AFA & Kevin Griffin refuses to meet on our behalf!

New AFA NWA MEC Secretary-Treasurer Appointed and Seniority Integration Update

Your AFA NWA MEC voted this weekend to appoint LAX flight attendant Lynn Bible to the open NWA MEC Secretary-Treasurer position recently vacated by MSP flight attendant Mark Gehrt.

Needless to say, given all the red ink and questionable accounting practices left behind by Gehrt, Lynn has her work cut out for her.

Perhaps, however, she could begin her new duties by picking up those abandoned by NWA MEC President Kevin Griffin, and replying to the following letter, sent to Griffin from the Delta Flight Attendant Seniority Integration Committee.

Or, if Kevin or someone else at AFA (perhaps the cleaning person?) has bothered to reply to it, maybe Lynn can let us know what the reply was, and put an end to the embarrassing unanswered letters that continue to pop up in the Seniority Integration Committee Section of the IFS portal on DeltaNet.

Here’s the letter:

March 19th, 2009

Mr. Kevin M. Griffin, President
Northwest Airlines Master Executive Council
Association of Flight Attendants-CWA
8011 34th Avenue South, #220
Bloomington, MN 55425

Dear Kevin,

Since the Delta Seniority Integration Committee announced our methodology for integrating the flight attendant seniority lists, many Delta flight attendants have asked us when we will meet with the Northwest representatives and get the list finalized. Initially our response to our flight attendants was that you still had not responded to our letter of November 20th, 2008 requesting a meeting with the Northwest Merger Committee. After my conversation with you on February 18th, 2009 in an effort to be fair to you and the Northwest Merger Committee, as well as trying to be completely open and transparent with our own flight attendants, our committee related my conversation with you to our flight attendants, including your statement that the Northwest Merger Representatives intended to
begin meeting with us.

Shortly after telling the Delta flight attendants this news, I learned that you’d put out at least two different communications to the Northwest flight attendants that were inconsistent with your statements to me. On February 20th, I sent you a follow-up letter confirming our February 18th conversation, including proposed dates, which you requested, for a possible meeting. In this letter, given the conflicting information I was receiving, I requested that you clarify your intentions. You didn’t respond to this letter.

I called you again on February 25th to follow up on my February 20th letter. During our conversation, you again assured me that the Northwest Merger Representatives were willing to meet with the Delta Committee. At the end of that conversation we agreed that the ball was in your court. Since that conversation, I have not heard from you. To date, the reality is, you have never responded to any of my letters, nor have you committed to any meeting dates. Additionally, because you have been non- responsive and non-committal, the only thing I can rely on to understand your intentions are the communication s you’ve sent to the Northwest flight attendants where you clearly stated that integration of the two seniority lists should be the last thing to be accomplished.

Given the history of our communications, along with the inconsistent statements you have made to me personally vs. the public statements you have made to the Northwest flight attendants, the only conclusion I can draw is that it is not now, and never was, your intention for our committees to meet. Kevin, the Delta Seniority Integration Committee has proposed a “fair and equitable” method for integrating our flight attendant seniority lists, even according to your own communications to the Northwest flight attendants. The materials describing our methodology, the pre-merger Delta seniority list, and a combined seniority list that was integrated using our methodology are posted on the IFS web site, which all flight attendants, including the Northwest Merger Representatives, can access.

In conclusion, it is our belief that flight attendants want resolution, and we should work diligently to provide it as soon as possible. Simply put, it is unreasonable to further delay the seniority integration process and keep this very important issue to both our flight attendant groups in limbo. It has been almost a year since the merger was announced and we urge the Northwest Merger Representatives to meet with our Committee in good faith to complete the McCaskill-Bond seniority integration process.

Very truly yours,

Mark Clarke
Chairperson
Delta Flight Attendant Seniority Integration Committee

Cc: Barbara Schlosser
Raymond Cox