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Archives for 2024

AFA Alaska News in Review – June 21, 2024

In This Edition

Crew Access Open Time Performance – June 16, 2024

Originally posted June 19, 2024

Flight Attendants are facing technical issues with Crew Access and Open Time trading/dropping, causing stress and frustration. Management plans to resolve these issues with server upgrades in June and July and will monitor the system closely during July Open Time. Our Scheduling Committee has requested a meeting with management to discuss long-term solutions for the ongoing Crew Access challenges.

Read More >

June 2024 MEC Meeting Recap

Originally posted June 20, 2024

Our AFA Alaska Master Executive Council (MEC) met this week on Monday, June 17, and Tuesday, June 18, to conduct their ongoing work to represent our Flight Attendants. The MEC was supposed to meet with executive management and union leaders from other company workgroups but chose to skip the meeting in support of our Negotiating Committee. The next Regular MEC Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, July 9, and Wednesday, July 10.

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Supplemental Ditching Training

Originally posted June 20, 2024

AFA has not agreed to any extra-contractual terms for the newly announced supplemental ditching training; discussions with management just started. Many management decision-makers are away at contract negotiations, delaying progress toward any sort of agreement. Our AFA Committees are committed to advocating for your rights and will address unresolved issues through the contractual grievance process if necessary.

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Mediation Session 5

Originally posted June 21, 2024

After an intense week of negotiating at the National Mediation Board, and the clear deadline we set for the company, we have a Tentative Agreement (TA) for a record contract. Your actions over the last two years of bargaining, including gaining support from lawmakers for our right to strike, ensured we had the leverage to extract every last dollar from Alaska Airlines management. Over the next several days, both parties will work to clean up the contract language to present the full text of the TA to the Master Executive Council (MEC). The MEC then votes on release of the agreement for a full membership ratification, roadshows will be scheduled, and details will be released to Members. Stay tuned for updates!

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Our Negotiating Committee Has Arrived In Washington DC

Originally posted June 17, 2024

Our Negotiating Committee has arrived in Washington, D.C., for the mediation session this week. Today is their internal prep session at AFA-CWA Headquarters, while the rest of the week will be at the National Mediation Board. 

See The Post >

Intense Negotiations At The NMB

Originally posted June 19, 2024

What do we want? CONTRACT. When do we want it? NOW.

Our AFA Alaska Negotiating Committee continued intense negotiations today, joined by AFA  International President Sara Nelson. The National Mediation Board (NMB) is keeping the parties at the table tonight.

See The Post >

Friday Added At The NMB

Originally posted June 20, 2024

The National Mediation Board is keeping AFA Alaska and Alaska Airlines in DC for an additional day. The parties will reconvene Friday morning.

See The Post >

Next Week’s Events

Monday, June 24CWA Presidents’ Meeting
Tuesday, June 25Monthly Scheduling Committee Meeting
Thursday, June 27Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR)
Thursday, June 27 – Friday, June 28Special MEC Meeting

See the MEC Event Calendar >

Find Us on Social Media

You can find the most up-to-date official information on our AFA Alaska social media accounts.  Click below and follow so you can stay connected!

Supplemental Ditching Training

Grievance Committee

  • AFA has not agreed to any extra-contractual terms for the newly announced supplemental ditching training; discussions with management just started.
  • Many management decision-makers are away at contract negotiations, delaying progress toward any sort of agreement.
  • Our AFA Committees are committed to advocating for your rights and will address unresolved issues through the contractual grievance process if necessary.

AFA Representatives have recently been receiving a lot of questions about the supplemental ditching training announced by management. We want to make it clear that AFA has not agreed to any extra-contractual terms for this training. Management just began substantive discussions yesterday with our Grievance, Scheduling, Inflight Training, and Air Safety, Health, & Security Committees to work out the administrative and logistical details of the training, but those details are still undetermined. Progress has been slow because many of the primary management decision-makers are currently involved in contract negotiations in Washington, DC, this week and are unavailable to discuss the supplemental ditching training issues.

While the situation is not ideal, we must meet the regulatory training requirements and address the remaining details later. We don’t yet know what management intends to propose, nor do we know if we can successfully reach an agreement on which contractual provisions AFA believes apply. If we can’t agree, it may come down to addressing the unresolved provisions (particularly contract sections 30.C.3-5) through the contractual grievance process and arbitration afterward, which can be time-consuming.  

We have clearly communicated your concerns to management and have asked them to provide responses to numerous unanswered questions. Our AFA Committees are actively advocating for your contractual rights. We are dedicated to fighting for those rights, even if it takes time, rather than providing an instant fix.

