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Alaska Management Refuses to Remove Dangerous Coffee Makers From Service Despite Injury Risks to Flight Attendants

Air Safety, Health, & Security Committee (ASHSC)

  • Several Flight Attendants have been injured recently due to older-style B/E Aerospace coffee makers spewing hot coffee and grounds.
  • Management denied an AFA request to discontinue using these coffee makers despite the risk to Flight Attendant and passenger safety.
  • A formal complaint is being filed with the FAA, and a contractual grievance will be filed against the company.

Over the past several months, at least nine Flight Attendant injuries have been reported, caused by scalding hot coffee and grounds spewing from the brew basket of older-style B/E Aerospace coffee makers on various aircraft. This is an alarming situation that requires immediate attention. It’s suspected that the recent changeover in coffee served onboard, which is packaged differently than the old product, may be contributing to this issue. Management has begun investigating the root cause and has identified some potential solutions to address the problem. However, it will likely take significant time to implement the mitigations fully.

Last week, our Air Safety, Health, & Security Committee (ASHSC) sent management an official request to discontinue using B/E Aerospace coffee makers until physical mitigations can be implemented. Despite the inconvenience this may cause by leaving some aircraft with fewer or no coffee makers to use, the Committee believes that potentially seeing multiple Flight Attendants injured while waiting for long-term fixes is unacceptable. Disappointingly, management denied the request, knowingly putting the physical safety and well-being of employees and passengers at risk for the sake of a few more cups of coffee.

This decision by management is a clear violation of their own core value of “owning safety” and displays a shocking level of negligence. Given the gravity of the situation, we will be taking immediate action by filing a formal complaint with the FAA to escalate the issue. Additionally, our Grievance Committee will file a contractual grievance based on management’s violation of section §25.B of our collective bargaining agreement (“The Company will provide a safe and healthy workplace…”).

Flight Attendant and passenger safety must not be compromised. It’s reckless and unacceptable for management to put Flight Attendants at risk by keeping hazardous coffee makers in operation. Removing these coffee makers from service is the right thing to do and the only responsible action for management to take. It’s our right to work in a safe environment, and we demand that this right be upheld.

Issues with Crew Access: December 16, 2023

Scheduling, Grievance, and Hotel Committees

  • Hotel reservation details are not populating in pairings. 
  • The “Drop” (to Open Time) drop-down was reported by a few (but not all) Flight Attendant as not visible prior to Open Time opening.
  • Drops to Open Time were not functioning for January 24-30, 2024, for all domiciles except Seattle until just before 2 PM PT.

What will come as no surprise to anyone, Crew Access is malfunctioning once again. So far, there are three issues identified:

  1. Hotel reservation details are not populating in pairings, 
  2. The “Drop” (to Open Time) drop-down was reported by a few (but not all) Flight Attendant as not visible prior to Open Time opening, and 
  3. Drops to Open Time were not functioning for January 24-30, 2024, for all domiciles except Seattle until just before 2 PM PT. (Reminder: January 31 is the first day of the February bid month.) Seattle appeared to open normally at 2 PM PT.

Hotel reservation details not populating in pairings

This outage is specific to Jeppesen and not related to API. Outdated or no hotel information is being displayed. However, Crew Scheduling (CS) is manually updating hotel information in Crew Access. Additionally, the hotel information in the My Crew Care (API) app is importing correctly and is accurate.

[Update: This issue has been resolved as of 12/16/2023 @ 18:36 PT ^MECP Jeff]

Drop to Open Time not visible prior to Open Time opening for some Flight Attendants

So far, this does not appear to be a widespread issue, and Alaska ITS is investigating.

Drops to Open Time were not functioning for January 24-30, 2024

Alaska ITS and Jeppesen appeared to resolve the issue just before 2 PM PT, which meant that Seattle opened normally at 2 PM. Our Master Executive Council (MEC) and management have agreed to an initial remedy to help mitigate the impact of this outage (for all domiciles except Seattle):

Overview:

In chronological order, CS will review the Flight Attendants who attempted to drop trips to Open Time on these days but were unsuccessful. CS will offer to manually drop their trip into OT. CS will work down the list until they meet the contractually required number of Threshold Sequence Number (TSN) trips for the respective base. ITS has a report of all Open Time drop transactions, so they can replicate who attempted to drop trips first. This report will become available at 2:30 PM PT, but they will need time to prepare the report into a workable format for these purposes. Inflight Crew Scheduling Management will begin to contact Flight Attendants this evening to see if they wish to drop their trip. This process will preserve the integrity of the first-come, first-serve method of Open Time to give those who attempted to drop first the flexibility they attempted to achieve.  

