FOUR EASY WAYS TO LET YOUR UNION
KNOW IF YOU HAVE A
CHANGE OF ADDRESS, PHONE NUMBER OR EMAIL:
CALL
704-665-9940
FAX
704-665-9943
EMAIL
rochelle65@carolina.rr.com
CLICK ON
ADDRESS CHANGE FORM
REMEMBER, WE CAN'T REPRESENT YOU IF WE CAN'T CONTACT YOU!
NON-REV UPDATE
From theHub:
Starting Wednesday, April 29, employees and retirees nonrevving
will be boarded based on their date of hire (year/month/day)
rather than the current process of year of hire. Why the
change? At the beginning of 2007, we announced the airline’s
combined non-rev boarding policy would be by date of hire.
Employees asked why we would only process by year of hire and
not date of hire. Our technology was not able to allow for this
functionality at the time without extensive work. Since then,
and because of employee feedback, our IT department has worked
hard to update our technology to allow for this capability and
we’re ready to make the switch next week. If you’ve created a
listing in the ETC for travel on or after April 29, IT will
change the listing to reflect your full date of hire. If you
feel the date of hire in your listing is wrong due to an
unforeseen technical error, first cancel the PNR and re-book it
through the ETC. If this does not change the date or you feel it
is still incorrect, send an e-mail to
DOH@usairways.com. If you
are traveling on April 29, please make your listing before or
after the outage. If necessary, you may see an Airport Customer
Service agent who can assist in adding the year/ month/day into
your existing PNR. As a friendly reminder, all guest passes and
SA1P vacation passes must be booked through the ETC only. If you
are booking other space available records in QIK or Shares, you
must include the traveler’s legal name and the employee’s badge
number in the record. For more information, please refer to the
Employee Travel Guide on Wings and theHub and as always, if you
have any travel-related questions, please contact
Employee.Travel@usairways.com.
How Date of Hire Boarding Works
• If you were hired Aug. 12, 1988, your boarding priority will
be listed as SA3P880812. Your priority would be higher than
someone who was hired Sept. 12, 1988.
• If two non-revs with the same exact hire date (year/month/day)
happen to be listed for the same flight, time of check-in will
determine who is first on the list.
This new date of hire information
will be listed in your employee profile in the Employee Travel
Center (ETC).
The Local has received several
inquiries regarding the letter that US Airways sent to all employees
advising them of the option to roll over funds into a Roth IRA.
The Benefits Department has sent the following clarification:
"You will not receive a check or a future cash payout. The amount
reported on the IRS Form 8935 that you recently received was
included in your earnings/compensation and already paid
to you in the form of certain lump sum cash payments, stock option
exercises, or in the form of restricted stock between the years of
2003-2006. Since you have already received these earnings or stock
options, you are eligible to roll the amount on the IRS Form 8935
into a Roth IRA from your current savings or investments. Any
personal savings or investments that you have are acceptable funds
for this rollover.
You may call any financial institution such as Fidelity,
Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Wachovia, etc… to open up a Roth IRA
first and roll the amount from IRS Form 8935 out of your personal
savings or investments and into a Roth IRA once it is
established. A representative from one of those institutions will
then instruct you on how to get this completed.
Please note that you are not required to roll the amount into
a Roth IRA. You are just given the option to do so. So you may do
nothing at this time if you so choose."
MIRACLE ON THE HUDSON
On February 25th the Company held a "US Airways Flight 1549
Recognition Event" to honor the Captain and crew of the
Charlotte-bound flight. Local 3641 was invited to send a
representative to the function. Executive Vice President Brad
Lockridge attended the event and accepted a commemorative plaque on
behalf of our CWA Brothers and Sisters for their part in the
recovery and aftermath of the accident. The Executive Board of our
Local would like to express our pride and thanks to all of our
members who were involved in the recovery effort.
From CWA.net:
“Training on your days off
The CWA locals are getting calls from members that are being forced
to attend training on their days off. If you are not given a choice
of days to go to training, please let your local rep know (see
Article 29-Training, Travel Pay and Meal Per Diem on page 108 of
your contract). If you volunteer to train on your days off or those
are the only days left to sign up after bidding, you must be given
two days off that same work week. Keep in mind, we do not get
overtime during training”
US Airways Policies:
Members are reminded of two Company policies which must be followed:
· Agents are not allowed to leave the airport premises during their
shifts, even during the unpaid lunch period.
· All agents must remain in their immediate work areas until they
clock out. It is not acceptable, for example, for a gate agent to
wait at the ticket counter to clock out.
