US reaches tentative agreement with Flight Attendants
Jan 27, 2012, 12:16 am
#1
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US reaches tentative agreement with Flight Attendants
Quite the breaking news tonight. . .
Pilots next?
AA after that?
US Airways and Association of Flight Attendants Reach Tentative Agreement
TEMPE, Ariz., Jan. 27, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ --US Airways (NYSE: LCC) today announced that it has reached a tentative agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement with the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), which represents the airline's 6,700 mainline flight attendants. Details of the agreement will be made available by AFA.
"We are very pleased to have reached a tentative agreement with the AFA and thank the union leadership for their dedication in support of our flight attendants," said Doug Parker, Chairman and CEO.
"We want to express our appreciation to the National Mediation Board and our mediator Jim MacKenzie, for his instrumental role in helping both parties reach a successful conclusion to our mediated negotiation sessions," said Al Hemenway, US Airways' vice president, Labor. "I would also like to thank the leadership of AFA for their hard work in helping us reach a tentative agreement with our exceptional flight attendants."
The AFA Master Executive Counsel's (MEC's) must first approve the tentative agreement before it can be sent to its members for consideration. This first step is expected to take place in the coming weeks. The tentative agreement would cover the airline's 6,700 mainline flight attendants, who are based in US Airways' three hub cities of Phoenix, Philadelphia, Charlotte, N.C., and in its Washington D.C. focus city.
http://www.usairways.com/en-US/about...sreleases.html
TEMPE, Ariz., Jan. 27, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ --US Airways (NYSE: LCC) today announced that it has reached a tentative agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement with the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), which represents the airline's 6,700 mainline flight attendants. Details of the agreement will be made available by AFA.
"We are very pleased to have reached a tentative agreement with the AFA and thank the union leadership for their dedication in support of our flight attendants," said Doug Parker, Chairman and CEO.
"We want to express our appreciation to the National Mediation Board and our mediator Jim MacKenzie, for his instrumental role in helping both parties reach a successful conclusion to our mediated negotiation sessions," said Al Hemenway, US Airways' vice president, Labor. "I would also like to thank the leadership of AFA for their hard work in helping us reach a tentative agreement with our exceptional flight attendants."
The AFA Master Executive Counsel's (MEC's) must first approve the tentative agreement before it can be sent to its members for consideration. This first step is expected to take place in the coming weeks. The tentative agreement would cover the airline's 6,700 mainline flight attendants, who are based in US Airways' three hub cities of Phoenix, Philadelphia, Charlotte, N.C., and in its Washington D.C. focus city.
http://www.usairways.com/en-US/about...sreleases.html
Pilots next?
AA after that?
Jan 27, 2012, 2:43 am
#2
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The tentative still has to pass a membership vote. Without having seen it I'd give that about a 2:1 chance based on nothing but the ratio of east to west FA's. While there'll be a small pay increase for west FA's just to get to parity with the east, there are items that are better in the west contract like up to 7 weeks of vacation paid at up to 4.5 hrs/day vs up to 3 weeks paid at 4 or 3.5 hrs/day. So if the tentative has some cuts in those to pay for the pay raise plus bringing east up to somewhere in the middle (like 4 weeks of vacation), it might be voted down. Then there are items where there appear to be fundamental differences between the desires of east and west FA's. It appears that east wants to remain linked to the pilots for scheduling while west isn't and apparently don't want to be, for example.
As far as the pilots go, the seniority issue has to get settled before there's any meaningful movement on a contract. The AA employee concessions will be settled before the US pilots have a joint contract, thanks to the leverage of bankruptcy. I read that AA management will start meeting with the unions next week and that's the start of the section 1113 process that could lead to abrogating contracts in a couple of months.
Jim
As far as the pilots go, the seniority issue has to get settled before there's any meaningful movement on a contract. The AA employee concessions will be settled before the US pilots have a joint contract, thanks to the leverage of bankruptcy. I read that AA management will start meeting with the unions next week and that's the start of the section 1113 process that could lead to abrogating contracts in a couple of months.
Jim
Jan 27, 2012, 5:14 am
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Quite the breaking news tonight. . .
Pilots next?
AA after that?
US Airways and Association of Flight Attendants Reach Tentative Agreement
TEMPE, Ariz., Jan. 27, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ --US Airways (NYSE: LCC) today announced that it has reached a tentative agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement with the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), which represents the airline's 6,700 mainline flight attendants. Details of the agreement will be made available by AFA.
"We are very pleased to have reached a tentative agreement with the AFA and thank the union leadership for their dedication in support of our flight attendants," said Doug Parker, Chairman and CEO.
