Dear AFA: December 19, 2014

Date: December 19, 2014
Type: Dear AFA

Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen and welcome to Dear AFA. We are a democratic, Member driven Union of Flight Attendants for Flight Attendants. Today is Friday, December 19, 2014 and this is Denver Council 9 Volunteer Allen Ward reporting.

Clerical Error Results in Overpayment in EEOP Severance Payments

On Wednesday December 17th, United advised as a result of a clerical error, Early Out severance was miscalculated at $4,200 per year of Flight Attendant seniority instead of the correct plan amount of $4,000 per year.  This affected all Flight Attendants with less than 25 years of SW seniority.  The error resulted in an overpayment of your severance in an amount between $3,000 and $4,600, depending on your years of Flight Attendant service. (Those with 25 years or more of service were not affected because they received the EEOP maximum payment of $100,000.)

As the initial contact from the company advising of the overpayment, United placed automated telephone calls to all Flight Attendants with a U.S. telephone number on file with the company alerting participants of the overpayment.  In addition, United will be sending a letter, via Federal Express, alerting each affected Flight Attendant of the overpayment.  Telephone calls were not placed to international telephone numbers through the automated system out of concern that these calls might be placed in the middle of the night at some locations.  However, Flight Attendant participants in the EEOP based at International domicile who had U.S. telephone numbers on file will have received a call at this number from the automated dialer.

United management has indicated an additional contact will made with each affected Flight Attendant in the coming days concerning the specific details of the overpayment amount, adjusted for taxes and repayment instructions.  United is asking that those affected send your name, file number and preferred e-mail address to earlyout@united.com in order to facilitate communication on this important issue.  In communication with employees, management recognized the extra work this error will cause for those affected and has expressed their apology for the inconvenience.

 

Trading February Vacations with Another Flight Attendant

As a reminder in order to trade vacations with another Flight Attendant for the month of February, the trades must be submitted by December 30, 2014.  

 

2015 Interim Vacation Bidding Dates

Our Contract provides the ability for Flight Attendants to trade their unused Vacation for an open vacation period throughout the year.  Section 18.G. of our Contract requires that the company post any vacated or un-awarded vacation days to be bid for during this period.  Interim Vacation Bids open on the first business day (weekday) of the schedule month and remains open for seven (7) consecutive days.  The dates bid open for 2015 are as follows: 

 

Schedule Month

Bids Open

Bids Close

January

 

December 30

 

January 6

 

February

 

January 30

 

February 6

 

March

 

March 2

 

March 9

 

April

 

April 1

 

April 8

 

May

 

May 1

 

May 8

 

June

 

June 1

 

June 8

 

July

 

June 30

 

July 7

 

August

 

July 30

 

August 6

 

September

 

August 31

 

September 7

 

October

 

September 29

 

October 6

 

There is one exception to the Interim Vacation Bidding process and that occurs if you were awarded a January or February vacation in the annual award.  You are not eligible to bid out of these months by the use of interim bid.  You may; however, move your entire February vacation to any other vacation period within the February schedule month.

 

Interim Bids must be submitted through the company’s Flying Together Website

 

For more information about the Interim Vacation Bidding process visit our website.

 

Industry Update: Alaska Airlines

On December 17, Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, voted to accept a Tentative Agreement that offers significant improvements for the 3,400 Flight Attendants at Alaska Airlines.  We would like to offer our congratulations to their Members and our AFA Sister and Brothers for their hard work and dedication. 

 

Industry Update: New American Airlines
On December 18, at a special Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) Executive Committee meeting held near Dallas, Texas, the APFA Executive Committee ratified the restoration of the wage rates in the Tentative Agreement (TA) effective January 1, 2015 without any requirement of membership ratification.  As a result of this action restoring the TA wage rates, the value of the Contract has been restored to that of the TA rejected in November of this year.

That’s all for tonight and thank you for calling.

 

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