1, That arbitration case of American Airlines and Association of Professional Flight Attendants certainly didn’t involve much of a battle, did it?

2. Writing about first-class service in airplanes is like writing about Katmandu – I have to take someone else’s word for it because I never visit there myself.

3. If you can sing “Jewelry is the gift that gives, cause it’s the gift that’ll live and live,” you’ve betrayed your place of origin. (Non-Oklahomans need not worry about this one.)

UPDATE, 2:25 p.m.: American Airlines spokesman Paul Flaningan confirmed Thursday that the arbitration hearings with the Association of Professional Flight Attendants contract are over and done — after only one full day of testimony and part of another.

That’s the way it seemed from the Twitter/Facebook postings from APFA.

In its last tweet, APFA said that arbitrator Richard Bloch “is suggesting to the parties that they do not need closing arguments because of the thorough presentations already given. The Board will convene immediately following the meeting today to discuss calendars and the timing of a decision.”

The original calendar called for a series of hearings up to Dec. 30. But the two sides agreed before the hearing to stipulate that they disagreed on only three items: whether the flight attendants should have “me-too” clauses to give them profit sharing or better health insurance programs if other unions got them, and whether pay raises would be retroactive to Monday, Dec. 2.

APFA asked for those three items, and AA opposed them. AA would start the pay raise in the first month after the contract is decided.

Thursday’s hearing, the second of two days, had American Airlines put on three witnesses, airline economist Dr. Darin Lee, an executive vice president in the Boston  office of Compass Lexecon; labor relations consultant Jerry Glass, president of F&H Solutions Group; and Patrick Guiltinan, a labor financial analyst at American Airlines.

Keep reading for the transcript, pretty much verbatim, as posted by APFA.

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We’re not in attendance, but the Association of Professional Flight Attendants has posted a running account of Wednesday’s testimony in the first day of its arbitration hearings with American Airlines.

We reprint it from its Facebook postings, with a few tweaks to identify speakers more clearly and separating out some long paragraphs into single paragraphs. But the wording comes from the APFA.

Arbitrator Richard Bloch is making opening remarks prior to the beginning of the Interest Arbitration in Washington, D.C.

APFA will be presenting first with an opening statement by attorney Jeff Freund from Bredhoff and Kaiser in D.C.

Jeff Freund, APFA’s attorney is presenting APFA’s position, including a historical overview of the merger and the requirement for the arbitration back stop in order for the merger to proceed.

Continue reading →

The Association of Professional Flight Attendants and American Airlines disagree on three items that the arbiters will have to decide, according to a joint stipulation submitted Wednesday to the arbitration board.

They start out on agreeing that the joint contract will add $112 million a year to the value of the American Airlines and US Airways flight attendant contracts. But the union asked for this:

– If other unions get profit sharing in their joint contracts, APFA will have a “me too” clause that gives its members the same. If so, the pay rates will be reduced by $50 million. That amount was put in a rejected tentative agreement to make up for the lack of profit sharing that APFA doesn’t get and other airlines’ flight attendants do get.

– If the other AA unions get a better deal on their health insurance programs than APFA, APFA will have a “me too” clause that gives its members the same.

– APFA wants higher pay rates, whatever they wind up being, to be retroactive to Tuesday, Dec. 2. Had flight attendants passed the tentative agreement that was rejected Nov. 9 by 50.05 percent of voters, Dec. 2 would have been the date the new pay rates went into effect.

The company says the joint contract and its $112 million ceiling on added value meets the letter of 2012 and 2013 agreements only if there is no “me too” adjustments for profit sharing or health insurance. Those agreements established the protocol for negotiations to get to a joint agreement covering both carriers’ flight attendants.

Also, American wants any pay increases to go into effect the first day of the “bid month” that follows the effective date of the joint collective bargaining agreement. That was what was provided in the tentative agreement.

The hearings began Wednesday in Washington, D.C. We’re looking at an early 2015 decision, assuming of course that the airline and union don’t come to an agreement before then. Otherwise, the arbiters’ decision will be binding on both parties.

On the APFA’s Facebook page, the union gave a running account of the testimony of APFA representatives, including APFA president Laura Glading, and its economist, Dan Akins. Akins finished up shortly before 5 p.m. EST it seems.

