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Combination of Committees to Better Address Work Life Issues

During the United Master Executive Council (MEC) first quarter regular meeting, the Members of the MEC reviewed our committee structure to maximize its efficiency and ensure the best use of our resources to effectively resolve Members’ issues and enforce our Contract.  The decision was made to combine the MEC Central Schedule and Reserve Committees to create the “MEC Central Schedule and Reserve Committee (CSRC)” and also to combine the Insurance & Retirement and Occupational Committees to create the “Benefits Committee (BC),” effective July 1, 2008.

There was a lively discussion about whether this was a good decision for the Membership and everyone had the opportunity to hear new information and new points of view about why these changes were being considered.  The leaders did not make these decisions lightly.  They drilled into a review of the structure currently in place to examine where it falls short and how it could be improved.  This examination seemed to clearly reveal that the change in MEC committee structure would enhance the effectiveness of handling schedule, reserve and benefit issues.  This change does not modify the Local Committee structure, but it will enable the MEC Committees to provide a superior level of support for the Local Committees that handle the day-to-day issues affecting Members.

Concern was expressed that deleting stand-alone committees with the heading of “Reserve” or “Occupational” could be perceived as a decreased focus on reserve and occupational issues.  After the discussion and review of the facts many leaders determined that the change would provide an opposite effect and provide greater resources to handle these issues important to Members.  The committees that currently handle many of the same issues can now more effectively coordinate efforts support Local committees to resolve issues in a timelier manner for Flight Attendants.

The MEC agreed that we should be reviewing our best practices to do the work that Members expect in providing focused attention on Contract enforcement and the issues affecting their work lives.  The leaders determined that better results for Members will cure any problems with perception because AFA Members’ experience will improve. 

All of the leaders agreed that even more resources could be provided at the MEC and LEC level through the budgeting process at the AFA-CWA Board of Directors.