Details:

  1. CS will place the identified sequence (processed in chronological order) in Open Time and hide the pairing until they can make positive contact with the Flight Attendant to confirm that they still want the trip dropped. The Flight Attendant will see a FCR (pre-cancellation) on their line until they confirm the drop. The use of FCR is to protect legalities should the Flight Attendant decide they wanted the sequence back and not dropped into Open Time anymore.
  2. Once CS confirms the Flight Attendant wants the pairing dropped, they will unhide it in Open Time.
  3. If FA does not want the trip dropped, CS will put it back on their roster and move down the list.
  4. The timeframe for Flight Attendants to call back will be 24 hours. If the Flight Attendant does not call CS back within 24 hours, then their sequence will be placed back on their roster and CS will move down the list.
  5. If the Flight Attendant who is first on the list no longer has the pairing they attempted to drop for that date, CS will move down the list.
  6. This process will be completed until the TSN max equivalent is met for each base.

Ongoing dispute resolution

This situation is completely unacceptable, and our top priority is ensuring our contractual provisions are adhered to and protected. The tools that you rely on for contractual flexibility should work. Our Grievance Committee will continue to seek appropriate remedies via the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process.

Upcoming Day of Solidarity

Looking for an outlet to vent your frustrations? Join us on the picket line or via virtual picket on Tuesday, December 19. For more information, click here.

Health Benefits Coverage & Staffing Adjustment Leaves

Benefits Committee

Our Benefits Committee has been notified that there are multiple issues with health benefits coverage for those returning from staffing adjustment leaves (SAL). If you are on a staffing adjustment leave or have recently returned from one, please be aware of the following.

Re-Enrolling After A Leave

While we disagree that one should have to re-enroll in Health Benefits when returning from Staffing Leave, we strongly suggest that you do so. Check to make sure that all your prior coverages are in place. To do so, you can call your health plan directly or visit www.MyAlaskaBenefits.com and check your coverage. We’ve also been advised that once you re-enroll, it can take several days for the coverage to update. You should also have received an email in your company Outlook email regarding health benefits when returning from SAL.

Health Benefits Deductions For September Premiums And Direct Billing

Health benefits premiums, like payroll, are deducted in the subsequent month (i.e., in October for September). When on a Staffing Leave, these deductions do not take place. Flight Attendants are advised to review their pay statement to determine whether or not deductions were taken from October 20th paychecks.

Direct Billing Notice Errors

Those on Staffing Adjustment Leave should have received a direct bill from Cobra Management Services (CMS) with instructions to self-pay the employee contribution for September Health Benefits. We are aware that some Flight Attendants DID receive this notice, and it was correct. We are also aware that many did NOT receive a direct bill and that some did receive bills for very strange amounts that do not reflect the usual employee contributions.

No Direct Bill Received

If you did not receive a direct bill, or if you did not have a correct bill or a deduction from your October 20 paycheck, please contact CMS. The balance owed must be paid to continue coverage. You can contact CMS at:

Phone: (425) 452-9889, ext. 145 or (866) 527-7580, ext. 145
Email: services@cobramanagement.com

Service Charges May Apply

Payments made by credit card or electronic funds transfer have an added service charge applied by the vendor. You might prefer to mail a check to avoid these.

Reporting Issues And Questions

If you’re having challenges with any of these issues, please email management at tiffany.perry@alaskaair.com and emmit.elliott@alaskaair.com and cc our AFA Benefits Committee at benefits@afaalaska.org. Our Benefits and Grievance Committees are continuing to work to resolve these issues.

Grievance Committee Update – 3rd Quarter 2023

Grievance Committee

  • Our Grievance Committee protects all Flight Attendants from arbitrary and unjust disciplinary action and upholds our collective bargaining agreement. This update briefly summarizes the committee’s work over the past quarter.
  • Management has issued discipline lately for a variety of reasons. Read on for more information about why management is disciplining and terminating Flight Attendants.
  • If you’ve faced a situation that you believe might be a contractual violation, please report the issue through the AFA Alaska Online Support Center.

Our Grievance Committee has been very hard at work ensuring disciplinary due process and contractual compliance on your behalf. Our contract requires a minimum of 13 arbitration dates yearly to dispute discipline/termination cases and contractual issues. Termination cases are usually prioritized to return a Flight Attendant to work as soon as possible; however, we seek a balance between discipline and contractual matters. Our Grievance Committee and management mutually decide which cases to arbitrate next based on many factors. 

