MEC CODE-A-PHONE UPDATE
February 10, 2006
This is Jack Stephan with a US Airways MEC update for Friday, February
10th, with four new items.

Item 1. On October 15th, 2001 twenty six US Airways pilots were
furloughed. By June 4th, 2003, 1,879 US Airways pilots had been
furloughed. It is with great pleasure that after some four years, three
months
and twenty six days, our first code a phone item of this evening will
include
the announcement of the recall of up to fifty five of our furloughed
pilots.
Resource Planning has posted Permanent Bid 06-02. It is now open for

bidding and will close on Sunday, February 19th at 2330 EST. The effective
months for this bid are May and June 2006.

Some highlights of the bid include:
Addition of 3 B-757 ETOPS aircraft
New service to LIS, MXP, and ARN
Seasonal adjustment for PHL MAD PHL service moving from B-76I to
A330 aircraft May 6
Decrease in CLT 76I crew positions with planned closure of all CLT 76I
crew positions by next bid
Domestic 757 and 767 crew bases eligible for non-Transoceanic
International flying
Block reductions on B-737
Block increases on A320
Bid announcement will be published on the Hub under
"Divisions/Operations/Flight Operations/ Pilot Permanent Bids"
EVLA and furlough pilot recalls to equal fifty-five (55)
Bid 06-02 is posted on the pilots only web site under "What's New."

Item 2. A new JNC update is available under "What's New" on the pilots

only website and has been emailed to all pilots with an email address
on file
with ALPA. This update provides information regarding the counterproposal
given to the JNC from management on Section 10.
Also, the new JNC website is available for all US Airways and America

West pilots. The new website displays all of the JNC communications,
their
upcoming negotiating dates, correspondence with the Company, and more.
Our pilots can access the website through a link under "MEC Fast-Links"

And "What's New" on the pilots only homepage.

Item 3. This week the Grievance Committee received the final arbitration
award in Grievance PHL 03-07-05, Philadelphia Paid Parking. The
Committee announces with great pleasure that the Association
prevailed in all matters. Not only did Arbitrator Ruben dismiss all
arguments
made by the Company in the matter, he ordered a full ?make whole?
remedy. Additionally, he directed the Company to promptly
identify and notify all pilots who are or have been domiciled at the

Philadelphia airport on or after July 1, 2003, and who commuted to that
airport from a remote airport location. These pilots are entitled to
reimbursement in an amount not to exceed $15.00 per month. It is important

to note, that in the Company's own estimation, this is an award in excess
of
$400,000 for the pilot group, and an additional award to our fellow

employees who have ?me too? provisions of $1.25 million. A detailed

explanation of the award is available on the pilot?s only website under

"What's New" and on the Grievance Committee homepage. The complete
award will be available shortly as the Committee is still in the process
of
obtaining all required signatures.

Item 4. The US Airways pilots? ballot count for the vote on AI 05-136f,

MDA Insurance Subsidy for Health Insurance, was completed today. The

majority of pilots voted not to be assessed. The results are as follows:
With 54 percent of the eligible 2,715 pilots participating in the vote:
446 pilots or 30.42 percent voted in favor of the assessment.
1,020 pilots or 69.58 percent voted to oppose the assessment.
Please remember we still have 1,574 pilots on furlough with approximately

400 pilots currently working at MDA or Jets For Jobs carriers.
Thank you for listening.

 

Excellent news, thanks for posting that.


TP

 

And from the West:


MEC Hotline – February 10, 2006
From: JR Baker, MEC Chairman
To: All AWA Pilots

Topics:

1. EMB-190 Order Announced
2. Grievance Committee Selects Arbitrators
3. JNC Website
4. Get Involved

1. EMB-190 Order Announced
Late yesterday, management issued a press release announcing a firm order for 57
Embraer 190 jet aircraft with options for 50 additional aircraft in the
EMB-170/190 family of E-Jets. That supplements the original order of 25 with 32
additional aircraft. Clearly this is big news for our pilots. Prior to the
Transition Agreement, these aircraft would have gone to our regional affiliates.
However, last summer, the AWA and AAA MECs were able to bring that flying
in-house.

