[See also Maternity Extension Leave [VX]]

[Note: This post has been revised with updated information. Clarifications or edits are indicated in strikeout font for deleted text and underlined font for added text. – Edited 03.15.2018 jtp]

Q:      I’m wondering what the work requirement would be to ensure time off for L-VX FAs on Maternity Extension Leave. As you know, VX used to require 504 duty hours in order to qualify for the 12 weeks baby bonding. Does AS require the same amount of work in order to take the additional 8 months leave? Or do you just have to have worked for AS for 6 months? Have flown 480 TFP? Or are all expectant moms guaranteed maternity leave regardless of how much and how long they’ve flown for VX/AS?

A:     It’s complicated. Alaska management is requiring any L-VX FA who applies for intermittent baby bonding under the California Family Right Act (CFRA) after 1/1/2018 must have achieved 1250 hours in order to be eligible. This is the Company’s interpretation of its obligation for 12 weeks of intermittent continuous baby bonding under CFRA, which is not contractual. To qualify for the contractual Maternity Leave Extension of eight months, the FA is automatically qualified upon expiration of her Maternity Leave if she applies for the Maternity Leave Extension. In order to remain covered for healthcare insurance at the active employee rates, she must have available sick leave and/or vacation in order to coordinate with the leave pursuant to §15.M; otherwise, the leave is unpaid and she would be responsible for the full cost of healthcare insurance. A L-AS FA has available sick leave after the completion of probation (although a new Washington Paid Sick Leave law allows sick leave access earlier, so that law is currently working its way through the courts) and available vacation after the first year of service as long as she has achieved the appropriate 480 thresholds. L-VX FAs will be able to immediately access Maternity Leave Extension upon ratification of the Merger Agreement, and the FA will be on an unpaid leave but remain covered by healthcare insurance at the active employee rates until Full Integration; at Full Integration, the contractual requirement to draw sick leave and/or vacation will take over in order to maintain healthcare benefits at the active employee rates and to be paid. AFA strongly suggests any L-VX FAs who are currently on or anticipating to be on any type of Maternity Leave to contact your local union leadership (vx@afaalaska.org) to discuss your options.

[See also VX “Red-Circled” Pay Rates: Intra-Company (e.g. GST) Transfers [JCBA]]

Q:     I am hoping someone can clarify this for me. If an Alaska employee is a CSA (or any other work group) and they change over to a FA—the only thing that “carries” over is their years of service related to vacation accrual. As far as FA seniority and pay, they start at the bottom. Word on the street is that at Virgin, this is not the case. As an example…let’s say there was a Virgin employee that was a CSA for six years—and at year seven she became a FA. Now it is two years later…so her company seniority is 9 years and her FA seniority is two years. It appears Virgin’s company policy is to have that person grandfathered in at her company seniority on the FA seniority list, i.e., as if she had been a FA for nine years, and year nine on the pay scale as well. Is this true? And if it is not true…can you tell me how it is being handled?

A:     A L-VX FA who was a GST (CSA) for six years and who now has been a L-VX FA for two years has eight years of Company Seniority and two years of Occupational Seniority. At L-VX, s/he accrues vacation and is also paid as an eight year Flight Attendant, but s/he bids for vacation days and her/his schedule as a two year Flight Attendant. A L-AS FA who was a CSA for six years and who  now has been a L-AS FA for two years also has eight years of Company Seniority and two years of Occupational Seniority. However, at L-AS this FA accrues accrues vacation as an eight year Flight Attendant, but s/he is paid, bids for vacation days and bids for her/his schedule as a two year Flight Attendant. As you can see, there is a difference in how the FAs are paid at L-VX vs at L-AS. Seniority applications are currently and will continue to remain the same for bidding at L-VX and L-AS. There is a provision to retain and “red circle” (i.e. ‘freeze’) the current pay step for L-VX intra-company transfers into L-VX Inflight. This is addressed in the VX Red Circle Pay Rates Letter of Agreement. The L-VX FAs and the L-AS FAs in this example bid as two year Flight Attendants; the L-VX FA would be “red circled” as a eight year FA (until her/his FA classmates catch up to Year 9), and the L-AS FA is paid as a two year FA. All L-VX intra-company transfers are currently and will continue to be treated the exact same as L-AS intra-company transfers for bidding purposes. In other words, all L-VX and L-AS FAs bid using Occupational Seniority no matter where they came from. Again, this is a pay application only.

03.13.2018

 

[Note: These notes were recorded at the time of the roadshow and are presented as recorded. Any clarifications or edits that have been applied after the roadshows are indicated in strikeout font for deleted text and underlined font for added text. – Edited 03.14.2018 jtp]

 

Seniority and Peoplesoft number: How is that figured?

