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Seasoned and Skilled
Aloha Friends,
Greetings from Oahu on this warm afternoon of strong variable winds. On days like this, the ocean is full of every kind of board or paddle sport you can think of. Watching the kite surfers off Mokuleia perform their aerials while surfing never cease to amaze. It takes a seasoned water athlete to pull this sport off.
First, there’s an enormous amount of preparation. Assembling and inflating the huge kite, then straightening, laying and hooking the inner and outer lines from the kite to the harness. Just when the wind and waves are right, you launch your kite and jump on your board.
Faster and faster, you’re jumping waves, steering, and contorting your body to create just the right amount of lift and the appropriate drag. After dropping yourself into the perfect wave to ride, you can either windsurf it back out or flip your legs over and go airborne to do it all over again.
It's more than pure athletic skill. You've got to have a sailor’s eye for wind and wave reading and a surfers ability to select and ride a variety of waves. Lastly, you have to possess the wherewithal and acrobatic skill level to physically control these elements and survive the roughest of conditions. You can't just walk in off the beach and expect to execute this.
It also doesn’t hurt to be just a little nuts.
Cross Trained and Fit
Which kind of takes me right into talking about the people who were elected as our Negotiation Committee for the upcoming Section Six negotiations. The 4th position of this committee is automatically filled by the MEC President, Greg Davidowitch.
All candidates send in their ‘Willingness to Serve’ letters as well as a resume of their previous union work and other special qualifications that enable them to compete for election.
Then, all candidates must leave the room, while each of the others take their turn in presenting themselves with a speech or dialog of some sort. A question and answer type interview process by the MEC members soon follows. Any member of AFA who is not interviewing, may sit in the gallery and watch.
There were roughly 8 people interviewing for the 3 positions on the Negotiation Committee and it got pretty heated at times. At one point, those of us in the gallery were asked to leave three different times for a private caucus of the MEC. It added much to the stress of the candidates.
Careful Preparations and Equipment Selection
In the end, three candidates with extensive experience were elected.
Currently based in ORD, Karen Mazuer, a former 4 term LECP to EWR (2 terms in the 80’s and 2 terms prior to it’s closure) was elected by a near unanimous vote.
Karen brings to the table 8 previous contract negotiations, service in every officer position on the local level and training in negotiations at Cornell University and the George Meany Center of Labor Studies. She also has served her peers as a strike coordinator in the previous negotiations.
HKG LECP, Jack Kande was second to be elected to the group. Flying since 1995, Jack is the youngest member of the team, but like Karen brings a host of experience. A 3 term LECP (2 in the late 90’s and his current term), he has also served as local VP and on his local Grievance, EAP/Professional Standards, Occupational, Safety, Scheduling, and Insurance & Retirement Committees.
He is also an officer in the United States Army Reserves, though currently on inactive status. His education comes from the perspective of an economist and brings a detailed knowledge of contractual issues and leadership skills. Like Karen, Jack has serves as a strike coordinator.
Shirley Barber is noted most for her most recent service as MEC Secretary. Shirley is based in LAX and began much of her union career in Scheduling, first on the local level and then quickly to the MEC level. Extremely knowledgeable of the contract and operational issues, she brings to the table another studied eye in the area of finance. Both she and Jack have served on the AFA International Budget Committee.
Each of our local Council 14 officers have a great deal of respect and are confident in the competence of these individuals. All four have offered to make themselves available (as they have to other councils) to answer any questions we may have, though I would urge you to go through Ed or Dave in light of the heavy scheduling commitments these folks are under.
Assessing the Winds
During the interview process, there were a number of interesting candidates with a great many stories and takes on the future of these negotiations. Karen, Jack and Shirley were the three that your elected representatives of the MEC decided were the most able to fill the role of the negotiating representatives of United flight attendants. They offer a broad spectrum of experience and knowledge.
They will work in tandem with our professional negotiators, attorneys and consultants in researching and dissecting every area of our contract as well as others. It is from this research and speaking with actual line flight attendants that our opening proposal will come. Training and strategy sessions will begin immediately, with the first such session to begin at the National Labor College.
The Angle of Attack
Importantly, we need to have an eye and an ear on what it is that we decide as a group to the direction this negotiating team will steer. Two surveys have been taken in the area of most important issues to this date and there will likely be others. It is imperative that we are represented in this information gathering process and how important it is for each of us to contribute or chance being left out entirely.
In turn, this team will be spending a great deal of time and study together. They will live essentially on call to the MEC and to the negotiation process. Talks can begin as suddenly as end, particularly as they near the road to any 30 day cooling off period or 11th hour talks.
They will be living a life of late and sleepless nights and lack a life outside of training, research, study and negotiating.
A Negotiation Committee Update
The United AFA Negotiation Committee is now on the road to meet with all 14 Flight Attendant base locations to listen to your issues and priorities for the next Contract. Traveling with them is MEC President, Greg Davidowitch and AFA Staff Negotiator Eric Wright.
Our current contract becomes amendable in January 7, 2010 and AFA will submit an opening proposal as soon as April of 2009.
Make sure the issues most important to you are in that proposal. Council 14 will welcome the Negotiation Committee to Honolulu on November 14.