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Join the ‘Stop the Shutdown’ Rally with TSA Officers Jan. 22 at Sea-Tac

On Tuesday, January 22, 2019, it will be exactly one month since the shutdown started on December 22, 2018. We invite you to meet up with your AFA sisters and brothers as we show our solidarity and support for TSA officers, who are represented by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), and other federal employees.

WHAT: ‘Stop the Shutdown’ rally

WHEN: Tuesday, January 22 from 1 to 3 p.m. PT

WHERE: Sea-Tac Airport Flag Pavilion (at the Sea-Tac International Airport entrance on International Blvd)

WHO: Off-duty Flight Attendants, their family and friends

DRESS: Flight Attendant uniform strongly preferred. (Management is aware and supportive of our intent to rally in uniform.) However, an AFA red t-shirt (if you have one from previous rallies—we will not be supplying them this time) or a plain red t-shirt is also fine.

AIR TRAVEL: Management has graciously authorized the use of employee space available pleasure travel for out-of-town Flight Attendants to fly to and from the event on off-duty time. Please exercise good judgment and ensure participating in this rally does not create a conflict with any scheduling obligations you have with the Company.

More info: http://www.thestand.org/2019/01/stop-the-shutdown-rally-with-tsa-officers-jan-22-at-sea-tac/

The Master Executive Council (MEC) understands this is extremely short notice. We also just learned of the rally earlier today. Stay tuned for additional information early next week. We hope to see you there if you are available!

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Linda Christou, Lisa Pinkston, Terry Taylor, Mario de’Medici, Melissa Osborne, Tim Green and Brice McGee; and MEC Government Affairs Chairperson Krystle Berry

Dynamic Contractual Waiver Due to ANC Earthquakes Extended

The Master Executive Council (MEC) has approved an extension to the dynamic contractual waiver due to the earthquake and subsequent aftershocks in Anchorage, AK yesterday and today. The contractual duty day and rest requirements are waived ‘down’ to Federal Air Regulations (FARs) for the narrow purposes of facilitating avoiding ANC layovers and to keep the ANC operation running through 8:30 am AST tomorrow: December 2, 2018. AFA’s understanding and expectation is that the dynamic contractual waiver will expire at such time, crews arriving thereafter will begin to remain overnight, and all contractual duty and rest limitations will resume.

This is an opportunity to remind Flight Attendants that our current domiciles and many if not most of our layovers are located within the “Ring of Fire,” which is where the vast majority of earthquakes in the world occur. Additionally, the State of Alaska is one of the most seismically active regions within the Ring of Fire. Be advised that the probability of aftershocks around the greater Anchorage area will be heightened for quite some time.

Consequently, it is best practice to always be prepared for an earthquake: https://www.ready.gov/earthquakes.

The MEC sincerely thanks everyone in advance for any long duty days or short layovers because of this natural disaster. Our thoughts continue to be with all Flight Attendants, their families and friends living in and around the greater Anchorage area as they begin the process of cleaning up and tending to frayed nerves.

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Linda Christou, Lisa Pinkston, Terry Taylor, Mario de’Medici, Melissa Osborne, Tim Green and Brice McGee

Dynamic Contractual Waiver in Effect Due to ANC Earthquakes

The Master Executive Council (MEC) has approved a dynamic contractual waiver due to the earthquakes in Anchorage, AK today. The contractual duty day and rest requirements are waived ‘down’ to Federal Air Regulations (FARs) for the narrow purposes of facilitating avoiding ANC layovers and to keep the ANC operation running through 5pm AST tomorrow: December 1, 2018. This is in response to the fact that infrastructure has been damaged in the area. Unfortunately, the existing contractual provisions in Section 8.S [Natural Disasters…] do not sufficiently work because of the unique circumstances of the situation, which why we are choosing to go this route.

AFA and management agree to liberally work out appropriate pay for non-contractual duty days and rest periods experienced by Flight Attendants once the operation has returned to normal.

The MEC sincerely thanks everyone in advance for any long duty days or short layovers because of this natural disaster. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with all Flight Attendants, their families and friends who live in and around the greater Anchorage area.

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Linda Christou, Lisa Pinkston, Terry Taylor, Mario de’Medici, Melissa Osborne, Tim Green and Brice McGee

Large Earthquake Strikes Anchorage, AK

A large earthquake (preliminary estimates around 7.0 in magnitude) struck Anchorage, AK at approximately 9:29 PST (8:29 AST). There are initial reports of damage to infrastructure. So far AFA is receiving reports that crews overnighting at the layover hotel are okay, and we have been in contact with several Flight Attendants living in the area who are shaken up but physically fine. There have been at least four aftershocks since the initial earthquake, and we are hearing that they continue.

Here is a live feed from CNN:  https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/alaska-earthquake/index.html

Check the Inflight webpage for updated information and alerts from management.

AFA will not provide any additional updates unless new information becomes available. Our thoughts and prayers to all our crews, their family and friends in Anchorage today!

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Linda Christou, Lisa Pinkston, Terry Taylor, Mario de’Medici, Melissa Osborne, Tim Green and Brice McGee

[L-AS] November 2018 PBS Bid Awards

This message is for Legacy Alaska Airlines (L-AS) Flight Attendants

Trouble with the November 2018 PBS bid award

The Master Executive Council (MEC) was informed on Friday, October 12, 2018, that the wrong one-position (“D”) pairing file was loaded into NAVBLUE PBS.  That file did not contain all the one-position flights—in excess of 1000—requiring staffing coverage. Management and AFA were initially going to pursue a re-award under the usual contractual procedure.