Steps of discipline are confirmation of oral warning (COW), written warning (WW), suspension (varied number of days), and termination. COWs, WWs, and suspensions remain in a Flight Attendant’s file for 18 months and are then eligible for removal. If a Flight Attendant is in a step of discipline and gets another violation, the new violation will build on the previous one. Management doesn’t always progressively travel up the steps of discipline. If management investigates a Flight Attendant for theft or abuse of sick leave, for example, they will terminate the Flight Attendant if there is evidence to support its findings; if there is no evidence, then the Flight Attendant will most likely be issued a record of discussion (ROD). A ROD is not considered discipline. There is no middle ground for certain violations.  

Many Flight Attendants believe they will not get disciplined if they’ve been good employees, have no-to-low attendance points, receive positive passenger comments, are at a certain seniority level, etc. This is not the case; regardless of good working qualities, if management believes a Flight Attendant committed an offense, they will be disciplined.

If a supervisor or manager calls and asks questions about a flight, work-related concern, or disciplinary issue and no AFA Representative is on the call, you should assert that you would like to consult with an AFA Representative and have them present on the call with you before proceeding.

Subject of Most Recent Discipline

  • Sick leave and FMLA abuse. Terminations are on the rise due to travel audits among other things. Anything written in the comments/remarks on posted trip trades and personal drops is visible to management, even if eventually deleted. If management determines abuse, it results in termination.  
  • Theft. Removing anything from the aircraft other than an opened/used box of water, unused pilot crew meal, or purchased food will result in termination. 
  • Timecard fraud.  Example: intentionally delaying boarding door closure to obtain sit pay.  Management has terminated for this violation.
  • Reserve “Roulette”. Not being within two hours of base for a Reserve Availability Period (RAP) and calling in sick only once given an assignment. Management considers this a terminable violation and regularly reviews the trip trade postings and history related to sick calls. Even deleted trade history or postings can be seen by management.
  • Lying in an investigation
  • Drug/alcohol violations
  • Harassment
  • Refusing scheduling revisions or ignoring requests to call Crew Scheduling when contractually obligated to do so
  • Reserves commuting during their Reserve Availability Period (RAP), even if self-assigned a trip or not being in base for the entirety of their RAP. Management usually gives a two week suspension on the first offense.
  • Social media violations, including sending a friend or follow request to passengers on social media based on information gained from Block2Block.
  • Commuter violations (management conducts commuter audits monthly)
    • Flight Attendant released from DHD and used D8Y home
    • Flight Attendant used D8Y when they picked up out of base
    • Flight Attendant used D8Y to/from incorrect cities
    • Flight Attendant used D8Y for pleasure travel.  
  • Lost IMD or other required items
  • Failing to complete CBT, even if a Flight Attendant simply forgets to hit the close out button at the top of the window to change the transcript from in process to complete.
  • Uniform issues. Flight Attendants can and have been pulled from working their flights without pay for uniform non-compliance.
  • Late to gate/flight delay

Reminder

Section 32.C.5 of the collective bargaining agreement defines a Short Sick Call as “When a Flight Attendant calls in sick less than two hours (2:00) prior to scheduled check-in.” If you do not want to be assessed 2.5 points, you must call in Sick Leave On-Line at Scheduled Check-in per section 32.C.6. The call to Crew Scheduling must occur after scheduled check-in and not simply after you check in on Block2Block.

Recent Arbitration/Mediation

July 2023Disciplinary Grievance
August 2023Contractual Grievances
September 2023Disciplinary Grievance
October 2023Disciplinary Grievance

Recent Contractual Arbitration Awards

None

Recent Grievance Settlements

None

Grievances Recently Mediated 

Grievance No.:  36-99-2-60-23-Violation of §19.A and §7.B Disciplinary Meetings and Probationaries. This grievance alleges the Company’s violation of Collective Bargaining Agreement §19.A & §7.B [Grievance Procedures:  Dismissal and Disciplinary Procedure; Probationary Period:  Discharge, Discipline or Furlough], past practice, and all related sections of the Collective Bargaining Agreement when it refused to conduct investigatory, work performance, disciplinary and dismissal meetings with probationary Flight Attendants per the contractual meeting requirements with regard to pay, scheduling and union representation. 

