April Labor Advisory and Board of Directors Meeting

April 14, 2010-held in Phoenix, AZ

CEO, Doug Parker did a short overview of the state of the Airline.  He stated that we are building cash.  The employees are doing a great job running the airline.  The 1st quarter was not great due to weather issues and 7% of our flights were cancelled.  That percentage is double of any past cancelled flight history at the Company.  The Company is trying to keep costs down.  Fuel is higher, but revenue is coming in pretty strong.  March is up 20% and we will have our 1st quarter results April 27.  Of course analysts are projecting both profit and loss.  We will see.

Robert Isom, Executive VP and COO also reported that we are recovering.  We had the best 2 weeks of performance in the history of the merged company.  Baggage performance could reach records for the month, which is great.  The mechanic group is doing an excellent job with fewer aircraft out of service.

MERGER TALKS

When asked, Doug stated that they are not confirming or denying merger talks.  He did say if we did end up merging someday, the Unions would be the 1st to know.  He said they would consider a merger if it were in the best interest of the employees and they would meet with each of the Union groups if this were to occur.

He claims we are vulnerable and all of our employees would benefit from a merger.  He feels that we could look forward to retiring from US Airways if a merger were to occur, he has not been able to say that before.

Doug said you can create value in a merger.  There is more in it for the employee's then just security.  There would be shared synergies and a feeling of security.  He advised the labor leaders to call him if he can dispel any non –facts, but not speculations.

He did say we can stand on our own, we have an airline that can work on its own right now.

The IBT/CWA Association raised the following issues;

Workbrain- we are having issues with our swaps cancelled for an entire month in many locations, it appears to be a programming error. Suzanne Boda, Senior VP of East coast Operations will be looking into this for us and will respond.

Uniform replacement-some locations have reported difficulties in getting uniform replacements due to wear and tear after the 18 month period.  The company did not know this was going on and will follow up.  If this is going on in your location, please let your IBT or CWA steward or local leaders know so we can have this corrected.

Last Chance agreements-the Association feels that these are being used to by-pass the grievance process.  Once a last chance agreement is signed, local management is using it to fire people regardless if it is related to the offense that caused the member to be on the last chance agreement.  This is wrong and we want this reviewed and corrected.  The local leadership should always be involved in any last chance agreements.

Level 3 hearings-we have had reports that one of the labor relations hearing officers has been a no-show to the hearings or has been hostile to the member and the Union leadership.  We want this addressed immediately or we will refuse to meet with any hearing officer that behaves in a disrespectful and condescending manner and will elevate the grievance to the Labor relations VP.  We were advised that this will be investigated by Al Hemenway, VP of labor relations and Ron Harbinson, Managing director, labor relations ground.

Travel while on leave of absence-West employees are allowed to travel while on a leave of absence or OJI but the East employees have been restricted.  This has been an ongoing issue for the labor group.  The company said that the programming is not complete to fix this problem and they anticipate that it will be done in the summer of 2010.  In the meantime, this is disparate treatment between the two workgroups who have merged into one many years ago.  The Association wants this addressed ASAP.  Al Hemenway stated that there is a new policy on travel while out on leave, but none of the union leaders at the table have seen it.  He said he would send the new policy out to us.

Some follow-up items from the last meeting that Labor Relations reviewed;

The issue was raised regarding the West still having America West on their paychecks.  This has been discontinued and all employees should have US Airways showing on their paychecks now. 

The Association raised Workbrain issues that were continuing in the TPA ATO in the last meeting.  These issues have been addressed.  An audit was done by the Workbrain IT group and the CWA Leadership and a follow-up meeting was held with Camille Soto in TPA.