank employee performance - it isn't rocket science. What it would require is for unions to stop protecting poorly performing employees. Good luck getting that to happen.
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Old Sep 27, 2018, 3:50 am
  #182  
 
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Originally Posted by Kacee
A dubious opinion stated as if it were fact.

The U.S. legacies' inability to shed poor employees, and requiring they instead be given plum assignments based on "seniority," is one of the heaviest anchors dragging down their service quality.
I am back to flying a lot of international routes this year - and the service level from the senior-level FAs is pathetic. As a generalization more seniority equates with worse service. So the union-driven contract structure is - in reality - anti-customer in its outcome.
Domestic routes are better or worse with little predictability. Though I thought United had better service before the EWR crews got thrown into the mix.
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Old Sep 27, 2018, 7:07 am
  #183  
 
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As far as seniority and rationalization, @tuolumne is spot on. After the fence comes down next week- here’s to hoping people (at least, passengers) can stop favoring sides. Time to move on and fly together-
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Old Sep 27, 2018, 8:02 am
  #184  
 
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Originally Posted by JOSECONLSCREW28
September will be my last month as an International Service Manager (ISM) as September is the last month of the ISM program before transitioning to the Flight Service Leader (FSL) program. Unfortunately for me I didn't get awarded a FSL vacancy in fact nobody hired 1999-2018 got awarded FSL vacancy positions. Most junior FA to get awarded a FSL vacancy is a September 1998 hire so its back to regular FA position for me (For the time being at least)

I am not sure when you were hired, or even if you have mentioned it. You seem to be taking this in stride and probably had enough forethought to know it was coming. I applaud you for coming here and helping us, I personally value your advice and input. Based on your general demeanor here, I would think there are quite a few FA's who could learn from your guidance.

Much like others have echo'd here, the service on UA is ON AVERAGE much lower than other airlines. Now, you can have awesome and crappy on any airlines, I get it, but I am talking the median of what you expect day in and day out. I have gone away so much that I almost kinda had to make an effort to make sure I made 1K again. I am lucky in that I can fly J or F and in reality that means other than a few perks status only gets me stuff that matters for family vacations (higher mileage earning, award ticket changes etc)

I REALLY hope the integration goes well, I am flying Oct 1,3,6,8,9,11 and 12.
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Old Sep 27, 2018, 9:42 am
  #185  
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Originally Posted by Hipplewm
...I REALLY hope the integration goes well, I am flying Oct 1,3,6,8,9,11 and 12.
As do I as I'm flying October 6th and 8th as well
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Old Sep 27, 2018, 9:59 am
  #186  
 
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Originally Posted by Hipplewm
I am not sure when you were hired, or even if you have mentioned it. You seem to be taking this in stride and probably had enough forethought to know it was coming. I applaud you for coming here and helping us, I personally value your advice and input. Based on your general demeanor here, I would think there are quite a few FA's who could learn from your guidance.

Much like others have echo'd here, the service on UA is ON AVERAGE much lower than other airlines. Now, you can have awesome and crappy on any airlines, I get it, but I am talking the median of what you expect day in and day out. I have gone away so much that I almost kinda had to make an effort to make sure I made 1K again. I am lucky in that I can fly J or F and in reality that means other than a few perks status only gets me stuff that matters for family vacations (higher mileage earning, award ticket changes etc)

I REALLY hope the integration goes well, I am flying Oct 1,3,6,8,9,11 and 12.
Thanks hired 2005. Integration will likely be fine. Same cant be said about our new scheduling system that has been having issues.
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Old Sep 27, 2018, 10:22 am
  #187  
 
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Originally Posted by tuolumne
.... any “merit” system is dubious at best, and socially regressive at worst.....
Right. Failing to promote lazy, incompetent employees is regressive. Everyone should be rewarded regardless of their performance.


Originally Posted by SAN 1K
I am back to flying a lot of international routes this year - and the service level from the senior-level FAs is pathetic. As a generalization more seniority equates with worse service. So the union-driven contract structure is - in reality - anti-customer in its outcome.
Bingo. Virtually every frequent flier I know personally has shared this perspective. My best experiences have tended to be in UAX or routes like SFO-LAX. The worst has been Gobal First, with Intl BFirst close behind. It's easy to solve. Just give everybody coded name badges, with numbers or nicknames (not real names). Let passengers submit reviews. Disregard the bottom 5% of the reviews. United knows exactly which passengers and FAs are actually on each flight, so there's really no gaming the system.