Details:  Probationary Flight Attendants will be issued discipline the same as non-probationary Flight Attendants. Probationary Flight Attendants will also have access to Union representation either via email or via phone/in person depending on the severity of the alleged offense.  

Grievances Recently Granted by Management

None

Grievances Recently Withdrawn

None

Grievances Recently Filed and Awaiting Management Response

None

Grievances Recently Filed and Denied

Grievance No.:  36-99-2-215-23-Violation of §10.J.4 Bidding Packet and Bidding Times and Violation of Grievance Settlement 36-99-2-116-18.  This grievance alleges the Company’s violation of Collective Bargaining Agreement §10.J.4 [Scheduling:  Bid Packets and Bidding Timelines], Grievance Settlement 36-99-2-116-18, past practice, and all related sections of the Collective Bargaining Agreement when on or about July 10, 2023, it and/or the NAVBLUE Preferential Bidding System (PBS) vendor did not provide an administrative lock-out function or a mutually agreeable alternate solution to allow for the correction of a technical issue when processing bid awards without opening up the system to all users.   

Grievance No.:  36-99-2-248-23- Violation of §32 and Roberts Decision.  This grievance alleges the Company’s violation of Collective Bargaining Agreement §32 [Attendance], past practice, the Roberts Award 36-99-2-49-03, and all related sections of the Collective Bargaining Agreement when it unilaterally rolled out state leave laws on a state-by-state basis rather than applying the most liberal of state leave laws to all Flight Attendants regardless of domicile, thereby disparately treating Flight Attendants within the Collective Bargaining unit, in violation of Roberts. 

Grievances Previously Filed, Denied by Management and Currently Awaiting Arbitration Dates

Grievance No.:  36-99-2-22-14-Violation of Required Maternity Leave.  This grievance alleges the Company’s violation of Section 15.D. and all related sections of the Collective Bargaining Agreement when it failed to require Flight Attendants to begin Maternity Leave after the 28th week of pregnancy.   

Grievance No.:  36-99-2-55-17-Violation of §21.V Winds Aloft Adjustment of Sit Pay in JCTE.  This grievance alleges the Company’s violation of Collective Bargaining Agreement §21.V [Compensation: “Scheduled” or “Actual” For Minimum Pay Rules (MPRs) and/or Sit Pay], past practice and all related sections of the Collective Bargaining Agreement when its Jeppesen Crew Access (JCA) trading system displayed each posted trip as a static ‘snapshot’ taken at the time of posting rather than a ‘live’ view, thus denying the Flight Attendant the ability to determine whether a trip is eligible for 1.0 TFP of Sit Pay due to an automated scheduling adjustment (e.g. by the Winds Aloft program).

Grievance No.:  36-99-2-40-19-Violation §25.B Failure to Provide a Safe and Healthy Workplace.  This alleges the Company’s violation of Collective Bargaining Agreement §25.B [Air Safety, Health and Security: Safe and Healthy Workplace], past practice and all related sections of the Collective Bargaining Agreement when it failed to provide a safe and healthy workplace when it installed new bulkheads on the retrofitted Airbus (“Aura”) aircraft that effectively renders the aft assist handles near doors L1/R1 as unusable and unnecessarily increases the likelihood and potential severity of Flight Attendant injury during an emergency evacuation.

Grievance No.:  36-99-2-41-19-Violation of §25.D.2 Failing to Notify MEC President and ASHSC of Reconfiguration or Re-design Prior to Final Decision. This grievance alleges the Company’s violation of Collective Bargaining Agreement §25.D.2 [Air Safety, Health and Security: Safety Information], past practice and all related sections of the Collective Bargaining Agreement when it failed to notify the MEC President of a decision to reconfigure or re-design the interior of the Airbus aircraft and when it failed to discuss with the ASHSC the parties’ interests and concerns for inflight safety prior to making a final decision on the reconfiguration/re-design. 

Grievance No.:  36-99-2-162-19- Violation of §12.C.1 Real-Time Trading Procedures Grievance 36-99-2-28-17 Mediated Settlement.  This grievance alleges the Company’s violation of Collective Bargaining Agreement §12.C.1 [Exchange of Sequences: Trading Procedure], past practice, its mediated settlement of grievance 36-99-2-28-17 and all related sections of the Collective Bargaining Agreement when it agreed but failed to adhere to its July 5, 2017, mediated settlement of grievance 36-99-2-28-17:  To have AFA and Alaska representatives meet with Jeppesen to explore the capabilities of the system and how to align the front-end with the “real time” experience of the back-end user.  This is a continual violation as such meeting did not take place in a reasonably timely manner, and sufficient action was not taken to rectify the underlying system issues.    

