97 SFO Update
10FEB08
NWAAFA E-mail
The union server has been up and down most of the weekend. If you have tried to send any of us an e-mail and it has gotten bounced back as undeliverable, please be assured that we have not moved! Please try to resend later today or tomorrow. If it is important and time sensitive, please call Kate and leave a voicemail. She is on a 5-day trip but will return calls as soon as she can. She will be back in the office on Wednesday.
MORE ON ONE WAY TRADES
The glitches in the new one way trade processing have supposedly been fixed. Please note that by listing your OWT on the mutual trade bulletin board in CENTRY with a 'T' that this does NOT submit the request for the trade. You must go into SCHEDULE ADJUSTMENT, then ONE WAY TRADES and submit an entry as either the giver or taker.
It is still wise to 'advertise' your OWT on the mutual trade bulletin board so others know what is available. Also, if someone from another base wants to pick up a OWT, they would have no idea what is available since they cannot enter a giver or taker request UNLESS they specifically enter the employee number of the person they are trading with.
MANAGER MEETINGS
Hate to beat a dead horse here, but this issue comes up SEVERAL times per week. If you receive an e-mail or see me note from your manager, it is IMPERATIVE that you respond to the note within the time frame indicated.
More often than not, the see-me request is for a negative passenger letter. Ask the manager if the meeting could turn 'disciplinary'. If he/she says yes, then union representation may be requested. If they say no, then union representation is NOT necessary (usually because the letter does not specifically mention you). A manager may want to speak to you to gather information about the flight in question even though the letter does not pertain specifically to you. FYI, a coaching is NOT a level, and is not disciplinary NOR can a coaching be grieved.
PBS
PBS = Preferential Bidding System. A number of people have asked lately "what's PBS?" It is the new bidding system that will soon replace SLIC.
Tom will be in MSP for three more days of 'Train the Trainer' modules this week. A summary will be sent our when he returns. The tutorials in ATLAS should be available in the next week or two.
Please fly safe and remember, if you have an issue with another FA, PLEASE consider going to Professional Standards with AFA- EAP rather than going to a manager.
Thanks,
Tom and Kate
10OCT07
PASS TRAVELING WHEN SICK BY FAMILY MEMBERS
We want to apologize for some misinformation that we sent out in last week's SFO Update in regards to family members traveling while the employee is on a sick call. The area is not as black and white as we had thought, If you are on a short term sick call, then your pass travel dependents/domestic partner/registered travel companion MAY travel. If you are on a long term medical leave/FMLA, etc then they would NOT be eligible to travel. We have asked Eric Edmundson in Labor Relations for a clarification on when exactly a sick call changes from short term to long term but he has not responded. When and if we get more information, we will send it out. The FA managers are saying, "when in doubt, call your manager to get approval". Again, our apologies and a special thanks to Miriam Ouyang for pointing out our error.
CRITICAL BID
IF, big emphasis on the IF. IF, SFO goes critical for November or December, then the new bid deadline for those who have to critical bid will be no LESS than 24 hours after the release of the initial SLIC bid of those not affected. It may be wise to put in a generic critical bid in case you don't have time to bid in that 24 hour window. Of course, we won't know the critical day(s) until the first SLIC run has been completed, If SFO goes critical, it may not necessarily be Thanksgiving Day or Christmas Day. AGAIN, please read the November Bid Analysis for very detailed information on critical bidding. The SLIC Manual also contains this information and is available from the ATLAS main page.
28SEP07
KATE'S CONTACT INFO – Please note that Kate's phone # is 707-364-5538. She has been getting an increasing number of union calls on both her home phone and personal cell phone.
TOM – Tom will continue to be LECVP for the time being, however he will be on a very reduced union schedule and he has assumed the role of a "silent partner"! Since Tom's forte is scheduling issues, please e-mail him at TGeiman@nwaafa.org with any issues that you may have. He will not be available via phone.
SFO PARKING – This continues to be an issue. On Tuesday, there was a parking attendant at the entrance to the garage on level 5. She stated to several FAs checking in for HNL that levels 5-9 were full and that they could park on level 4. FAs explained that they were going on a 3-day trip and wanted to confirm that level 4 was ok to park as they had been told that level 4 was off limits. She said that it was ok for that day. Of course, when FAs returned to their cars after the redeye home, they had notes on their car stating that their parking privileges had been revoked. Thankfully, the FAs got the parking attendant's name as the person manning the exit did not believe them at first. Brian Boudreau continues to work on the parking issue. Most of you will agree that this parking situation is the best that we have had and we would love to keep it rather than move somewhere else.
