Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen and welcome to Dear AFA. Today is Tuesday, July 27th, and this is AFA LAX Council 12 President Darren Shiroma, reporting.

Partnership Program Bid Closes Tomorrow

Bidding closes tomorrow morning, July 28, at 0800 Central Time for the new six-month Partnership Program scheduled to begin August 31, 2010. The current partnership program ends on August 30. All current partnerships will need to be rebid if you wish to continue them; and if you are not currently taking advantage of this schedule flexibility and wish to, place a bid on file to participate. The Partnership Program is offered in conjunction with the current furlough. Through this program we have been very successful as a community in working together to save jobs. We continue to encourage Members to bid for the program.

In the Schedule Section of our website there is a direct link to the page on United’s intranet to submit your bid for the Partnership Program. If you are looking for a partner to bid for the program check TRDBRD in Unimatic. Additional information on the program is available in the Schedule Section of www.unitedafa.org.

Mandatory IPTE B777 Training

July 31st is the deadline for completing IPTE 3: B777 Safety, Cabin, and Systems Differences eLearning.  Keep in mind that the B777 IPTE e-learning is a stand-alone lesson and not part of the RET pre-work. We’ve heard from some of you that you’ve had difficulty locating the lesson. There is a direct link to E-learning from our website’s Useful Site page. To register for the lesson, go to your learning plan and type IPTE in the search box. From the list select IPTE 3: 777 Safety, Cabin and Systems Differences FASW-777R 100-01 and click on the green start button.

Canadian Customs Forms Update

Recently we reported that there had been a change to the required Customs form procedures in Canada. Thanks to reports submitted to AFA from our flying partners, we were made aware the IBS listed new procedures that were not working as detailed in the IBS message.

After working with United to fix the message on the IBS, and more importantly, to ensure procedures are in place to support the needs of the crews, we are pleased to report that the company is implementing a process change to support consistency and standard operation procedures for Canadian flights. 

Effective immediately, the crew declaration form (form 5129) must be boarded in all document boxes for all departures to Canada. Crews laying over in Canada will require the form for CBD processing for their return flight to the U.S. Those who are flying to Canada should be sure to take the form with them before deplaning. Deadheading or other non-working crew members traveling to the U.S. should use the standard declaration form 6059B.

Merger Notes

Today United announced the European Commission had given clearance to the proposed merger with Continental stating it do not raise any specific concerns in Europe or the trans-Atlantic market. Also today, Jeff Smisek announced his executive team in the event of merger approval. Executive selections exclude current United President John Tague, CFO Kathryn Mikells President of Mileage Plus and Senior Vice President of Corporate and Government Affairs Rosemary Moore. 

Smisek announced the following appointments in a merged United Airlines:

• Pete McDonald of United will be chief operations officer.
• Zane Rowe of Continental will be chief financial officer.
• Tom Sabatino of United will be general counsel.
• Mike Bonds of Continental will lead human resources and labor relations.
• Jim Compton of Continental will be chief marketing officer.
• Jeff Foland of United will head the carrier's loyalty program.
• Nene Foxhall of Continental will be in charge of communications and government affairs.
• Keith Halbert of United will be chief information officer.

Week 64 Negotiations Update

In a week where record profits were reported for the aviation industry including the best 2^nd quarter for United Airlines since 1999, last week our Negotiating Committee went to the table as the NMB reconvened federally mediated negotiations in Chicago.  Topics on the agenda and discussed during the session were Vacation, Sick Leave, Deadheading and Personal Time Off (PTO).

In addition to discussion on these topics, negotiations resulted in management affirming the Tentative Agreements that have been reached to date as well as the numerous issues that had been confirmed as closed. The parties also focused discussions on a new Hotel proposal from management. Within the context our proposals for greater legal rest we we’ve moved toward management proposals on the topic of field layover hotel location proposing to allow field layover hotels to be an additional five minutes farther from the airport. In the area of sick leave there was some minimal movement on management’s part in the area of sick leave maximum accrual with proposals on creating separate sick leave and occupational sick leave banks, we remain far apart on these issues. Management continues to propose to reduce the amount of pay a Flight Attendant may receive while on sick and occupational leave. Management also continues to seek the elimination of PTO.

That’s all for this evening! Thank you for calling and remain informed as we stand strong together to do Whatever it takes! to achieve an industry leading Contract!