TO:          ALL AWAC FLIGHT ATTENDANTS

  FROM:    DORIS DUTY, MEC PRESIDENT

DATE:      November 5, 2006

I would like to take this opportunity to bring our membership up to date on the latest news regarding our flight attendant group.

AFA COUNCIL – We have had some confusion with some flight attendants not knowing what AFA Council they are in.  PHL is council #03, DCA is council #28 and ORF is council #29.  If you visit the AFA website, you will find a list of the officers for your council along with the contact information for the officers and all committee members contact information. 

MEETING WITH AWAC – Next Wednesday your MEC officers, Doris Duty, Ginger Sterling, Barb Neisen, and Adam Novish will be meeting with the company regarding the Northwest Airlines flying.  We will update you after our meeting.

COMMUTER POLICY - Last week the company signed an agreement with AFA to include the reserve flight attendants in the commuter policy.  The language reads:

The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA/MEC, along with Air Wisconsin Airlines Inflight department agrees to the following change to the “Flight Attendant Commuter Policy” effective November 1, 2006 .

The same rules and requirements outlined in the “Air Wisconsin Commuter Policy” will apply to reserve flight attendants with the following clarification:

All flight attendants commuting to a reserve assignment must arrive at the airport where they are assigned to commence their reserve sequence in advance of their scheduled reserve duty period.  There must be at least one back up flight on which they are listed.  This back-up flight must be at least one back up flight on which they are listed.  This back-up flight must be scheduled to arrive at their domicile at least thirty minutes (30) prior to the beginning of their reserve duty period, 12:00 midnight .

Trip assignments given prior to a reserve sequence does not negate the responsibility of the reserve to be in domicile at the beginning of their duty period.  For example; a reserve is assigned a trip the day before their reserve status begins and the trip is scheduled to check in at 0700.  All commuting flights must be scheduled to arrive prior to 12:00 midnight , not 0700, since a reserve must be available in domicile at 12:00 midnight .

This policy only applies to reserves that are commuting to begin their reserve sequence.

Should you have any questions regarding this side letter, please let me know.

NEW UNIFORMS - The Company is picking out new pieces that we will be able to wear with our current uniform.  We will continue to wear the Cintas uniform but will be able to order new blouses, scarves and perhaps a few other items that will identify us as Air Wisconsin Airlines Flight Attendants.  This will be forth coming.  Please make sure that if you are ordering uniform pieces with points from this year that you order them before December 1.

ASSIGNMENT OF VAN TIME – A few fight attendants have voiced options that they would like me to file a grievance over the company assigning a van time to depart from the hotel in Canada .  First of all, this is past practice.  The company has done this in the past at stations such as LA, Fargo, Winnipeg .  The hotel in Ottawa does not have van service.  Therefore, AWAC had to hire an outside vendor to provide van service for the crews.  The company asked the vendor how long it would take from the hotel to the airport and the time was then set up for the crew pick up. After further investigating, I found that there are few hotels that do provide van shuttle service.

CONTRACTS – The Company has agreed to have twenty (20) extra contracts in each manager’s office.  If your contract is tattered from use, please feel free to get a replacement from your domicile manager.

PREFERENTIAL BIDDING SYSTEM – The Company invited AFA officers to meet with them Nov. 13 to review the preferential bidding system.  We are not able to do this as we will be at the Board of Directors meeting.  However, I did have a conference call with Laurie Martin and she stated that the company can have one group, say the pilots use this program and we would not have to.  This is a contractual issue and would have to be negotiated.  Please be assured that your union representatives will not agree to anything that would take away from benefits that we now have with our bidding system.

RECIPRICAL JUMPSEAT POLICY – AFA and The Company have agreed to a reciprocal jump seat policy.  The Company will have a representative and AFA will have a representative, Ginger Sterling, contacting all the air carriers to see if they would come into agreement of a reciprocal jump seat.  We have eight companies to date willing to sign agreements.  The IT department in ATW will be setting up an icon on the webpage that will list all of the companies that we have agreements with. We will also be updating the AFA website with this same information.   As we get new agreements, those companies will then be listed.  This should be up and running no later than Christmas, hopefully sooner. 

ARBITRATION – AFA staff attorney, Mark Stotik has contacted the company and asked to proceed with the MEC arbitration regarding the concessionary contract.  How this comes about is there is a list of arbitrators.  The company strikes a name off the list.  Then AFA strikes a name off the list until there is only one arbitrator’s name left.  We contact the arbitrator and get dates that they are available for a hearing.  The union, company and arbitrator agree on a date and the case is heard.  This takes time, sometimes months.  I’ll keep you posted on the progress of when this case will be heard.

ELECTIONS – Our LEC President in DCA resigned from the company.  We will be running a new election in DCA for a new LEC President, Vice President and Secretary/Treasurer.  Our LEC Vice President in ORF resigned from the company too.  We will be running an election in ORF for LEC President, Vice President and Secretary/Treasurer.  Information on these elections will be forthcoming.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING – The Board of Directors meeting will be held in Portland , Oregon beginning the week of November 11^th.  Should you need any assistance from a union officer, please leave a message on our cell phones and we will contact you at our first opportunity. 

In wrapping up this news update, I would like to ask that you please ignore all rumors floating around in the crew rooms regarding the Preferential Bidding System.  They are exactly that “RUMORS”.  Should you have any questions regarding this update, please contact any union officer for clarification.