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        You are here: Home / Archives for Committees

        Your Air Matters: How You Can Help

        June 30, 2016 05:00

        We hope that you’ve gained new knowledge from this month’s Your Air Matters campaign.  All of the resources shared this month will continue to be available on the air quality page of afaalaska.org.  On the page, you’ll always be able to access the most up-to-date air quality exposure information.

        Knowledge Is Power

        Even though the message has been widespread on afaalaska.org and AFA Alaska social media accounts, you can help to keep the conversation going and make sure that everyone knows what to do if they breathe contaminated air onboard.  Share the information on your air quality quick reference card with your flying partners.  Show someone how to access the air quality exposure information on their IMD.  Let your crew know how important it is to seek treatment if there’s possibility of exposure and they’re showing symptoms.  These discussions will help to empower all of our Flight Attendants in the event of exposure to contaminated cabin air.

        Give Ten, Get Ten

        We’ve previously shared information about Give Ten, Get Ten, a campaign to fund ongoing research to help develop a blood test to detect engine oil fume exposure from aircraft engines.  Currently, the only way to detect exposure is a blood test for carbon monoxide (CO) exposure which must be conducted before CO clears from your blood, often less than 24 hours after exposure.

        Development of a blood test specific to engine oil fumes is critical in the ongoing fight to improve cabin air.  A dedicated test will help crew members and passengers alike to prove incidents of exposure and seek proper treatment for the debilitating symptoms associated with breathing engine oil fumes.  Please take a moment to review the campaign page for more information.  The video features information about the research project and interviews with several crew members who have been affected by exposure to engine oil fumes.

        We hope that you’ll GIVE $10 (or any amount that you’re able) to help directly fund this important research project and GET 10 of your friends, family, and coworkers to do the same.

        If you have any questions about Give Ten, Get Ten, please email AFA Industrial Hygienist Judith Anderson at judith@afanet.org.

        Questions?

        Your Local Air Safety, Health, & Security Committee (ASHSC) is your go-to for additional information and answers to any questions that you have about cabin air quality.  You can find contact information on the ASHSC page of the AFA Alaska website.

        In Solidarity,

        Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Satterlee, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Sandra Morrow and Stephen Couckuyt; LEC Presidents-Elect Tim Green and Brice McGee; MEC ASHSC Chairperson Seth Heiple

        Filed Under: Air Quality, Air Safety, Health, & Security Committee (ASHSC), Latest News Tagged With: 2016, air quality, ASHSC

        Open Time Trial Survey Results – June 2016

        June 17, 2016 17:00

        The Open Time Trial survey for June 2016 concluded yesterday morning (June 16, 2016), and the results are now available.

         

        Survey completion information

         

        915 surveys were completed and 24 were partially completed. If a Flight Attendant submitted more than one survey, only the last submission was counted. The Master Executive Council (MEC) strongly encourages all Flight Attendants to contribute to the monthly Open Time Trial surveys.

         

        Survey overview

         

        The results continue to show a clear need to improve general understanding of the Open Time Trial and a strong dissatisfaction for the current system.

         

        Understanding of the Open Time trading codes

         

        79.7% of respondents do not understand or are still learning the Open Time trading codes (TO/DD/CP/TX/no code) and how to trade sequences in Open Time based on those codes. This is a small improvement over last month.

         

        AFA Alaska has produced an Open Time trading codes quick reference guide (see “Understanding Open Time Trading with the Codes” for additional information.)

         

        >>> Click here to view the “Open Time Trading with the Codes” quick reference guide in a Portable Document Format (pdf). <<<

         

        Understanding of the estimated time frame for making any programming changes to Open Time

         

        A very slight majority (51.2%) reported they understand the time frame involved for making any programming changes to the Open Time system.

         

        Based on membership feedback the MEC will make a determination on the future of Open Time:

         

        • Prior to making a determination, the MEC would like to gather several months of survey results and other data pursuant to AFA Alaska CBA §12.F.8.d [Exchange of Sequences: Open Time Trial] for review. The Open Time Trial is scheduled to last up to a year before a final decision has to be made—unless the Association and management mutually agree to extend the trial.

         

        • If the MEC determines to go “back to book,” reverting to the former Open Time system could take approximately one year. This is because the new JCTE crew management system would need to be reprogrammed with the rules for the former OT system. (It is currently being programmed with the new OT rules.)

         

        • If we do go “back to book,” AFA will start negotiating a new system as outlined in CBA§12.F.9 [Exchange of Sequences: Open Time Trial: Cancellation of Open Time Trial]. Implementation of a replacement OT system would likely take a minimum of nine months after reaching an agreement with management.

         

        Strong dissatisfaction with the Open Time Trial

         

        73.4% indicated they are dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the Open Time Trial. If a decision were to be made today regarding the future of the Open Time Trial, 84.3% of respondents would prefer to revert “back to book” to the old Open Time system (based on IT limitations) and begin negotiations on a new system; whereas 15.7% would prefer to keep the current system.