We knew then that flying those airplanes with our crews would not only enhance
the experience for our customers but also create career advancement
opportunities for our pilots. Management agreed.

Since the Transition Agreement was signed, I know many of you have expressed
frustration to me that we haven’t heard anything else about the Embraer 190s.
Some pilots, I think, had started to believe the E-Jets were never coming, that
management had dangled a carrot in front of our noses to get us to sign the
Transition Agreement.

The MEC has known for some time, however, that management has been negotiating
with Embraer over price for the new jets. Signing an order for new aircraft is
an expensive proposition, and if there’s anything we know for sure about our
management team it’s that they’re careful with how they spend their money.

Now that the order has been announced, we expect to see the first two aircraft
arrive in November of this year, with one additional aircraft arriving
approximately every month until the order is complete.

Where are they going to go? We don’t have a definitive answer yet, but it’s
clear to me from our conversations with management that there’s a ready market
for the jet out here in the West. The Transition Agreement provides for us to
sit down not just with management, but also with the Airways MEC to figure out
how best to distribute new aircraft acquisitions. I will keep you posted as the
plans continue to unfold.

2. Grievance Committee Selects Arbitrators
The Grievance Committee, along with our Contract Administrator, sat down with
management on Thursday to select arbitrators for the cases unresolved at last
week’s Grievance Review Board. Arbitrators Michael Beck and Richard Kasher have
been selected to hear those cases. Additionally, the Grievance Committee has
proposed resolving five more cases through the Mediation/Arbitration process. If
management declines to proceed with these cases in this manner, the Grievance
Committee will again strike for arbitrators in these cases. Mitch Vasin, our
Grievance Committee Chairman is preparing a detailed review of last week’s
Grievance Review Board for distribution to our pilots.

3. JNC Website
Today, the Joint Negotiating Committee unveiled a new webpage accessible to both
east and west pilots. This page has the latest news from the JNC, including
updates on discussions, agreements reached, and pilot agreements from both
America West and US Airways. The site will also have an online Q&A section,
which should be live within the next few weeks, where you will be able to send a
question to the JNC, and if relevant, they will answer it and post it to the
website. You can access the page from the AWA MEC website; log on to the
homepage, then click the link on the right-hand side under “JNC News”. This
joint section will be an invaluable tool as we continue to move forward with
joint negotiations, so be sure to check it often.

4. Get Involved
Quick: name 10 things that you did this week. Did any of them have to do with
helping our union move forward? Over the past several months, we have faced many
challenges, yet our union has continued to succeed because of pilots like you
who have volunteered their time. Many of our committees desperately need help,
and I’m asking you to get involved. Whether you can spare 10 minutes a day or a
few hours, call the office to see how you can help. Each day gets us closer to
crunch time, and we need all hands on deck to succeed.

Be careful out there.

JR

 

Getting the 190s on mainline is outstanding news as well. Hopefully this changes the direction for many other majors in regards to the continuing attacks on narrow body flying.

TP

 

Agreed. Northwest now needs to follow the US Airways example... 100 seat aircraft belong at mainline.

 

Sweet! I'm glad to see some major guys starting to hold that line on scope...

 

GREAT news! Good for them. Things are looking up at USAir/AWA. Best wishes to them.

Now, the only US legacy carrier who has not recalled ONE SINGLE PILOT (and has NO RECALLS planned) since 9-11 is.......American. And they have over 2,890 on furlough.

 

Great news! As a former furloughee (another carrier) I always enjoy hearing about another recall. Good to see that the E-Jets will be at mainline also.

 

I wonder how many calls will be made to get those 55 pilots back? Assuming the MECs agree and each recalled pilot will be stapled to the bottom of whatever seniority list is finalized, it might take some time to find out!

 

Why would you make an assumption of a furloughee being stapled to the bottom of the seniority list? That issue will be determined by the arbitrator in due course.

TP