Grievance No.:  36-99-2-36-20-Violation of §25.B ANC Training Facility.  This grievance alleges the Company’s violation of Collective Bargaining Agreement §25.B [Air Safety, Health and Security: Safe and Healthy Workplace], past practice, and all related sections of the Collective Bargaining Agreement when it conducted Recurrent Training (RT) drills in Anchorage, Alaska in the Ross Aviation Hanger, and on or about February 16-19, 2020, the external temperature ranged from 18 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit and when the hanger door opened, frequently without notice, the internal hanger temperature dropped to as low as 46 degrees.  After the external hanger door opened it took approximately two hours with a loud heater to get the internal temperature back up to the low to mid 60s. 

Grievance No.:  36-99-2-207-20-Violation of §10, §11.D & §24.L Bundled Scheduling Notifications.  This grievance alleges the Company’s violation of Collective Bargaining Agreement §10 [Scheduling], §11.D [Reserve: Scheduling/Notice of Time to Report] and §24.L [General and Miscellaneous: Company-Provided Inflight Mobile Device (IMD)], past practice, and all related sections of the Collective Bargaining Agreement when its Jeppesen Crew Access (JCA) scheduling system sent bundled scheduling notifications to Flight Attendants on their Inflight Mobile Devices (IMDs) or directly in Crew Access, requiring Flight Attendants to batch acknowledge or ignore such notifications and thereby resulting in Flight Attendants potentially waiving multiple contractual protections via an extra-contractual point of contact (i.e. Crew Access scheduling notifications).  

Grievance No.:  36-99-2-384-20-Violation of §10.S Scheduling Notifications.  This grievance alleges the Company’s violation of Collective Bargaining Agreement §10.S [Scheduling :  Pre-Cancellations], past practice, and all related sections of the Collective Bargaining Agreement when it used non-contractual scheduling notifications sent to Flight Attendants via the Crew Scheduling system in order to communicate and assign alternate flying or an obligation to call Crew Scheduling within a specific window of time.  If a Flight Attendant accepts such non-contractual scheduling notification(s), which is neither contact by Crew Scheduling via Company email nor via primary phone contact as defined in §10.S.1.a, the scheduling notification(s) violates the contract by abrogating the Flight Attendant’s ability to: (1) decline the alternate assignment and waive pay protection (§10.S.2.b), (2) decline the “out of original footprint by more than two hours” alternate assignment and call Crew Scheduling between 6:00 PM and 8:00 PM (local domicile time) the night prior to the start of the original sequence (§10.S.2.c), or (3) waive pay protection and be relieved of any further scheduling obligation (§10.S.3). 

Grievance No.:  36-99-2-386-20-Violation of §8.Q & §8.R Contactability and Notification of Delay or Cancellation. This grievance alleges the Company’s violation of Collective Bargaining Agreement §8.Q [Hours of Service: Contactability] and §8.R [Hours of Service: Notification of Delay or Cancellation], past practice, and all related sections of the Collective Bargaining Agreement when it used non-contractual scheduling notifications sent via the Crew Scheduling system in order to communicate and assign revised flying to Flight Attendants who were off-duty on a remain overnight (RON). Such scheduling notifications are in violation of the contractually defined means of contact and/or the Flight Attendant’s obligation to respond pursuant to these provisions.

Grievance No.:  36-99-2-84-22-Violation of §21.J Ground Delay Pay.  This grievance alleges the Company’s violation of Collective Bargaining Agreement §21.J [Compensation:  Block and Ground Delays], past practice, and all related sections of the Collective Bargaining Agreement when it did not pay ground delay pay accumulatively, requiring each delay to go over 11 minutes to be eligible for pay, when a flight (same flight number/same routing) returns to gate one or more times.    

Grievance No.:  36-99-2-176-22-California Family School Partnership Act Violation of Past Practice and Roberts Award.  This grievance alleges the Company’s violation of past practice, the Roberts Award 36-99-2-49-03, and all related sections of the Collective Bargaining Agreement when it unilaterally disallowed the California Family School Partnership Act for those Flight Attendants based in Los Angeles (LAX); then reinstated, with no notice, the state law for LAX based Flight Attendants only, but not for the other California based Flight Attendants in San Diego (SAN) or San Francisco (SFO), and not for the rest of the Flight Attendants based in our system, Seattle (SEA), Portland (PDX) or Anchorage (ANC), in violation of Roberts.

