Remember to bid! The bidding window for 2011 vacation closes October 30th at 1400 ET.  Despite cuts imposed by the bankruptcy court, our vacation accruals have contractually increased year over year, as negotiated in SECTION 10 - VACATIONS . We have gone 7-21 days of vacation to 11-32 accrued days per year.  Overall for 2011, we have more vacation to bid compared to last year, and December 2011 available vacation days more than doubled.  Generally, we see an increase in available days in spring and fall 2011. In some months, however, the allocations are lower than last year—most notably for summer 2011.  This is at least partly due to Delta’s large increase in summer flying, which reportedly occurs every year.  View yearly 2010 vacation allocations HERE and 2011 allocations HERE. 

How can this be improved?  Our vacation could be improved via negotiations for a new joint Collective Bargaining Agreement.  Pre-bankruptcy contract minimum monthly vacation allocations were at 5% (of the “established vacation manmonths”) and now they are at 3%. Although in most months we exceed the 3% minimum allocation, improving this minimum percentage would certainly improve bidder satisfaction in the summer months.  In addition, in our current bankruptcy-imposed contract, the definition of “manmonth” changed from 78 hours to 90 hours from our “yellow book” contract to current. A reversal of that definition would also affect bidding outcomes.  Of course, if we do not retain union representation, from November 3rd and forward, all aspects of vacation bidding, accrual, value, method and order would be entirely up to management.  You can review PMDL policies on DeltaNet, and review our current contract language, read SECTION 10 – VACATIONS. 

Central and Local Scheduling Committees will hold their semi-annual scheduling meeting with Delta Air Lines Scheduling on November 17. Our contract requires the company to meet with the MEC Scheduling Committee, which is “responsible for addressing scheduling issues and concerns including known flying and shall be allowed input and the opportunity to recommend changes or distribution of future flying. . .” We need to hear from you! Please share your input regarding pattern construction, and we will do our best to represent your concerns. What kind of patterns would you prefer to see? Shorter trips? More hard fly? Longer layovers? What does your base need most?  Please contact us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

The NWA-AFA Central Scheduling Committee (CSC) will hold its biannual meeting with the company in October. Our contract provides the committee the ability to provide input and recommend changes in the distribution of future flying. Your input about recent and ongoing Reserve and Lineholder issues is important! Submit an automated Crew Scheduling Report Form HERE. Contact the committee at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

June 2010 - Remember that all military charter flying covered under LOA 40 - which NWA & NW/Delta negotiated last year - is voluntary in nature.  If you are assigned/rescheduled to this flying (including Reserves), you can legally decline the assignment. This Letter of Agreement is in effect for the duration of our contract and only applies to the Middle East AMC/CRAF operations.  Please review LOA 40 for more detailed information.