Furloughed ex-TWA flight attendants fight proposal to make them pay dues

by Terry Maxon Dallas Morning News

The Association of Professional Flight Attendants, which represents American Airlines employees, is proposing a constitutional amendment that has outraged its members who formerly worked for Trans World Airlines.

APFA board members this week approved an amendment that would assess dues on all members if they want to remain in good standing and have the right to vote. Furloughed members or members on leaves currently don't have to pay dues.

Roger Graham, a furloughed ex-TWA flight attendant who is helping lead the fight against the dues changes, called the proposal "in a word, despicable."

He said the amendment is aimed directly at the ex-TWA flight attendants, since all 1,200 flight attendants currently on furlough are ex-TWA employees. They joined American when the airline bought Trans World Airlines' assets and hired its people in April 2001.

"We're the only group that it's going to hurt because we're the only ones that are indeed furloughed," Graham said.

APFA president Laura Glading denied that the dues proposal targets anyone. The union just has a lot of members who aren't working or paying dues, around 2,400 as of Dec. 1, and the union needs the money.

"We have no intention of harming anyone," she said. "It's just a matter of running an efficient union. You don't have to pay dues when you're on leave or on furlough if you choose not to. But you cannot vote."

The Association of Professional Flight Attendants, which represents American Airlines employees, is proposing a constitutional amendment that has outraged its members who formerly worked for Trans World Airlines.

APFA board members this week approved an amendment that would assess dues on all members if they want to remain in good standing and have the right to vote. Furloughed members or members on leaves currently don't have to pay dues.

Roger Graham, a furloughed ex-TWA flight attendant who is helping lead the fight against the dues changes, called the proposal "in a word, despicable."

He said the amendment is aimed directly at the ex-TWA flight attendants, since all 1,200 flight attendants currently on furlough are ex-TWA employees. They joined American when the airline bought Trans World Airlines' assets and hired its people in April 2001.

"We're the only group that it's going to hurt because we're the only ones that are indeed furloughed," Graham said.

APFA president Laura Glading denied that the dues proposal targets anyone. The union just has a lot of members who aren't working or paying dues, around 2,400 as of Dec. 1, and the union needs the money.

"We have no intention of harming anyone," she said. "It's just a matter of running an efficient union. You don't have to pay dues when you're on leave or on furlough if you choose not to. But you cannot vote."

Here's where it gets complicated. There's a group called the Coalition for Union Principles, comprised of retired and furloughed TWA flight attendants, who have threatened to work American Airlines flights during any APFA work stoppage.

CUP is unhappy that the ex-TWA flight attendants all got lower seniority than all American Airlines flight attendants who had been hired prior to the TWA acquisition. You've got 40-year TWA flight attendants with less seniority than flight attendants hired by American in 2001.

Right now, about 1,200 flight attendants are furloughed, all ex-TWA. The rest of the approximately 4,000 ex-TWA attendants were furloughed years ago and have fallen off the recall list.

The 2003 APFA contract with American said that furloughed flight attendants would lose their right to recalled after they had been on furlough five years. A bunch fell off the recall list as a result.

Because of pressure from the ex-TWA flight attendants, the airline agreed several years ago to extend recall rights. But all employees who had already fallen off the recall list were gone forever.

The Coalition for Union Principles is continuing its fight to get APFA to change the way it merged the seniority lists of TWA and American flight attendants, the method that put all TWA members at the bottom.

Graham, who calls CUP "a rogue group of former TWA employees," said the coalition's actions have created a lot of animosity among APFA leaders, and the dues proposal is to keep the ex-TWA people from voting on any contract proposal.

The question of voting rights is important because the APFA is making a big push to get a tentative agreement by early 2010. Any deal would have to be approved by APFA members.

The NMB and American Airlines are very concerned that even if the union and airline reached agreement, "the TWA bloc vote would shoot it down," Graham said. "They [union leaders] intend to change the definition of union member in good standing to disguise the retaliation of a dues assessment which will be imposed to rid the TWA flight attendants of their voting rights."

Would the ex-TWA employees vote against a proposed contract?

"I can't guess or estimate," Graham said. "You know, it just depends on the contract all around. If there are things in there like an unlimited recall extension, things that would benefit everybody... But the union is determined to get a contract through and they're very concerned about the bloc vote."

Glading said the proposal is not a reaction to any group or threat to vote against a contract or work during a strike.

The union has set a goal to get a new contract with American sometime in January. If not, it wants the National Mediation Board to release the union from federal mediation and allow it to start job actions like strikes.

Glading said the dues proposal probably won't be voted on by members until December. If it is in effect by Jan 1, members can be delinquent 60 days before they'd lose their voting rights. The union would like to have a contract proposal out for a vote before that 60 days goes by. That means everybody would be able to vote on a proposed deal, whether they paid dues or not.
However, if the union does not wrap up a deal quickly, the people on leave or furlough would have to start dues if they want to retain their voting rights.

On Thursday, Graham asked the U.S. Department of Labor to investigate the APFA's actions, and he and associates are talking to lawmakers about getting involved.

"It has taken decades to cultivate union democracy in this country and only one rogue union to set it back light years," fellow furloughee Robert Applegate, a former contract negotiator for the Association of Flight Attendants and past business agent for the International Association of Machinists, said in a statement.

"They have now embraced upon corruption, in exchange, for monetary gain. They have taken their seniority, their jobs and now disguised as a dues assessment intend to take away the most valuable thing a man or woman can have - the right to vote," he said.