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Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen and welcome to Dear AFA.  Today is Tuesday, May 16^th and this is Allen Ward, a proud member of the Vocal Minority, reporting.

Reserve Assignments and Training Notification

United's Onboard Service Training recently distributed a notice about the "international premium travel experience," or "IPTE" training that incorrectly advised Flight Attendants on Reserve status to check their lines of flying to determine if training had been scheduled.  AFA addressed the Contract violation with management and they agree the notice is incorrect.  Disregard the notice.

To be clear:  Flight Attendants on Reserve status are under no obligation to check their lines of flying for an assignment.  Remember that Flight Attendants on Call-in Reserve status obtain their official assignment notification through the 1900 reserve tape, and not before that 1900 assignment time.  Flight Attendants on Ready Reserve status only have an assignment when they are contacted by the crew desk.

Shareholder Meeting and Proxy Voting

On Tuesday we reviewed the UAL proxy statement and the "Stockholder Meeting Notice & Admission Ticket" - received via U.S. mail or via e-mail depending upon your chosen communication vehicle through Fidelity.  As we stated on Tuesday, AFA encourages you to:

1. Withhold your vote for the members of the UAL Board of Directors.
2. Select "AGAINST" on proposal number 3 (this would authorize 8 million shares of United stock to be distributed to executives as another bonus), and
3. Select "FOR" on proposal number 4 which is the "Say on Pay" Proposal so that shareholders can have a say on the executive pay at United Airlines.

Next, keep this notice on hand as it is your ticket to enter the shareholder meeting in Woodland Hills, California on June 12, 2008.  AFA Members are, whether shareholders or not, all stakeholders in the future of United Airlines.  We expect hundreds of AFA Members to gather at the shareholder meeting site on June 12^th along with hundreds of other United workers who are fed up with the poor decisions of current management and the outrageous executive pay and bonuses paid to them with our continued sacrifice.  Make Tilton answer to you and your family directly by joining your flying partners in Woodland Hills on the morning of June 12^th.  More specific information about the event will be published next week along with an RSVP form.  Stay tuned.

One Step Closer to Equal Access to FMLA

We have good news to report on our efforts for equal access to the benefits provided under the Family and Medical Leave Act.  Yesterday, the House Education and Labor Committee met to consider HR 2744, and a number of Representatives expressed their strong support for the bill.  Even though Tilton spent millions of our airline's money to lobby against this legislation, after a short discussion the bill was approved by the committee on a unanimous bipartisan vote of 43-0.

The unanimous vote allows our bill to go forward to the House floor for a vote through a special legislative process where non-controversial bills are brought up for a final vote with no debate, no roll call vote and no opposition.  We expect this vote to take place within the next couple weeks.  Once that happens we will be officially half way to achieving the long over-due correction to FMLA for crewmembers. 

We are also grateful to all of our flying partners who work so hard on our AFA Government Affairs Committee.  They have reinforced all of our calls and letters with visits to Congressional offices and persistent communications with every office on the Hill.  It has been the collective efforts of every AFA Member that has enabled us to achieve this milestone.  We can and should be proud of what we have accomplished so far for this legislation.  Still, it's now time to rally for action in the Senate where the bill has 26 co-sponsors as of today.  Continue to make your calls to your Senators in support of this legislation, Senate bill 2059.  We'll keep you closely updated on the impact of our collective efforts.

Communication Training

This week AFA volunteers from BOS, DCA, DEN, FRA, HNL, JFK, LAS, LHR, NRT, ORD and SEA successfully completed a two-day intensive seminar on communications.  They studied a variety of communication vehicles, effective means of communicating useful content for Flight Attendants and the importance of always providing a means of two-way communications.  Together they discussed hot topics facing our community, Member education needs and the different ways to bring all of us together through consistent, reliable communications. 

Several AFA Members in attendance are stepping forward to volunteer their time with our Union for the first time.  They left the training energized and ready to help all of us build our power for successful Contract negotiations and ready to promote an engaged, well-educated workforce ready to demand and achieve an improved daily experience on the job.  Each of these dedicated volunteers will be working hard for all of us in our Local Councils.  We appreciate their dedication and look forward to their work around the system.

That's all for this evening.  As always, stand proud, stand strong, stand together.

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