June 2024 MEC Meeting Recap

Master Executive Council (MEC)

  • Our AFA Alaska Master Executive Council (MEC) met this week on Monday, June 17, and Tuesday, June 18, to conduct their ongoing work to represent our Flight Attendants.
  • The MEC was supposed to meet with executive management and union leaders from other company workgroups but chose to skip the meeting in support of our Negotiating Committee.
  • The next Regular MEC Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, July 9, and Wednesday, July 10.

Our AFA Alaska Master Executive Council (MEC) held its regular meeting for June 2024 on Monday, June 17, and Tuesday, June 18. These meetings, required under the AFA Constitution & Bylaws, provide an important opportunity for the MEC to discuss and address issues and concerns affecting our Union and Members at the airline level. Your directly elected LEC President (or their designee) attends these meetings as your representative and votes on your behalf when decisions need to be made.

During the meeting, the MEC received updates from the MEC Officers, LEC Presidents, and Grievance Committee. Additionally, the MEC reviewed written reports submitted by other AFA MEC Committee Chairpersons detailing their current work and activities.

Meeting with Management

This month, our MEC was supposed to meet with company executive management and Union leaders from the other union-represented workgroups within the company. These meetings generally occur once every quarter to receive management updates and discuss issues and concerns faced by all employees. However, since we are entering another summer without a tentative agreement and in solidarity with our Negotiating Committee, the MEC decided to send a strong message by skipping the meeting.

Our absence spoke volumes: We won’t wait any longer for the contract we deserve. We stand firmly with our Negotiating Committee in their efforts to negotiate a deal that works for all Alaska Flight Attendants. If management doesn’t step up, we’re prepared to take the necessary actions under the Railway Labor Act.

Worldwide Flight Attendant Day of Action Debrief

Our MEC reviewed and discussed last week’s Worldwide Flight Attendant Day of Action informational picketing events. Alaska Flight Attendants from all six bases (including the SNA and ONT co-terminals) and several other airports nationwide participated in the events. These picketing events, along with our other awareness-building efforts and the strong support from Flight Attendants across the industry, are helping to bring more public attention to our collective contract fights. You can read more about the Worldwide Flight Attendant Day of Action by clicking here.

MEC EAP/Professional Standards Committee Vice Chairperson Interviews

During the meeting, our MEC interviewed candidates for the MEC Employee Assistance Program (EAP) / Professional Standards Committee Vice Chairperson position that was previously posted in April. The MEC EAP/Professional Standards Committee Vice Chairperson works in collaboration with the MEC EAP/Professional Standards Committee Chairperson to assist Members, their families, and partners with personal and work-related issues that may impact their health and well-being. Our MEC would like to thank all the candidates who applied and interviewed for the position.

After thorough consideration, Rex Hampton has been appointed to the position by the voting members of the MEC (LEC Presidents). Rex’s term will begin immediately and end on December 31, 2025.

System Board of Adjustment Interviews

Our MEC spent part of the meeting interviewing candidates for the System Board of Adjustment position that was previously posted in April. Members of the System Board of Adjustment are responsible for arbitrating any disputes or grievances that may arise under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement between Alaska Airlines and its Flight Attendants. Our MEC would like to thank all the candidates who expressed a willingness to serve and interviewed for the positions.

After extensive discussion and thorough consideration, the voting members of the MEC (LEC Presidents) have re-appointed Sandra Morrow to the position. Sandra’s term of appointment will begin on July 1, 2024, and conclude on June 30, 2026.

Questions?

If you have any questions about this month’s Regular MEC Meeting, please get in touch with your LEC President.

Crew Access Open Time Performance – June 16, 2024

Scheduling Committee

  • Flight Attendants are facing technical issues with Crew Access and Open Time trading/dropping, causing stress and frustration.
  • Management plans to resolve these issues with server upgrades in June and July and will monitor the system closely during July Open Time.
  • Our Scheduling Committee has requested a meeting with management to discuss long-term solutions for the ongoing Crew Access challenges.

Recently, many Flight Attendants have been experiencing technical issues with Crew Access and Open Time trading/dropping. These problems have been causing growing frustration and stress, both professionally and personally. Our Scheduling Committee acknowledges the significant impact and is committed to finding effective solutions while holding management accountable for maintaining systems that operate effectively and reliably.