(Terry Maxon/DMN)

Flight attendants line up to protest their contract near American Airlines headquarters in Fort Worth.

About three dozen American Airlines flight attendants protested Wednesday morning in front of American Airlines’ Fort Worth headquarters over their contract and its lack of profit sharing.

That description of the event oversimplies things a bit.

Their union, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, began arbitration hearings with American management Wednesday in Washington, D.C. The board of arbitration will hear from both the union and airline about what should be in a revised contract, then make a binding decision sometime in early 2015.

The protestors don’t think the union should have agreed to binding arbitration. Many don’t think that union leadership had the legal right to commit the union to binding arbitration. And they think that with American Airlines Group earning record profits, the airline should share more of those profits with flight attendants.

“We are here to let American Airlines management know that the tentative agreement that was rejected was not good enough,” Miami-based flight attendant Trice Johnson said. “And based on the unprecedented profits we’re seeing in the market place, we want our fair share. Sharing is caring.”

The protocol agreed to in 2012 prior to the American Airlines-US Airways merger laid out a process to get a joint agreement covering both labor groups: first, try to get a tentative agreement and, if that failed, submit differences to binding arbitration.

Flight attendants in November rejected a proposed contract. On Wednesday, they started the hearings that would lead to binding arbitration.

Johnson suggested that the process doesn’t have to lead to a contract imposed on flight attendants by binding arbitration.

“As you know from the pilot situation, all negotiations are very fluid. Deadlines can be extended. Talks can be on-going. There is provision in the current protocol agreement for mediation and talks. We’re hoping that talks can continue and an agreement can be reached, with facilitation, with the help of the arbitrator.”

Asked if the contract could be passed without some form of profit sharing, Johnson called that “a hard call. The tentative agreement that was rejected had numerous flaws and problems in it.”

American spokesman Paul Flaningan said airline officials “respect the rights of our unions and their members to voice their opinions. We continue to work through the process to reach joint labor contracts for all of our work groups, including our flight attendants who will realize significant wage increases when the arbitration is complete.”

(DMN File Photo)

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said its 6,500 members approved the new four-year deal “overwhelmingly.”

UPDATED, 12:25 p.m. Wednesday:

Airport and reservation agents have approved a new contract with Southwest Airlines, their union said Wednesday.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said its 6,500 members approved the new four-year deal “overwhelmingly.”

“I thank IAM members at Southwest for their support and solidarity throughout this process,” IAM District 142 president Dave Supplee said in the union’s announcement. “The negotiations team did a great job maintaining industry-leading terms for IAM members at Southwest Airlines.”

“Through their collective voice, IAM members at Southwest proved that the best agreement in the industry can be achieved by standing together,” IAM general vice president Sito Pantoja said. “I thank IAM negotiators for demonstrating great resolve during a tenuous round of bargaining.”

The company said the deal gives employees pay increases “as well as bonus opportunities that are tied to company and employee performance.”

“I am proud to have a new, lucrative contract that rewards our employees for their exceptional performance, while adding flexibilities that support our mission of being the number one low-cost carrier in the country,” said Randy Babbitt, the carrier’s senior vice president of labor relations. “With the ratification coming before the end of the year, our IAM employees will benefit from Southwest’s outstanding 2014 financial accomplishments.”

Southwest has had ongoing negotiations with unions representing the majority of its employees, including several that have asked for help from federal mediators. Groups with open contracts include pilots, flight attendants, ramp workers, stock clerks, mechanics and facilities maintenance technicians.

 (Note: Earlier version said dispatchers and flight simulator technicians had open contracts. Both agreed to new deals earlier this year.)

David Neeleman, who founded JetBlue Airways and then was pushed out, has brought an airline back to U.S. skies.

Azul Brazilian Airlines, which he started in 2008 after his 2007 departure from JetBlue, launched service Tuesday from Viracopos-Campinas International Airport near Sao Paulo, Brazil, to Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

On Dec. 15, the carrier’s sixth anniversary, it’ll begin flights from Viracopos-Campinas to Orlando, Fla., as well.

The flights mark Azul’s first international flights. To this point, it had flown exclusively inside Brazil.