"We want to express our appreciation to the National Mediation Board and our mediator Jim MacKenzie, for his instrumental role in helping both parties reach a successful conclusion to our mediated negotiation sessions," said Al Hemenway, US Airways' vice president, Labor. "I would also like to thank the leadership of AFA for their hard work in helping us reach a tentative agreement with our exceptional flight attendants."
The AFA Master Executive Counsel's (MEC's) must first approve the tentative agreement before it can be sent to its members for consideration. This first step is expected to take place in the coming weeks. The tentative agreement would cover the airline's 6,700 mainline flight attendants, who are based in US Airways' three hub cities of Phoenix, Philadelphia, Charlotte, N.C., and in its Washington D.C. focus city.
http://www.usairways.com/en-US/about...sreleases.html
TEMPE, Ariz., Jan. 27, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ --US Airways (NYSE: LCC) today announced that it has reached a tentative agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement with the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), which represents the airline's 6,700 mainline flight attendants. Details of the agreement will be made available by AFA.
"We are very pleased to have reached a tentative agreement with the AFA and thank the union leadership for their dedication in support of our flight attendants," said Doug Parker, Chairman and CEO.
"We want to express our appreciation to the National Mediation Board and our mediator Jim MacKenzie, for his instrumental role in helping both parties reach a successful conclusion to our mediated negotiation sessions," said Al Hemenway, US Airways' vice president, Labor. "I would also like to thank the leadership of AFA for their hard work in helping us reach a tentative agreement with our exceptional flight attendants."
The AFA Master Executive Counsel's (MEC's) must first approve the tentative agreement before it can be sent to its members for consideration. This first step is expected to take place in the coming weeks. The tentative agreement would cover the airline's 6,700 mainline flight attendants, who are based in US Airways' three hub cities of Phoenix, Philadelphia, Charlotte, N.C., and in its Washington D.C. focus city.
http://www.usairways.com/en-US/about...sreleases.html
Pilots next?
AA after that?
Jan 27, 2012, 6:00 am
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Any word about the Express FA's?
Jan 27, 2012, 6:20 am
#5
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The PSA FA's are still on track to strike as far as I know. Not being privy to their stratergy, if they do walk out I don't know if it'll be what called CHAOS (Create Havoc Around Our System) or a straight strike but I'd guess CHAOS since PSA is relatively small so it wouldn't take too long to replace striking FA's.
Jim
Jim
Jan 27, 2012, 7:49 am
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I think Doug fielded 2 questions about this topic on the call the other day, and said about 10 words total. Now we know why, didn't want to jinx it.
Jan 28, 2012, 9:43 am
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Feb 1, 2012, 8:26 pm
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An update to this post. The Master Executive Council (MEC) of the two Flight Attendant groups have agreed to send the tentative agreement to the union members to vote. Interesting is that one of the MEC people specifically says they want the members to vote no.
http://afausairways.org/index.cfm?zo...&HomeID=233832
http://afausairways.org/index.cfm?zo...&HomeID=233832
Feb 1, 2012, 9:19 pm
#9
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I think it was the CLT rep that is recommending a no vote, and unsaid is that the PHX rep is going to recommend a yes vote.
Jim
Jim
Feb 2, 2012, 11:12 am
#10
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AA handed its employees its proposals for labor cost reductions on Wednesday, and the term sheets appear to provide AA's employees with better compensation than US employees.
To me, that speaks volumes about Horton's eagerness to combine with US. His bankruptcy plan calls for AA wages to remain higher, overall, than US wages.
He also announced plans for 20% more flying from the five cornerstone cities of NYC, LAX, CHI, DFW and MIA, along with increased international flying.
If Horton had any intention of a "friendly" combination with US as part of the POR, I would think he would try to lower AA wages closer to the levels at US. Otherwise, bringing the wages of US employees up to AA wages would add hundreds of millions of dollars to labor costs - and US profits aren't that huge. That would be a big price for AA to pay for PHL, CLT and DCA.
To me, that speaks volumes about Horton's eagerness to combine with US. His bankruptcy plan calls for AA wages to remain higher, overall, than US wages.
He also announced plans for 20% more flying from the five cornerstone cities of NYC, LAX, CHI, DFW and MIA, along with increased international flying.
If Horton had any intention of a "friendly" combination with US as part of the POR, I would think he would try to lower AA wages closer to the levels at US. Otherwise, bringing the wages of US employees up to AA wages would add hundreds of millions of dollars to labor costs - and US profits aren't that huge. That would be a big price for AA to pay for PHL, CLT and DCA.
Feb 2, 2012, 11:29 am
#11
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Since US isn't in bankruptcy, it would cost over $4 Billion - the value of the US stock plus debt. That is a huge price for the parts of US that would be useful to AA.
Apparently you read the same article that I did, and Horton doesn't sound interested in a merger.
Jim
Apparently you read the same article that I did, and Horton doesn't sound interested in a merger.
Jim