Management has acknowledged the problems and expressed their commitment to tackling them head-on. As a first step, the JCTE servers are scheduled to undergo an upgrade. New firmware is set to be installed by June 24, followed by upgraded hardware by July 10, or possibly sooner. These enhancements are anticipated to enhance performance and overall system capacity significantly.

To ensure proactive oversight, the Information Technology Services (ITS) team will work closely with Jeppesen to monitor the JCTE platform during the upcoming Flight Attendant Open Time on July 16. This initiative is a step towards resolving the current issues and improving the operational experience for all Flight Attendants.

Furthermore, we expect management to deliver thorough and detailed updates on the measures taken to resolve the server load issues. Clear communication and a comprehensive breakdown of the implemented solutions and improvements are essential to ensure transparency. This will help our Scheduling Committee monitor progress and provide Flight Attendants with accurate, up-to-date information.

To address the more extensive and systemic ongoing challenges with Crew Access, our Scheduling Committee has formally requested a meeting with management to discuss the issues further. This meeting is a critical opportunity for dialogue and exploring concrete solutions to ensure an uninterrupted and contractually compliant experience for Flight Attendants.

Our Scheduling Committee is fully dedicated to actively addressing JCTE-related issues in order to restore operational normalcy and alleviate the challenges faced by Flight Attendants. We appreciate your continued patience and support throughout this process. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact your Local Scheduling Committee.

January 2023 Committee Update

Inflight Service Committee

Happy New Year from your Inflight Service Committee. 

This is the time of year to start thinking about the spring and summer months. The lead time required to make catering changes is typically 3 to 6 months. If you are currently flying a particular city pair and you regularly have product shortages such as Bloody Mary mix, Irish Cream, ginger ale, etc… now is the time to be reporting these shortages using B2B. The more reports that are submitted the more likely we will see changes. 

Membership Committee 

Over the past several months, the company has offered various staffing adjustment leaves.

Staffing adjustment leaves are unpaid leaves. Dues are owed for the first 90 days of an unpaid leave. Union dues are taken out of your 20th paycheck each month; missed dues deductions will need to be paid directly to AFA.

For example, if you took a staffing adjustment leave in October, you will likely owe November dues because your November 20th paycheck did not have enough money to deduct union dues.

If you are on unpaid leave and past your 90 days, you will be considered inactive. If you remain inactive, payroll will usually turn off your auto-deduction. Once you have returned to active  status, your auto-deduction should be turned back on. On occasion, corporate payroll has missed turning back on some auto-deductions. It is important that you check that your auto deduction is turned back on; otherwise, you might be accruing a dues balance after returning from an unpaid leave. You can monitor your deductions by looking at your monthly 20th paycheck pay statement in the after-tax deduction column titled union dues. If you find that dues aren’t being taken out of your paycheck please contact adam.clarey@afaalaska.org.

When returning from unpaid leave, there is a good chance you will owe union dues your first month back because there is not enough money on your 20th paycheck.

For those on paid leave (coordinating vacation and/or sick leave), you will owe dues each month.  Depending on how much you are coordinating and your other deductions, you might not have enough money on your 20th paycheck to cover union dues. You would need to pay AFA directly if there is not enough money on your 20th paycheck to cover union dues.

Online Payment

https://unionly.io/o/afacwa/dues

Payment Options

https://www.afacwa.org/payment_options

If you have questions, you can reach out to our Membership Chair and Council Secretary, Adam Clarey at adam.clarey@afaalaska.org.

Mobilization Committee

Your mobilization committee continues our work to mobilize our membership and support our negotiating committee. 

Our Picket event on Dec. 19 had almost 400 participants, and was paired with our Strike Vote Announcement. Strike Voting is now open, and ballots were sent on January. 3rd. Remember to vote by Feb. 13th. I recommend voting as soon as you get your ballot. It only takes a few minutes. 

Lastly, save the date for our Worldwide Flight Attendant Day of Action on Feb. 13. We will be picketing with Flight Attendants around the world as we collectively fight for fair and equitable contracts. More information to come on this.

We’re always looking for more Mobilization Volunteers. If you’re interested, sign up at https://contract2022.afaalaska.org/mobilization/volunteer/signup/

Personal Message from our Mobilization Chair:

I have been so proud and grateful to serve you as your Seattle Mobilization chair, and Vice Chair of the reserve committee. I will be transferring to SFO in the February bid month, so I need to step down from my roles within Council 19, but I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve our membership in SEA. I will continue to work with our newly appointed mobilization vice chair, Andrew Stinson until a replacement is found. If you are interested in the Mobilization Chair position, submit your resume to sea@afaalaska.org by Feb. 1 at 5 pm. Interviews will be held in March. I want to thank all of you for the amazing support I have received, and I look forward to finding more ways to serve our membership in SFO, and beyond. Please remember to vote, and remain active in our union. – Ian Haywood

Reserve Committee

With the holiday season behind us and staffing normalizing personal drops are being awarded at higher levels. Be aware that crew scheduling may call a reserve during their reserve availability period regarding a personal drop. In the past reserves have received no shows and unavailable for contact(s) for missing phone calls related to personal drops during their RAPs.