Alert! TSA security violations can result in individual
fines of up to $25,00.00.
See the link below for full details.
Shortcut to:
http://www.tsa.gov/assets/pdf/FINALSanctionGuidancev1.12.07.pdf
COMPANION PASS ALERT!
We’ve learned that theHub may not keep an accurate count of the
number of companion passes issued, so it is possible to go over your
allotment. The Company has issued the following statement:
“Please know that tracking and monitoring the amount of guest pass
usage according to the yearly allotment is the sole responsibility
of the employee. Any misuse of guest passes or exceeding the amount
allotted to you could result in suspension of pass privileges and/or
disciplinary action up to and including termination.”
EXECUTIVE BOARD ELECTION 2009
The votes have been tabulated and the winners announced.
Join us in congratulating the Executive Board office holders for
2009:
PRESIDENT - JANICE GARRIS
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT - BRAD LOCKRIDGE
VICE PRESIDENTS - TOM PASKUTIS & PAUL ZOLL
SECRETARY/TREASURER - SHELLEY OBERHOLSER
AREA REPRESENTATIVES
DICK LEE
DEANNA MESSER
JOHN PASCUCCI
DAN SKERL
Date-of-Hire Arbitration: CWA was victorious in
its’ bid to return employee pass riding status to date-of-hire,
rather than year-of-hire. The computers will be updated and the
change will take effect in the Spring of 2009.
Health care costs - letter to Membership
September 24, 2008
CWA
IBT-CWA Airline Passenger Service Association
September 24, 2008
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
The purpose of this letter is to address E. Allen Hemenway’s
recently posted letter concerning your monthly contribution premiums
for healthcare in 2009. Make no mistake about it; Mr. Hemenway lied
to you in his letter in an underhanded attempt to turn you against
your Union. He outrageously mischaracterizes the position of your
Union regarding employee contribution premiums for 2009 and
intentionally left out critical details of the Company’s position
that could result in employees paying exorbitant premiums in years
to come. In light of the sacrifices you have made over the last
decade to keep this Company in business, he should be ashamed of
what he has done.
The dispute over 2009 contributions is simple. Instead of
approaching the IBT/CWA Association to bargain over 2009
contributions, US Airways informed the Association and other Unions
on the property that it had unilaterally decided what employees’
contribution rates for 2009 would be. In doing so, US Airways
ignored its legal obligation to bargain over this change to employee
health insurance premiums. Indeed, Mr. Hemenway’s letter makes it
clear US Airways has no intention of bargaining now or in the future
years with the Association over employee insurance rates.
In response to this edict from the Company, the Association clearly
stated its demand for bargaining. In fact, it did so in writing on
September 8, 2008 to Mr. Hemenway. The Association’s position is
that US Airways does not have the right to unilaterally change
insurance rates, now or in the future. Bargaining with the
Association on this matter is mandatory, not optional. Although the
Association has demanded bargaining, the Company has refused.
Instead, it chose to issue Mr. Hemenway’s letter in attempt to
undermine the Association by dealing directly with the employees.
What Mr. Hemenway conveniently left out of his letter is that if the
Association simply accepted the Company’s position without
bargaining, it would give your Union no say whatsoever in employee
contribution rates through 2011. Although the Company’s
unilaterally-determined contribution rates for 2009 may be less than
the 2008 rates, the Association was not given the opportunity to
negotiate a potentially even lower rate for you. Furthermore, the
Company’s position would leave it free to raise contribution rates
for 2010 and 2011 to whatever amount they wished. It could
potentially double or triple rates or even raise them higher. This
is unacceptable to the Association. Rest assured the Association is
working to protect your interests now and in future situations
involving your healthcare and its cost to you.
In Solidarity,
Velvet Hawthorne
IBT/CWA Chairperson
Dan Smith
IBT/CWA Co-Chairperson
Retiree Travel arbitration
The Arbitrator denied our grievance-here is a summary of Arbitrator
Bonnie Weinstocks’ decision on the Retiree Boarding Arbitration; The
arbitrator ruled that we don’t have maintenance of standards or past
practice provisions in our contract, which would have required the
continuation of all practices. Since the Company had made several
changes in the past, such as charging for taxes, segment fees and
changing the seniority year for SA3 travel to 20 years or more, we
never grieved those issues because we felt the charges were to help
sustain the Company due to the bankruptcies and uncertainties of
their financial status. Without the “provisions” in our contract to
protect us, Article 3-H (management rights clause) reserves to the
Company “the right to establish rules and regulations.” The
arbitrator stated in her decision: "The grievance is denied. The
Company did not violate the parties’ collective bargaining agreement
when, effective January 1, 2006, it changed the space available
boarding priority from SA3 to SA4 for retirees with more than twenty
years of service. "
Mandatory Overtime
Please note that CWA does not support walking on mandatory overtime.
