Summary: Flight Attendant Bidding System Letter of Agreement
January 5, 2007
Ladies and Gentlemen:
I am proud to announce that after three years of hard work and collaboration between the Association and United Airlines we have reached a landmark Agreement. Once implemented, this Agreement provides for a number of Contractual quality of work life enhancements for all Flight Attendants and scheduling efficiencies for United. For example, the Agreement includes improvements for all Flight Attendants including an increase in the vacation rate of pay and credit along with an additional day off for Reserves, while providing United with the efficiency of combining primary and relief bidding into one process.
This Agreement allows us to move forward with the development of a mutually agreed upon Flight Attendant Bidding System (FABS). When fully developed and implemented, it will be the most technologically advanced preferential bidding system in the world. This cutting edge system will be designed in compliance with all of the provisions of our Collective Bargaining Agreement and provide for bidding that further meets the needs of Flight Attendants when preferencing a monthly schedule.
When each of us bids our schedules, our choices are as individual as our lifestyles and all of us have different priorities. Each of us tries to create a flying schedule that contemplates a multitude of trip and line of flying attributes based upon our individual preferences. FABS will support individuality and your personal scheduling preferences to the greatest extent possible.
Creating a system that maximizes personal choice and working within the provisions of our Collective Bargaining Agreement will be an ongoing and intensive project. We will continue to work with United and dedicate the resources and expertise to ensure customization of the technology that will yield the largest and most complex Flight Attendant bidding system in the industry. In the end, personalized lines of flying will be awarded according to seniority and all Contractual provisions. Our goal has been to design a Flight Attendant Bidding System that maximizes our individual scheduling preferences for even the most junior Flight Attendant.
The key property of FABS is that it will allow all Flight Attendants, Lineholder and Reserve, to express and prioritize their monthly schedule preferences. An important component of this future change is that we will move from bidding as we know it today, to a process that allows us to preference anything from specific IDs to a complex combination of days on and off, layover station(s), minimum rest-time, late check in, minimum credit time – just to name a few. There will be a multitude of ways to express your personal schedule preferences. After the development and testing of FABS, it will be necessary to transition the system methodically over a period of time.
Critical to the success of this new way of bidding will be training. An integral component of the Agreement is a comprehensive required training program. You will have many opportunities to become familiar with FABS prior to implementation. FABS will offer a personalized bidding experience for Flight Attendants that will be intuitive, user friendly and help provide a greater level of line of flying customization.
Posted on our website is the Letter of Agreement adopted unanimously by the United Master Executive Council. As we move forward in this new way to create our monthly schedules we will provide in depth and comprehensive information.
In Solidarity,
Greg Davidowitch, President
United Master Executive Council