Going forward the seniority number will be done randomly. It will be a combination of part of the Peoplesoft number and part of the SS# number. If the number is the same between two FAs, they will take the fourth digit as the tie-breaker.

 

What is the difference between voluntary furloughs versus staffing adjustment?

Voluntary furlough is different then a staffing adjustment and there is carved out language specifically for a voluntary furlough. A staffing adjustment leave is to temporarily reduce staffing–usually for 30, 60 or 90 days. It is the equivalent of a SLOA at VX.

03.12.2018

 

[Note: These notes were recorded at the time of the roadshow and are presented as recorded. Any clarifications or edits that have been applied after the roadshows are indicated in strikeout font for deleted text and underlined font for added text. – Edited 03.14.2018 jtp]

 

Alaska Board of Directors and what do they feel the timeline of the merger should be?

They know they need us and they would like for us to be all on one page. They have been told we will merge by mid-2019.

 

Is there any change to our training pay?

The Virgin training pay will be identical to Alaska’s training pay.

 

What happens if the TA doesn’t pass?

Company says that they won’t go back to the table and that they will just go into Section 6, in which case we would be a non-unified flight attendant group.

03.10.2018

 

[Note: These notes were recorded at the time of the roadshow and are presented as recorded. Any clarifications or edits that have been applied after the roadshows are indicated in strikeout font for deleted text and underlined font for added text. – Edited 03.14.2018 jtp]

 

Does RT count towards your line amount (for PPP)?

No that is above your line so that is 6.0 TFP that would be added during that period.

 

Did the company push for earlier implementation than later?

No they didn’t ask for it earlier. Their target date is still March 2019 but if it could happen sooner that would be fine.

 

So why is there an extension to this JCBA if they don’t meet their target date?

The extension has nothing to do with the programing of JCTE.

 

What happens if it is not implemented at target date for the company?

If full implementation target is missed, all L-VX pairings must be constructed to meet AS contract provisions but not the pay.

 

The PPP do you have to do 5 TFP extra each month?

It is 40 TFP total over the block of eight months or 5 TFP total for the individual months and it includes your vacation time.

 

Why don’t we use Sabre instead of Jeppesen?

They have invested too much in Jeppesen and the Company has put pressure on them too. Also, the VX version of Sabre is no longer supported.

 

Do you think that if this doesn’t pass will they go negotiate again or wait until we go into Section 6?

The company says that they will not go back to table and they have not waffled in their thought process. There are ideally many things that we would address in Section 6 however this is not Section 6 and that is when some of those would be dealt with. In these negotiations it is a merger negotiations. We have not forgotten about the 480 and vacation. To attack the 480 we need a merged group. L-VX has to fly 70 and no less so it’s hard for them to understand why it’s so important to L-AS and that is why we need to get them on our contract and work within contract and then we can be a unified group.

 

Where you surprised of what the company did give us?

The JNC told them that we need stuff to bring to the group if you want this passed. They wanted to call this “an agreement” and we said no that it would be called a JCBA. They (the Company) didn’t want to bring anything to the table and they really wanted a 4 year extension, they also wanted to erode our duty day by saying that L-VX would love to fly HI turns and carve out 5K turns. We said no. Throughout the negotiations we went back and forth and we did present to the MEC the first proposal and they didn’t agree to take it to membership. The second time when the JNC carved out more items the MEC felt that they should bring it to the membership for consideration for a vote. We did try to our more things for the senior group but they weren’t going there so that is why we carved out items that you could use your vacation towards such as vacation being counted toward your PPP, shadow vacation days for leaves, 1/12 for leaves, etc.

 

What’s up with bases and moving around?

Simply answer is that if it ratifies and there is no re-master bid and will only be movement if there is a vacancy.

 

Would it be cheaper to keep them separate?

No, there are too many soft costs plus the route structure would cost too much because there cannot be a new Airbus base opened up where there is a Boeing base and vice versa.

 

If this is ratified and if implementation isn’t met on target date of March 2019, what are the penalties?

They (company) paid 2.6 billion for this merger and the Executive Board is on the hook to get this done.

 

What does “Every Best Effort” mean and why do you think they will uphold the parts of the contract that say this?

“Every Best Effort” is actually some of the strongest contractual language. Why this helps us is that they have promised the board and shareholders that this will get done by March mid 2019 so that is in there best interest of all.

 

Why don’t you talk about your strategy during negotiations?

We do not discuss our strategy during negotiations because you don’t want to show all your cards to management.

 

Will pairing change?

They already are changing and there are no plans to do 5-day trips. Pairings will change.

 

Washington state sick leave law?

MEC Benefits and also the MEC Grievance Chair have notified the company that they should be abiding by the law. A4A filed suit against Washington State on behalf of the company and other carriers. They are going to fight it all the way.

 

So will the people on leaves be grandfathered in the 4-year minimum extension from one to four year leaves?

Yes they will be.