Even if UA doesn't go to a customer evaluation system, the ability to fire the very worst FAs would go a long ways, to improving things. From my experience, maybe 5% need to be fired. The next lowest 20% or so would straighten up when they realize they can't get away with making up rules on the fly and being nasty and surly anymore.
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Last edited by porciuscato; Sep 27, 2018 at 10:38 am
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Old Sep 27, 2018, 10:37 am
  #188  
 
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Originally Posted by JOSECONLSCREW28
Thanks hired 2005. Integration will likely be fine. Same cant be said about our new scheduling system that has been having issues.

Yeah, when I said integration, I was talking the scheduling software that has been in development for what seems like years. I can envision myself sitting there and just no crew shows up and flight is cancelled. I know that is a LONG shot, but this trip doesn't have a ton of wiggle room for stuff like that.
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Old Sep 27, 2018, 12:48 pm
  #189  
 
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Had lunch with my sUA SFO-based friends today. 23 years seniority each, and they couldn’t hold any International line for October, so they are back to Domestic flying. They did say that the change to position bidding (where they bid a specific working position on a particular flight) is a difficult transition for the sUA FAs because they didn’t have position bidding before. They were more hopeful that the transition to the new bids would cause many senior FAs to consider retirement, but that hasn’t been the case. Crazy that 23 years is still “junior”!
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Old Sep 27, 2018, 12:54 pm
  #190  
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Off Topic Reminder

The UA forum is not the place for a generic discussion of the pros and cons of unions. As UA is unionized at the customer facing level for most employees, discussion of that is relevant to this forum. However, a general discussion of evils or benefits of unions are for the OMNI forums.

Appreciate all staying on topic for this forum.

WineCountryUA
UA coModerator
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Old Sep 27, 2018, 1:25 pm
  #191  
 
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Originally Posted by greenpau
Had lunch with my sUA SFO-based friends today. 23 years seniority each, and they couldn’t hold any International line for October, so they are back to Domestic flying. They did say that the change to position bidding (where they bid a specific working position on a particular flight) is a difficult transition for the sUA FAs because they didn’t have position bidding before. They were more hopeful that the transition to the new bids would cause many senior FAs to consider retirement, but that hasn’t been the case. Crazy that 23 years is still “junior”!

Lots of sUA SFO FAs lost international lines when so much flying went to 787s, as all but seven more recent 789s (mostly operating out of LAX) were staffed by sCO cabin crews. Do they have the perception that the integration will mean fewer international lines for FAs of their seniority? I thought the opposite would be the case. Did they hold international pre-787? The retirement of the 747 also caused a bit of an overstaffing situation, though mostly in flight ops, the company hasn't totally absorbed yet.

Across the system, October also has some of the fewest international lines of the year (save for February).
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Old Sep 27, 2018, 1:44 pm
  #192  
 
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Originally Posted by EWR764
Lots of sUA SFO FAs lost international lines when so much flying went to 787s, as all but seven more recent 789s (mostly operating out of LAX) were staffed by sCO cabin crews. Do they have the perception that the integration will mean fewer international lines for FAs of their seniority? I thought the opposite would be the case. Did they hold international pre-787? The retirement of the 747 also caused a bit of an overstaffing situation, though mostly in flight ops, the company hasn't totally absorbed yet.

Across the system, October also has some of the fewest international lines of the year (save for February).
Correct on the 789s ... plus there was a lot of moving flying around between the bases for the last six months pre-October ... for example, 1 x SFO-PVG per day, 1 x SFO-LHR, and SFO-ZRH were all being flown by sCO EWR-based flight attendants on five/six day trips, so the Intl flying was out of SFO was severely cut back.

Their hope was that their Intl flying opportunities would dramatically increase October 1, but they reached the exact conclusion as you did with International trip pairings being fewest in October for the entire year. They have calculated that they can relatively easily hold International Relief next month, so that may be the plan. I do not know if this is true, but apparently they were a number of sCO senior transfers into the SFO base prior to October because the routings out of SFO are new and different, given legacy CO was largely Transatlantic / S America focused ... not sure if this played into things.
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Old Sep 28, 2018, 4:11 pm
  #193  
 
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Originally Posted by tuolumne
...any “merit” system is dubious at best, and socially regressive at worst. No thanks!
WOW! Unbelievable.
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