Members of both AFA-MEC and UAL senior management (including CEO Jim Goodwin) met in Chicago this past Monday, September 25, 2000.  As of this morning, September 27, 2000, the results of this meeting were available only on the DEAR-AFA tape.  Here are a few key points:

• United will reinstate all flight attendants who were fired for alleged insubordination during Critical Coverage in May, and bring back those flight attendants who were removed from service from August pending charges back to work immediately.
• United will remove all discipline from the files of flight attendants who were disciplined for being unavailable during Critical Coverage during May and August.  The 3-day and 10-day Suspensions will be removed from the files, but the DNFs will remain in their Work Histories (however they "will not trigger discipline in this instance").
• Flight attendants who were assigned and did fly during Critical Coverage will get time and a half for their hourly rate.  In other words, if you flew an assigned trip during Critical Coverage, you are now owed 50% more hourly pay for that trip.

AFA and UAL agreed to meet on October 3, 2000 to discuss wage increases.  According to DEAR-AFA, the union has set a "time limit" of 30-45 days to produce a "substantial" pay increase for flight attendants.

Jim Goodwin, CEO of UAL Corporation, has agreed to send a letter with a "strong message" to all Crew Schedulers to stop violating the contract or they will be held accountable.  However, on the DEAR-AFA message no date was given as to when this letter will be sent, nor was any date given as to when this letter must be sent by.

The AFA tape goes on to mention that United Airlines is committed to find out why "lapses" occurred in honoring our contract.  No dates, explanations, or specifics given.  Perhaps this was the only information UAL gave AFA at the time?  Perhaps it was the best we could do?  Either way, this very important point was not made clear.

As to Linda Farrow's statement that "We demand action now." in her letter to Goodwin dated August 31, 2000 regarding the problem that "flight attendants cannot get through to crew scheduling because of the antiquated and inadequate phone system," no resolution to that problem was mentioned.

You can hear further details of this meeting by calling 1-800-DEAR-AFA.  Have a pencil ready, the speaker talks at the speed of lighting!