HNL PICK UP TIME – After years of the pick up time at the Princess Kaiulani being 1:45 prior to scheduled departure for the 757 flights to the mainland, it has recently changed and is now 2:00. FAs are arriving curbside at the airport 15-20 minutes in EXCESS of their required 1:15 report. The van company says that the change was requested by NWA and that they know of no traffic issues affecting travel to HNL airport in the evening for flight 222.
After some research, it has been determined that HNL OPS had taken care of the van pick up times for years (20+) and in the last few weeks Scheduling has taken over this responsibility. When addressing the issue with SuzAnne Balzer, she claims that the responsibility should have NEVER been given to HNL and that there have been FAs arriving at the airport late due to construction, so the pick up time was changed.
PLEASE, if you fly HNL in the next month, please make a mental note of the time you arrive curbside. It should be very close to 2035. With the recent pick up time change, FAs have been arriving at 2010 or so. If you arrive curbside this early, please send off a quick e-mail to Tom at TGeiman@nwaafa.org noting the date and the time.
IMPORTANT SCHEDULING CHANGES
The below was copied from a CENTRY e-mail sent out today by Brian Moreau. Please note the very important changes ESPECIALLY in regards to upward adjustment requests for lineholders.
Most likely this will be a very "challenging" implementation to our contract. More than likely it will mean a lot less open time in which to trade trips and less reserve assignments, but that is only our speculative guess. Time will tell.
Effective 01OCT, three new scheduling enhancements will be implemented.
1. Eliminate Monthly Maximum
Effective with the SLAP on 01OCT, monthly maximum will be lifted for lineholders requesting an "upward adjustment" from the Open Flying List. The Agreement, Section 2.DDDD defines upward adjustments as schedule adjustments under categories of assignment 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10 and 14 which do not involve a trade. This is often referred to as a "straight pickup."
Please note:
−The monthly maximum for monthly SLIC bidding remains 100 hours.
−The monthly maximum when trading (mutual, downline, base, trade for greater, One-Way) remains 110.
−With this change, High-Time is eliminated. However, you may still see several active menus and references to it in CENTRY and VOICE for the next few weeks until additional programming is completed. However, entries will not be processed.
− Take special care when entering CENTRY requests. In the past, a request for an upward adjustment would stop when maximum was reached. As there is no longer a maximum for upward adjustments, CENTRY may award you as many patterns as match your request as long as rest and weekly limitations are met. If you have already entered adjustment requests for October flying, please review each and make changes as needed. This is especially important for generic bids. Generally speaking, using limiters will often accomplish this goal. For example: PCIN(1) will limit you to "no more than one international pattern." More detailed information will be published in ATLAS soon.
− If awarded an upward adjustment that projects you over your regular monthly maximum, your maximum is eliminated. Once your maximum is eliminated, you may not exercise an "over-projection adjustment" due to pattern growth, over-fly or rescheduling.
2. Combined Trade for Greater and Equal
Effective with the SLAP on 01OCT, trades for greater and equal value trades will be processed together (in seniority order) as the new category 12. (Section 6.K.12)
Currently, trades for greater are processed before equal value trades.
3. Reserve Increase Adjustment (RIA)
Effective immediately following the SLAP on 01OCT, Reserves on days off may bid for patterns departing during the next day.
Please note:
− Awards are made as category 15 and are processed after all lineholder adjustments for the next day, but before reserve assignments.
− The requested pattern must fit wholly on a Reserve's days off (PDO) and cannot conflict in any way with a regular reserve obligation. This includes carrying rest into an RD and all FAR requirements.
− Patterns that conflict with a GDO or other "non-fly" activity, such as training, ZZ days, will not be awarded. GDO must first be cancelled.
− To be awarded a pattern that causes a weekly limitation to exceed 35/7, you must elect the no limitations option in CENTRY. However, once awarded, a pattern is excluded from month-to-date (MTD) projections and weekly limitation legality checks (35/7). However, FAR compliance always applies, as do layover rest requirements and on-duty limitations.
− As the award is voluntary and is completely excluded from your reserve obligations, payback days (RO) do not apply. This includes the rescheduling of the pattern into additional days.
− All hours in the awarded pattern are paid ABOVE reserve guarantee for the month.
(Unlike One-Way Trades, which offset any guarantee for the month).
− Information on bidding screens and VOICE requests will be included in the ATLAS posting.
Additional information on each of these items will be posted on ATLAS. As always,
write to us with any questions:
Monthly Max: CHELP in CENTRY, or CENTRY@nwa.com
Reserve Increase: RHELP in CENTRY, or RESERVES@nwa.com