Protect Our Contract – Don’t Perform Duties Belonging to Other Work Groups

Grievance Committee

  • In order to protect our contract and show respect for other employee groups’ scope of work, Flight Attendants must not perform work belonging to other work groups.
  • Support other work groups by reporting staffing issues through a Flight Attendant Irregularity Report (FAIR) so management knows changes need to be made.
  • Only Flight Attendants may perform Flight Attendant duties; report any instances of supervisors or other employees performing Flight Attendant work to AFA.

Note: this is an updated version of a post previously published in an AFA Alaska Update on July 30, 2021.

Over many decades, we have all worked hard to improve our working conditions and strengthen our collective bargaining agreement (CBA). These improvements have been achieved through several avenues, including demonstrating solidarity during contract negotiations, lobbying management to make changes that benefit our profession, and rigorously enforcing the contractual language we have already achieved. We must continue to protect and defend our contract and hold management accountable for what has been agreed upon between our Flight Attendants and the company.

Over the past few years, management has made it known they’ve had challenges recruiting and retaining frontline employees in various locations throughout the route network. This includes staff who the company directly employs, those employed by company subsidiaries (e.g., McGee Air Services), and contract vendors who provide above- and/or below-the-wing services at various stations. The situation has caused a noticeable impact on the company’s operations and resulted in some on-the-ground functions being adjusted or modified due to staffing in some cases. 

We all know Alaska Airlines focuses on hiring Flight Attendants who exhibit kindness and are willing to help. Because these traits are such a pervasive part of our culture, it may be tempting to want to jump in and assist our coworkers from other work groups when we see that they are short-staffed. Unfortunately, this causes more harm than good for several reasons. 

As previously mentioned, it’s up to each of us to protect the provisions of our collective bargaining agreement. Section 24.D of the CBA says in part, “A Flight Attendant will not be required to perform work normally assigned to a cleaner, provisioner, ramp or operations agent.” Just as we expect other work groups to honor our contractual language by not performing Flight Attendant duties and responsibilities, it’s similarly important that we respect other work groups and their typically assigned scope of work. Doing so protects the security of both Flight Attendant jobs and the jobs of our coworkers in other departments.

Customer service, ramp, mechanics, pilots, fleet service, catering, and other work groups receive specific training to perform their duties that Flight Attendants don’t have. We must allow our colleagues to do the work they’ve been trained to do to ensure it complies with applicable regulations and company standards. If there are concerns with staffing in a particular department, management needs to receive the corresponding reports of flight delays, complaints from passengers, and performance audit results. These are all indicators management uses to make adjustments and ensure our colleagues in other departments have the support they need. If this data is skewed to show no problems exist, management will make no changes to ensure proper staffing and service levels.

The best way Flight Attendants can show support for other work groups who may be experiencing short or inadequate staffing is by reporting the issue to ensure it gets attention from the proper levels of management. This can be accomplished by submitting a Flight Attendant Irregularity Report (FAIR) detailing the date, flight number, and specifics of the situation (e.g., areas that were skipped/missed, etc.).

Only Flight Attendants May Perform Flight Attendant Duties

Closing the overhead bins, confirming luggage is stowed correctly, and making passenger announcements during boarding are all duties that traditionally define our work but are only a fraction of what we are ultimately responsible for. When supervisors* or other employees perform this undisputed Flight Attendant work, it violates our contract.

If someone who isn’t a Flight Attendant assigned to pre-board or work the flight begins to perform Flight Attendant duties, calmly advise them the work will be completed before the aircraft door is closed, consistent with all applicable policies and regulations. Reassure them that the crew is aware of their duties and responsibilities that need to be accomplished. If this approach is ineffective, advise them they’re violating our contract and respectfully ask them to stop.

If you encounter a supervisor or another employee performing Flight Attendant work onboard the aircraft, please report the situation by opening a ticket on the AFA Alaska Online Support Center. The purpose of this isn’t to get anyone in trouble but to ensure that any misunderstanding is promptly corrected. Quickly addressing the issue helps protect our jobs and prevent management from assigning our work to other work groups or vendors simply because it’s easier or less expensive for them to do so.

*Inflight management who hold an FAA Flight Attendant certificate may perform Flight Attendant duties only during a check-ride or IOE, when assigned to pre-board a flight if minimum crew is not available, or if assigned to work the flight as a Flight Attendant consistent with the limits of our contract.

Questions?

If you have any questions, please contact your Local Grievance Committee.

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