Flight attendants at US Airways
today angrily rejected the company’s latest attempt to force its employees
to shoulder the full burden of its recovery. “We are not only disappointed with the company’s latest proposal—we are
disgusted,” said Perry Hayes, president of the Association of Flight
Attendants-CWA Master Executive Council at the carrier. “The US Airways
AFA MEC only agreed to enter these discussions if the company agreed to
make improvements to the sick and reserve systems at the airline. The
company’s latest proposal shows that it had no intention of honoring that
commitment.”

On September 10, US Airways put forward a number of onerous concessions,
yet failed in many instances to provide the union with financial data
necessary to evaluate them. Demands included:

* An initial 15 percent across-the-board pay reduction. * An increase in
flight and duty hours of well over 13 percent. * Draconian changes to work
rules. * A profit-sharing program, the implementation of which is subject
to unpredictable conditions being met in the future. * The elimination of
post-retirement medical coverage, with grandfathering through age 65 (when
Medicare is available) for current retirees. Future retirees would have to
settle for a cash-out of accrued but unused sick leave at a fraction of
its value. * A voluntary leave with no recall, offered in seniority order,
for a cash-out payment so low that massive involuntary furloughs would be
certain.

“The proposal AFA received on Friday is a slap in the face to all the
flight attendants at the airline,” Hayes said. Flight attendants want US
Airways to survive, he noted, but not at the cost of their own survival.

More than 46,000 flight attendants, including the 5,200 flight attendants
at US Airways, join together to form AFA, the world’s largest flight
attendant union. AFA is part of the 700,000 member strong Communications
Workers of America, AFL-CIO. Visit us at http://www.afanet.org/.
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