However, management advised AFA that a longer than normal lead time would be required to re-open bidding because the correct D position pairing file had to be sent to API for hotel assignments prior to loading into NAVBLUE. Neither party was confident that API would be able to turn the file around over the weekend, so the conservative estimate was for API to finish processing the file on Monday 10/15, bidding to open Tuesday 10/16, bidding to close Sunday 10/21, bid awards to post Tuesday 10/23 and trading to finally open on Thursday 10/25.

Such an extensive delay to first round awards in order to accommodate the re-award would have been unprecedented. The MEC was even more apprehensive because November is a holiday month. However, the MEC was also extremely concerned that Flight Attendants would not be able to exercise their seniority to bid on all known flying if a re-award were to not occur; this would be in violation of Section (§) 10.E.5, which reads, “All known flying, including scheduled and confirmed 14 CFR part 121 charters, will be placed in the PBS program for bid.”

The MEC voted against a re-award via roll call

After vigorous discussion about all the implications, the MEC voted three to two for a re-award (For: C15 SAN/McGee, C18 LAX/Green and C30 ANC/Pinkston; Against: C19 SEA/Taylor and C39 PDX/de’Medici; Abstaining: C35 SFO/Osborne). As is her right under the AFA Constitution & Bylaws (C&B), Council 19 Seattle President Terry Taylor requested a roll call vote, in which an issue may be voted on using the number of members in good standing in each council. The MEC ultimately voted 2934 to 1899 against a re-award (For: C15 SAN/McGee @ 377 + C18 LAX/Green @ 1141 + C30 ANC/Pinkston @ 381 = 1899; Against: C19 SEA/Taylor @ 2317 + C39 PDX/de’Medici @ 617 = 2934; Abstaining: C35 SFO/Osborne @ 821). Council 35 SFO President Melissa Osborne abstained from both votes because the issue did not impact her members; all C35 member are currently Legacy Virgin America (L-VX) Flight Attendants and bidding under the L-VX work rules and related systems.

Implications

Consequently, November 2018 bid awards are now final and trading will commence on schedule. The tradeoff is that the MEC has waived the provisions of §10.E.5 specific to the ‘missing’ D position pairings for the month of November 2018; therefore any potential grievances pursued under that provision would have no standing in these narrow circumstances. Here is the breakdown by domicile of the missing one-position (D) pairings that will go into Open Time prior to the commencement of Open Time trading: 56 in ANC, 148 in SEA, 21 in PDX, 35 in LAX and 5 in SAN.

The MEC knows many Flight Attendants will be glad that November 2018 trading was not delayed until late October, but it is also possible that just as many will be upset by the award and the waiver to §10.E.5. This was truly a no-win situation for AFA and for all L-AS Flight Attendants. However, be assured that your elected leaders will continue to advocate for you under the democratic processes of the AFA C&B to the best of our ability.

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Linda Christou, Lisa Pinkston, Terry Taylor, Mario de’Medici, Melissa Osborne, Tim Green and Brice McGee

Protect Yourself From Potential Discipline on Social Media

Our Grievance Committee would like to provide background on social media, protected classes, and discipline. Federal protected classes include race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or transgender status), national origin, age, disability, or genetic information.  Alaska’s People Policy says: Personal Conduct22. Threatening, intimidating, or discourteous behavior, including abusive, profane, or obscene language, acts, […]

Human Rights & Equity Committee Meeting Recap – 1st Quarter 2026

On Wednesday, March 25, our AFA Human Rights & Equity Committee Chairpersons met to discuss their ongoing activism to raise awareness and create positive change within our workplace and community. Your representatives attending the meeting included Louise Borras (LAX-pmAS), Bruni Agosto-Pinal (LAX-pmHA), Aaron Miller (PDX), Nyachan Chuar (ANC), and Yan Yan Teague (SEA). MEC Human […]

Pre-Merger Hawaiian Inflight Service Committee Update – March 2026

Editor’s Note: Our MEC Inflight Service Committee now represents both pre-merger airlines, but management still makes service decisions that affect each group of Flight Attendants differently. This update covers changes for both Hawaiian- and Alaska-branded flying, but is specific to aircraft flown by pre-merger Hawaiian Airlines crews. As the work of the merger progresses, we […]

Joint Contract Negotiations Session 13 – March 2026

Our JNC met this week for three days of collective bargaining with management. The JNC focused on clarifying questions about moving expenses and presented a proposal for Sick Leave, using feedback from Flight Attendants to guide improvements. The Committee is working to incorporate the strongest elements from both contracts to ensure better support for all members.

Scheduling Committee Meeting Recap – March 2026

This message is for pre-merger Alaska Flight Attendants On Tuesday, March 24, our pre-merger Alaska AFA Scheduling Committee Chairpersons and Representatives met virtually to discuss their ongoing work to represent our Flight Attendants and push for improvements in our workplace. Representing you at the meeting were Rebekah Olds (ANC), Rita Tillou (SEA), Melodie Anderes (PDX), […]

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