AFA Debrief – March 9, 2023

• Change to US Daylight Saving Time on Sunday
• CQ Rebalancing Continues with Flight Attendant Hiring
• Carry Your Contract!

Change to US Daylight Saving Time on Sunday

Don’t forget to set your clocks forward one hour on Sunday, March 12, 2023 at 0200 in observance of the change to daylight saving time in the United States. The only parts of the US that do not have daylight saving time are Hawaii, most of Arizona, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and American Samoa. Although Arizona observes standard time, the Navajo Nation, a Native American territory in the north-east of the state, which also crosses over into New Mexico and Utah, does make the twice a year time shift.

As a reminder, the change to daylight saving time in Europe will occur on March 26, 2023.

As provided for in Section 6.V.3. of our Contract, the layover minimum legal rest (off-duty) periods may be reduced by one hour when these off-duty periods extend to or beyond 0200 standard time on the designated day when the change from standard time to daylight time occurs, unless such reduction would result in a legal rest below the established FAA minimum.

This is the time change period where we all need to be mindful that any delay could result in an illegal layover and that we must still have the minimum ten (10) hours legal rest over the time change. Of course, the upside to the “loss” of an hour: more light at the end of each day which can be used for reviewing the latest news from our Contract 2021 negotiations website (www.contract2021.org).

CQ Rebalancing Continues with Flight Attendant Hiring

When the company announced the change to CQ scheduling from a twelve- to eighteen-month cycle, for many of us there was a level of excitement at not having to physically attend training every twelve months. Accompanying this change to the training cycle was the addition of CBT training that became a requirement of the revised training program. This announcement was received with mixed reviews especially when it became clear that the training volumes resulting from United’s exponential hiring could not be accomplished given the revisions to the training cycle.

When United announced the first CQ rebalancing initiative, groups of Flight Attendants in the affected months were identified and notified their training due months would be reassigned. They were given the opportunity to bid for a limited option of months and many ended up attending training in less than the highly anticipated eighteen-month cycle. With this initial rebalance, only those Flight Attendants identified were able to bid to move their training month.

Fast forward to this most recent initiative. Once again, the exponential training driven by hiring in combination with the fact that new hires, under United’s training program, must attend CQ within nine-months of their original training date to ensure proficiency, resulted in the need for additional rebalancing. 

This time, however, AFA advocated for the company to set up this rebalance initiative in a way that provided expanded opportunities for all Flight Attendants, not just those identified as affected, to elect to move their due month if they wished to do so. AFA worked with management at the Training Center to create opportunities that would allow any Flight Attendant scheduled in one of the affected months to move their due date and to communicate these opportunities to all Flight Attendants during the Due Month Preference Bid process. The shared goal was to ensure all Flight Attendants had the information needed to successfully navigate the Due Month Preference Bid process.

It is important to understand; this process consists of two groups of Flight Attendants:

• Those who must bid for a new due month, and
• Those who may elect to move from their current due month to another month of their choice.

Those who must bid include those with an Inflight (bid) seniority date or junior to the Rebalance Bid Month Seniority date during the month identified. If this describes you, you are a participant in the Due Month Preference bid and are strongly encouraged to bid to cover yourself. All bids submitted will be awarded in seniority order. Insufficient or no bids will be assigned a new due month in inverse order of seniority after all bidders have been accommodated.

At the same time, we wanted to create an opportunity for those having an Inflight (Bid) seniority date senior to the Rebalance Bid Month Seniority date to elect to move from their current due month to another month of their choice, at their sole discretion. This option was created so that if senior Flight Attendants wished to volunteer to move to other months, other more junior Flight Attendants would have the opportunity to remain in their current month without impact.

Of significance, Flight Attendants identified as required to participate will have the option to Keep My Due Month. To the extent this preference is honored, that is bid and awarded, there would be no change to your individual training due month.

We want to be clear. All Flight Attendants in the affected months will have the ability to submit a bid to move the due month to another month as identified in company communication. However, only those identified by the Rebalance Bid Month Seniority date will be required to participate. Said another way, if you have a CQ due month in one of the identified months and are senior to the Rebalance Bid Seniority month, no action is required and you will continue to maintain your due month unless you elect otherwise.

Please reach out to us at InflightServiceTrainining@United.com for training program questions. 

Important dates: 

Carry Your Contract!

When many of us began our career as a Flight Attendant, our bags were a little heavier. We carried not only the essentials like our beepers, emergency swimsuit, and of course our Flight Attendant manual which was a very thick and heavy paper copy bound in a three-ring binder.

Times have changed and while we may still pack that emergency swimsuit, our beeper has become obsolete and our Flight Attendant Operations Manual has been upgraded to a LINK device. Despite the expansion of the content, the digital format made the contents accessible by carrying something as light as a cell phone.

The same can be said about our Contract. The 32 Section, 428-page bound document, is also available in an electronic, searchable format as an alternate way to carry our Contract. Technological advances have made it available electronically via smartphone or tablet.

We all have a reasonable expectation that Management will honor our Contract at all times and this occurs through our collective enforcement efforts. The reality is that enforcement of our Contract starts with each one of us. Being familiar with the provisions that have been negotiated on our behalf, and taking the time to educate ourselves on how the Contract language applies in different circumstances, is key to ensuring we each take the necessary steps to protect that for which we’ve bargained. 

Always carry your Contract. Hard copies are available in your domicile and an electronic version is also available to download to your LINK, personal mobile device, or laptop computer. To download your copy, visit unitedafa.org and click on the “Contract” tab which is located on the main menu navigation bar at the top of the web page.

Reminders:

MAR – Women’s History Month
MAR 12 – U.S. Change to Daylight Saving Time
MAR 26 – Europe Change to Daylight Saving Time
APR 30 – The Joe Beirne Foundation CWA Scholarship Deadline

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