Contents:
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January Recap: Management’s Answers to Our Questions Regarding the Recent Downsizing
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Call for Volunteers to Mobilize
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Membership Update
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Happy Birthday January Members
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February Up and Coming
Strength Through Solidarity
Category: News |
AFA EAP Downsizing help
Dear Fellow Omni Flight Attendants,
Due to the recent change of events with the company downsizing, we reached out to the AFA EAP (Employee Assistance Program). Below is the letter they sent to us to send out to all flight attendants. Please feel free to utilize their resources to help you during this time of change. As always, if you have any questions about this or anything else, please contact us at afaoaimec@gmail.com.
In Unity,
Mya and Ken
Category: News |
Omni Downsizing
Hello Fellow Omni Flight Attendants,
This morning Jeff Staton announced that the BWI base will close and the LAS base will downsize by the end of the month. Also, the 68 most junior Flight Attendants in DFW will be furloughed, effective immediately.
This leaves all of us disappointed and is creating a lot of anxiety for those directly affected.
Immediately upon receiving notification from management, we contacted our International Staff Representative, Toni Higgins and Staff Negotiator, Beth DeProspero. Within a half hour we were on a conference call and drafting a response to the company about the reduction in our workforce. We have sent a list of questions to Jeff about the situation. We asked about the insurance benefits of those being furloughed, base transfers, the recall procedure and whether or not the company is going to send out a WARN notice. We also asked the company to allow furloughed commuters to keep their ID’s so they may jumpseat home (and mail the ID to the company upon returning home), to increase the amount of time the flight attendants have to make a decision about transferring and the possibility of a voluntary furlough. We are awaiting their responses.
As we move through this painful and confusing period we want to stress the importance of solidarity amongst our work group. Since our vote for AFA representation, this is the single most important opportunity for all of us to stand together and present a unified front. We must show management that we will stand together while we negotiate our first contract.
Heather Healy, AFA’s Employee Assistance Program Director, is putting together some information for those Flight Attendants who are facing furlough, or may be forced out if they choose not to relocate. Some of the resources include information about unemployment benefits, and programs to assist displaced workers. We are not the first AFA carrier to face this uncertainty, and the AFA has many established resources to help those affected members. Heather has also invited any of our Flight Attendants to contact the EAP office in Washington, D.C. directly at 1-800-424-2406 if you have immediate concerns or need guidance in coping with the uncertainty this furlough will cause. You can also visit their webpage by clicking here.
We are acutely aware of the tremendous impact this is having on everyone and want everyone to understand we are working as quickly and efficiently as we can to reduce the impact wherever possible. Please stand strong together, support one another and remember that strength comes through solidarity.
In Unity,
Mya and Ken
Category: News |
Happy Holidays!
Dear Fellow Omni Flight Attendants,
As we gather with family and friends this holiday season, whether at home or on the road, we reflect on the year behind us and look with hope toward the year ahead. As flight attendants at Omni, we have many wonderful moments to celebrate from 2011 as well as many exciting things to anticipate in 2012.
This year we were honored to carry the men and women of the United States Armed Forces home to their families as we saw our troops pulled out of harm’s way in Iraq. Although we have many more military personal serving in hostile areas around the world, we are grateful to play a role in reuniting military families, especially around the holidays.
In early 2011 we began what would lead to the greatest achievement in the history of flight attendants at Omni. We carried out a highly successful organizing campaign in a record amount of time leading to an overwhelming affirmative vote to have legally recognized representation for our workgroup. For the first time in our history, we sent a clear message to management that we intend to take an active role in our future here at Omni and that our contribution as aviation professionals is critical to the success of our company.
With an overwhelming win in our AFA representation election, we joined a family of nearly 60,000 flight attendants at 23 different airlines all focused on advancing the Flight Attendant profession. So as we look to the New Year, we have many opportunities ahead to build a strong Omni and a stronger AFA.
The year ahead will bring us many reasons to celebrate and some moments of pure frustration as we move forward in this process and engage management in constructive dialogue about our future to create our first contract. We all have many hopes and expectations and will have our fair share of losses, but we all must realize this is all part of the process; it is the nature of negotiations. As we engage the company in negotiations for our first contract, it will be important to build and strengthen ourselves as a united group, bonded in Solidarity as Flight Attendants. We must stand behind our negotiating team and trust in their experience and knowledge. We must stand alongside our AFA Officers, appointed or elected, moving as a cohesive body with a common goal.
Mother Jones, the quintessential advocate of workers’ rights, said it best:
“My friends, it is solidarity of labor we want. We do not want to find fault with each other, but to solidify our forces and say to each other: “We must be together; our masters are joined together and we must do the same thing.”
So, as we celebrate this holiday season in our own unique ways and engage in the traditions of our past, let us reflect on all that we accomplished this past year and look toward the future, embracing our diversity and similarities as we anticipate the endless possibilities of the New Year!
Happy Holidays,
Mya and Ken
Category: News |
Meeting with Management Recap
December 21, 2011
Present for AFA
Mya Grap, Interim MEC President
Ken Heare, Interim MEC Secretary/Treasurer
SuzAnne Balzer, AFA Negotiator
Present for Omni
Ronald Petrikin, Conner and Winters representing OMNI
Jeff Staton, Director of Inflight
David Rose, Director of Operations
Tanya Ward, Contract Administration Manager
Your AFA officers, assisted by Suzanne Balzer AFA Negotiator met with OMNI management in Tulsa OK on December 19, 2011. The purpose of the meeting was to agree to some “ground rules” for AFA to operate until we have a ratified contract. After a few exchanges, we came to an agreement. The agreement covers how days off for union work will be handled and paid. Also, the agreement outlines some information management will share with AFA.
Sadly, one item we wanted to add to this document was rejected by management. First, we asked that all flight attendants have the right to have an AFA representative in any discussion with management that could lead to discipline, that was rejected. We then proposed that all flight attendants could request an AFA representative who would act solely as a witness in any discussion with management that could lead to discipline, that too was rejected. You probably do not need us to tell you why management rejected both. These items will be resolved with our first agreement but based on this discussion with management it is clear, you MUST work by the book and carefully consider any interaction with any representative of management.
Additionally, we discussed the mechanics of when and where we will negotiate. Our first session will be held either the end of February 2012 or early March 2012. We asked that the locations of these sessions be in the following order:
Tulsa- offices of Conner and Winters
Tulsa-offices of Conner and Winters
Union choice
Omni management is considering the rotation of locations.
Our next step will be to create the questions for the contract survey we will be sending out early January 2012. In February 2012, the negotiations committee will be trained and we will write the opener and some of the first proposals to take to our first negotiations session.
Thank you for your continuing support. If you have any questions, comments or concerns, please feel free to contact us directly at afaoaimec@gmail.com.
Fly safe, fly right and take care of each other!
In Solidarity,
Mya and Ken
Category: News |