this is from the LAXI BASELINE newsletter...just a reminder in case you forgot what happened in 2003.................peggy

When retiree medical disappeared from our contract
Posted by: "JOKOPOMO@aol.com" JOKOPOMO@aol.com kathleenoriley
Wed Sep 30, 2009 9:05 am (PDT)



Sorry it has been awhile since I forwarded to this group, here is the
article I was trying to send, Kathy ORiley retired LAXI


Rock says:
With all the talk about the company eliminating non-union Retiree Medical,
I
just want to remind people that they've already tried to change APFA's
Retiree Medical from 80/20 to 60/40 without anyone even knowing. I wrote
about it in 2007. APFA's been telling flight attendants who inquire about
the latest announcement that they need not worry because APFA is unionized.
Well, they DO need to worry because there IS NO language in the 2003
Restructuring Part icipation Agreement protecting Retiree Medical. It was
left. AA and AFA have agreed via Side Letter of Agreement to address
Retiree
Medical during negotiations.

Here's what I wrote:

Medical Malpractice | February 3, 2007

As you may have heard, APFA reached another Presidential Grievance
Settlement with AA in January, this one over the company's January 2006
changes to the Retire Health Plan.

In short, the company made changes to the Retiree Medical Benefits Plan
effective January 1, 2006, and made notice of the said changes via JetNet
and Flagship News in September 2005. We, the APFA membership, only became
aware of these changes via a chat board in December 2006, and that was only
because an APFA retiree joined the chat board to inquire about the changes.

At issue is whether retiree medical benefits are contractual or not. The
union's position is that the Retiree Medical Benefits Plan is a contractual
issue and not amendable until negotiations. The company's position is that
the Retiree Medical Benefits Plan is not incorporated into either the 2001
Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) or the 2003 Restructuring
Participation Agreement (RPA).

Though this Settlement might seem like the first real victory for APFA
since
the Hutto-Blake Administration assumed office in 2004, the Settlement
itself
leaves some very important questions unanswered: mainly, why is the company
claiming that the Retiree Medical Benefits Plan is non-contractual? What
happened to the language? We know it existed, so where did it go?

The company claims that:

"...there has been no contractual violation in this matter. Attachment K of
the 2003 RPA incorporated only the "Standard Medical and Dental Plan for
Flight Attendants" into Article 35 of the CBA. It did not incorporate the
Retiree Medical Plan...."

The RPA Letter of Agreement signed by Jeff Bott and witnessed by Lenny
Aurigemma, Susan M. French, Patt A. Gibbs Patrick Hancock and Becky Kroll
states:

"It is hereby mutually agreed that the Standard Medical and Dental Plan for
Flight Attendants shall be incorporated into Article 35 of the Collective
Bargaining Agreement...."

As you can see, the word "Retiree" is not mentioned, which leads me to
believe that the company's assertion is correct.

So what happened? What happened to the language protecting Retiree Medical
Benefits? We know that there was language. It read like this in 1995:

"The Health Benefit Plan for retirees, other than Article 30 retirees and
those flight attendants who elect to take Appendix T, shall be the retiree
health plan for pilot employees of American Airlines represented by the
Allied Pilots Association ("Pilot Retiree Plan"). This shall include any
changes, modification and/or amendments to the Pilot Retiree Plan,
including
changes, modifications and/or amendments to contributions made by retired
pilots."

As you can see, the=2 01995 language regarding the Retiree Medical Benefits
Plan for flight attendants had clear language; it was tied directly to the
Pilot's Retiree Plan. But in 2001 APFA loosened the language when it
incorporated prefunding and tied the plan to the Ground Workers Retiree
Plan. The 2001 language reads:

"Effective January 1, 2002. Flight Attendants will participate in
American's
prefunding program under the terms and conditions in effect for American's
ground personnel as of June 30, 2001, whereby employees contribute toward
the cost of Retiree Medical Plan coverage during their active status.
Flight
Attendants who elect not to prefund will not be eligible for Retiree
Medical
Plan coverage at retirement."

What I personally find so fascinating about this issue, more than the
mystery surrounding the missing contract language, is how APFA portrayed
the
2003 RPA Medical Benefits Changes as an improvement over anything we
previously had. Yes, even though flight attendants were going to have to
continue prefunding their Retiree Benefits with income that was greatly
reduced by the pay cuts imposed on them against their NO vote of April 15,
2003, Jeff Bott, former APFA VP, considered this an improvement.

So was this another empty bAAg???

When we consider that AA and APFA " agree to reserve their respective
positions...with respect to the question of whether the Retiree Standard
Medical Plan was incorporated into the CBA in the RPA..." (in other words,
agree to disagree) and " agree to attempt to resolve this question during
the next round of collective bargaining," (in other words, waste valuable
resources renegotiating the blunder) I would have to say yes‹absolutely.

What we do know about the 2003 changes comes from an article Jeff Bott
wrote
in Skyword. Mr. Bott wrote:

"The collaboration between seasoned APFA representatives and experts of the
highest caliber paid off. We put together a proposal that gave the company
$8 million in savings for 2004, no more, no less, and provided significant
benefits for flight attendants."

Seasoned reps??? Experts of the highest caliber??? If these reps were so
seasoned, how then did the language protecting retiree medical benefits
disappear? I believe the only thing accurate about this statement is the
fact that APFA "gave" the company millions in savings.

Mr. Bott continues:

"GIVING CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE"

I put together what I consider a dream team to work with me on this
project.
I would like to thank them publicly for the participation, commitment, and
for sharing their collective knowledge and wisdom: Susan French, Patt
Gibbs,
Patrick Hancock, and Becky Kroll. We could not have put this deal together
without the support and participation of the Division Representatives: Lori
Bassani, Jeff Crecelius, Brett Durkin, Greg Hildreth, Leslie Mayo and Linda
Richardson. Thanks also to Executive committ ee member Lenny Aurigemma and
Tony Leonhardt (LAX).

I could say something here, but I believe the words "dream team" say it
all;
rather than hiring professionals to assist us, APFA Leadership once again
chose to save money by using flight attendants.

When will we ever learn‹we get what you pay for? Every time APFA opts to
save money by not hiring professionals, the APFA membership pays for it and
pays dearly. We ALWAYS get the short end of the stick.

We we consider that 800 or so members of AMR's senior management team are
going to be sharing approximately $210,000,000 in bonuses come April,
there's no denying that the flight attendants were almost duped. I say
"almost" because we said NO on 4/15/03. Even without professionals, the
flight attendants could see the writing on the wall. And so did our union
leadership. They knew about the bonus plans back in 2003. And because of
their unwillingness to hire any professionals, AMR execs are going to be
receiving lavish bonuses for TAKING money rather than MAKING money.

Why is this stuff even important to us? I answer this question by asking
this: Do flight attendants want the very people who gave it all away
negotiating for them in the future? Remember, Tommie Hutto-Blake's campaign
slogan was "He gave it away; We want it back." So far, three years later,
Ms
Hutto-Blake hasn't gotten us anything back that didn't cost us something
else.