We do expect mandatory procedures to be administered according to
the contract, but if this does not happen, we suggest that the
agents involved work the extra hours and then grieve the violation.
Our management team has asked that we remind our members that
refusing mandatory overtime is a serious matter and will result in
reprimands.
SICK CALLS
Management has informed us that they will now be enforcing the
following policy:
"Pursuant to Article 13.D of the Fleet Service collective bargaining
agreement (CBA) and Article 18.D of the Passenger Service CBA,
“Employees may be required to present confirmation of illness and
the Company reserves the right to require, when in doubt of bona
fide claim, a physician’s certificate to confirm such sick claim.”
The Company deems the following to be doubt of bona fide claim and a
physician’s certificate is required when:
A consecutive absence period of three (3) days.
Other patterns where the Company notifies the
employee in writing of the requirement and the reason a physician’s
certificate will be required for future absences (e.g. absences in
conjunction with days off when the employee has previously called
off in conjunction with days off).
When medical certification is required, as
described above, for a non-FMLA qualifying event, the employee must
submit the certification to the Company on the first day the
employee returns to work, except when the absence exceeds five (5)
days the certification must be submitted to the Company within seven
(7) days of the date the absence began.
The certification must be completed by the medical provider and must
meet the following criteria:
Actual date(s) seen by the medical provider(s)
(which should be on or immediately prior to or following the date of
absence).
The probable duration of the absence (e.g., the
length of time the employee is expected to be out of work).
What about the current condition prevents the employee from
performing their essential job functions.
The name, address and telephone number of the Physician on the
Company’s Health Care Provider form or pre-printed letterhead or
prescription pad.
Employee’s name
Medical Provider’s signature.
All information must be legible.
If faxed, an original must follow-up the fax copy within seven days.
The Company reserves the right to verify any medical documentation
presented."
FILING YOUR INCOME TAXES
Did you know that your Union dues are tax deductible? The total
amount that you paid for the year is shown on the year-to-date portion of
your last pay stub for that year.
In-Station Transfer Requests:
In-station transfer requests will remain valid through December 31st
of the year in which they are submitted. If you have a request on
file, be sure to resubmit it before the end of the year.
UNIONIZING PIEDMONT AIRLINES
From the CWA Newsletter:
CWA Prepares Challenge of Piedmont Election Results
After
falling just short – 60 votes – of winning union representation
this week, gate and ramp agents at Piedmont Airlines and CWA are
preparing to challenge the results of the election.
Votes
tallied by the National Mediation Board (NMB) on Feb. 19 showed
that 1,228, or 47.6 percent, of the 2,574 agents voted for union
representation. Under Railway Labor Act rules that govern
airline union elections, 1,288 agents, or 50 percent plus one of
all eligible agents, needed to participate in the election in
order for the union to be certified. Agents who do not cast a
vote are counted as votes against a union under these arcane
rules.
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Piedmont Airlines ramp and gate agents from Charlotte
(above) and elsewhere are seeking union representation. |
Union
supporters are reporting that many people whom the airline had
listed as "union eligible" should not have been on the voting
list – as many as 40 in one location alone. Further, there are
reports of many other agents who should have received voting
instructions but did not, and who failed to receive the ballot
materials even after requesting them from the NMB. CWA is also
looking into complaints of heavy-handed anti-union activity by
some supervisors. The union has seven days from the ballot
count to file a challenge.
More than 62
percent of the agents signed union authorization cards when they
petitioned for a union election on Nov. 21. Since the increased
security brought about by 9/11, union organizers have had
absolutely no access to airline workers who work beyond security
gates. This has made union representation elections far
tougher. Also, the union activists were handicapped – as is the
case in all NMB elections – in not being provided an address
list of the union eligible workers; they had to build a contact
list from scratch through one-on-one organizing at the worksite.
CWA-represented flight attendants and passenger agents at US
Airways and Piedmont, who have access to the gate and ramp
areas, provided major support in the campaign.
We are currently
in the process of scheduling Shop Steward training classes.
If you are interested in becoming a Steward, contact the Local
at 704/665-9940 as soon as possible.