The holidays were busy and your local reserve committee received reports of over duty periods, cancellations and other operational issues which impacted reserve flights attendants. If something happened to you on a recent trip that you want your local reserve committee to look into further then please file a ticket at afaalaska.org and we will look into it.

Crew Access has been a source of many issues for reserve FAs lately. There is a particular issue we want reserve FAs to be aware of. When adding reserve days to an existing block that are the same reserve classification (i.e. AM/PM) they should retain their reserve classification (section 11.H.4). There is a known crew access issue which is incorrectly converting days to ER when adding days to existing blocks that span between bid periods. For example, you have an existing AM reserve block December 30-31 and you add 2 AM reserve days January 1-2 they should retain their AM classification. Crew Access will incorrectly convert days to ER and if this happens to you then please call crew scheduling and they will fix it. You may need to reference the crew access known issues list and/or ask to speak to a MOD. 

Fly safe and see you out there!

Scheduling Committee

FEBRUARY MONTH REMINDER :

Section 5 of the contract defines Month.  As a reminder it’s important to note for bidding and trading purposes January 31 and March 01 are added to February to create a 30 day period. 

FEBRUARY PBS BASE SITS

We will be conducting PBS Base Sits in SEA NSAT Village.  Visit us in person or online for PBS bidding assistance.  

  • Feb 6 and 8 SEA NSAT Village  6 am – 7 pm
  • Virtual Sits February 8 and 9  –  More information will be available on the NavBlue INFO page. 

SCHEDULING FLOWCHARTS

The Scheduling Committee has compiled Flowcharts to assist in helping navigate scheduling issues when flying. They can be found  on the AFA Website under Committees > Scheduling > Tools and Resources. 

Uniform Committee

If you were eligible for the new uniform allotment, you should have received it by now. Our next quarterly uniform meeting will be held on February 22, 2024.

Please continue to report any quality issues for garments to alaskaservice@unisyncgroup.com. It is helpful to include photos of defects and of the tag inside.

In Solidarity, 

Your Council 19 Committee Chairs and Officers

Election Notice: Alaska + Hawaiian MEC Officer Elections

The term of office for our current Alaska + Hawaiian Master Executive Council (MEC) Officers will conclude on December 31, 2025. The voting members of the MEC (LEC Presidents) will elect new MEC Officers at the November Regular MEC meeting. This communication serves as notice of the election in accordance with the MEC Policy and Procedure Manual. […]

SEA Domicile Negotiations – September 2025 Update #2

This message is for pre-merger Hawaiian Flight Attendants Negotiations Update Our SEA Domicile Negotiating Committee met with the company on September 11 to review their response to our September 5 proposal.  We feel that it is important to acknowledge the challenges within our company as Alaska management is struggling to understand our Collective Bargaining Agreement […]

Reserve Committee Meeting Recap – 3rd Quarter 2025

This message is for pre-merger Alaska Flight Attendants On Thursday, September 11, representatives from our AFA Local Reserve Committees met to discuss their ongoing work to advocate for Reserve Flight Attendants. Representing you at the meeting were Conner Gallager (SEA), Anthony Eskander (PDX), Meghan Casey (SFO), Kanako Yamada (LAX), and Rebecca Garcia (SAN). Also present […]

Celebrating Hispanic-Latinx Heritage Month

September 15 marks the start of Hispanic-Latinx Heritage Month in the United States, a vibrant celebration dedicated to honoring the rich contributions and diverse cultures of Hispanic-Latinx Americans. Spanning a full month, this observance—also known as National Hispanic Heritage Month—has its roots in Hispanic Heritage Week, which was established by legislation signed into law by […]

Hotel Committee Meeting Recap – September 2025

This message is for pre-merger Alaska Flight Attendants On Monday, September 8, our AFA Local Hotel Committee Chairpersons met in person in Seattle to receive an update about current layover hotels and transportation providers and discuss concerns with management. Representing you at the meeting were Dori Marron (ANC), Jarod McNeill (SEA), Ila Christy (PDX), Hilary […]

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