“It’s with great happiness and deep pride in the accomplishments of our 10,000 crewmembers, that we bring Azul to Fort Lauderdale as our very first international city served,” said Neeleman, Azul’s president, CEO and largest shareholder.

Azul Linhas Aéreas Brasileiras S.A. sought U.S. permission to fly from Brazil to U.S. airports June 2, and got the U.S. Department of Transportation’s okay on Sept. 10. The application said Azul would use Airbus A330-200 jets, initially with 272 seats but to be reconfigured to 246 seats.

It indicated that it planned to start daily service from its Viracopos-Campinas hub to New York in July 2015.

American Airlines on Tuesday launched its own daily service between Viracopos-Campinas and Miami. On Monday, it began flying three times a week between Viracopos-Campinas and New York. It announced the service July 31, nearly two months after Azul laid out its U.S. plans.

Azul, by the way, is “blue” in Portuguese, the language of Brazil.

The Sunday Express had a story Sunday quoting security sources as saying Al Qaida had plans afoot to bomb five flights in Europe around Christmastime and might cause Britain to not allow carry-on bags.

Said the newspaper:

The threat has been taken so seriously it came close to leading to an outright ban on all hand luggage, a senior insider has revealed.

Mobile phones and electronic devices could still be banned from plane cabins, with the threat of a 9/11-style coordinated attack on London and other major cities feared imminent.

What about the United States?

“The threat is aimed at Europe,” The Express quoted its “well-placed” source. “The U.S has improved their security over the summer but we have not.”

Last summer, there was stepped-up screening of electronic devices in European airports for flights headed to the United States. “I have directed TSA to implement enhanced security measures in the coming days at certain overseas airports with direct flights to the United States,” Homeland Security secretary Jeh Johnson said in a July 2 statement.

(Terry Maxon/DMN)

American Airlines jets line up at a D/FW Airport terminal

Airline analyst Hunter Keay of Wolfe Research is predicting that American Airlines and the Allied Pilots Association will come to an agreement on a revised contract by mid-December.

“We think AAL and APA (the union) are taking some time off from negotiations this week after extending a soft negotiating deadline last Friday. AAL management can send negotiations to binding arbitration whenever it wants but we think both AAL and APA view that as undesirable,” Keay said in a Friday report.

“Key issues remain open relating to work rules, but we believe profit sharing is off the table in either an arbitrated or negotiated outcome. Pilots are likely getting a raise of about 15% – the only issue is whether that raise is in January 2015 (negotiated outcome) or January 2016 (arbitration outcome),” he said.

Keay noted that APA leaders don’t have to send a deal out for a vote by members, as opposed to the Association of Professional Flight Attendants contract that required member approval. APFA members turned down their contract by 16 votes out of more than 16,000 votes cast.

“This puts APA leadership in a tough spot. As frustrating as it was for the FA union leadership to see the tentative agreement (TA) rejected, at least the members made that decision themselves,” Keay wrote.

“If APA leadership approves a contract that the majority of its constituents don’t like in a year, APA leadership almost surely changes. Therefore APA is proceeding extra cautiously after having sent back AAL’s initial offer two weeks ago with a counterproposal that requested changes, largely around scope and pay. We think APA leadership will likely poll its members in some form, however, before its board approves a tentative agreement.”

Keay was critical of flight attendants for turning down their deal.

“The FAs sealed their fate earlier this month by oddly rejecting an offer that would have paid them above what they will get in arbitration,” Keay wrote. “We’ve heard that the lack of profit sharing in AAL’s offer led to some unhappiness within the FA rank-and-file, but rejecting the contract and sending the process to arbitration won’t change profit sharing – it will just mean they make ~$80M less per year over the next five years than AAL was offering.”

Meanwhile, APFA has shown its members the pay rates it will be proposing when it opens up the arbitration hearings Wednesday with American, and the rates will be lower in almost all cases than what the flight attendants turned down in the tentative agreement.

The biggest drop will be for flight attendants at the top of the pay scale, with at least 13 years of experience. Their hourly pay rate will be about 6.3 percent less than the rates in the tentative agreement.

The proposed rates in general are higher than current pay rates, however.

The rejected deal would have cost American $193 million a year. In binding arbitration, the annual benefit to flight attendants and cost to American is capped at $112 million, per a prior agreement that some flight attendants want to challenge.