         

        Detailed survey results

         

        >>> Click here to view the detailed AFA Alaska Open Time Trial Survey Results for June 2016. <<<

         

        AFA Alaska will review the concerning survey results with management at our next biweekly Open Time Trial Review meeting. This month’s survey also included a comments section, and the MEC is currently in the process of reading over the feedback.

         

        In solidarity,

         

        Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Satterlee, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Sandra Morrow, Stephen Couckuyt; LEC Presidents-elect Tim Green and Brice McGee

         

        AFA Alaska Open Time Trial Survey for June 2016 Results Summary

        Filed Under: Latest News, Scheduling Committee Tagged With: 2016, Open Time, OT, ot trial, Trial

        Summer 2016 Staffing Challenges

        June 16, 2016 13:00

        The AFA Alaska Master Executive Council (MEC) has received numerous requests from Membership for us to respond to the latest communications from management regarding pairing construction and schedules (April 27 “Division Communication: Staffing & Scheduling Info” and May 7 “Division Communication: June Schedule Summary”). The MEC completely understands how upsetting these communications are to Flight Attendants. Your AFA Alaska officers and committee members have also been extremely frustrated.

         

        Management has produced a lot of statistics in the past month and a half trying to convince you that staffing levels and the pairings really aren’t that bad. Management has even made (not so?) veiled suggestions in various forums that staffing would be okay if sick leave utilization would just go down. AFA could waste a lot of words picking apart the numbers and critiquing management’s approach, but really…what’s the point?

         

        The MEC is just as done with the charts and graphs as you are, and we’re tired of Flight Attendants being blamed for using their earned sick leave, which is a negotiated benefit. It’s as simple as this: Summer staffing is a mess and the pairings really have been that bad. ‘Nuff said, right?!

         

        For those of you who want more detail, here is the “straight scoop” from AFA’s perspective:

         

        1. Management grossly overestimated the impact of the new contract on staffing requirements during the budget-planning season last year.

         

        Based on staffing projections made at that time, several classes planned for 2016 were put on hold. Consequently, management hired many less Flight Attendants than originally planned, which caused a domino effect. In constructing a staffing model for the upcoming budget year, it probably would have been more prudent for management to use a rolling average using several years of data rather than less than a full year of experience under a new contract.

         

        1. After many updates to eMaestro, Open Time programming was finally corrected early this year to the negotiated OT Trial.

         

        During this past fall and early winter, Open Time was mis-programmed with more liberal trading rules than negotiated, which led to a false sense of trading flexibility.

         

        1. Line averages started creeping up at the same time as Reserves numbers were lowered.

         

        Staffing, fairly rapidly, went from personal drops being offered on most days to Premium Open Time being offered on most days and much higher Reserve utilization. Flight Attendants became increasingly reluctant to pick up, started holding out for premium, and during this time Open Time was more restrictive than in the previous months.

         

        1. During this same period, management selected pairings solutions for several months based more on lower cost and better statistics (from their perspective) than on Flight Attendant satisfaction.

         

        To be fair, lower costs will always be a primary driver in pairing construction, but AFA strongly believes management could have been doing more to achieve both.

         

        1. In response to a grass roots letter writing campaign by Flight Attendants protesting the poor quality pairings, management wrote some communications that in AFA’s opinion were extremely “tone deaf” to our group.

         

        Flight Attendants don’t want to be told that they are being asked to work “less than one extra day” per bid month. What does that even mean, anyway? Plus, don’t provide us with statistics based on duty periods rather than calendar days. Flight Attendants bid and trade based on calendar days, and we know when numbers based on duty periods don’t match up with our everyday experiences.

         

        Finally, don’t throw the Negotiating Committee under the bus by making it seem like they signed off on more 4-day pairings in exchange for Minimum Pay Rules. Yes, the possibility was discussed that achieving MPRs could lead the pairing optimizer to construct more 4-day pairings. However, your Negotiating Committee knew Flight Attendants want it all and said as much to management: We desire more productive pairings (using our definition of “productive” not management’s) and a mix of pairing lengths that suits the needs of our diverse group.

         

        So where does this leave us?

         

        The good news is management has come to the realization that we are understaffed. Vice President of Inflight Services, Andy Schneider, recently sent out a communication and produced a video that went a long way towards taking ownership of the situation. She authorized spending a decent amount of money in order to select AFA’s one-position and three-position pairings solutions for the month of July with the hope of improving quality of life and Flight Attendant satisfaction. She also approved hiring several more classes this year.

         

        The bad news is that adding new classes now is too little, too late—at least for this summer. The flight schedule is ramping up to maximum block hours very shortly, so any additional Flight Attendants on the rosters will not significantly lower the ever-increasing line averages or reserve utilization system-wide for several months. In fact, the line averages are not expected to start coming down in any noticeable way until fall—and this is mostly likely true for reserve utilization as well.

         

        AFA will continue to advocate to management that constructing and selecting pairings solutions with a reasonable emphasis on Flight Attendant satisfaction is money well spent. The MEC is also open to exploring mutually agreeable creative solutions with management in order to improve the summer staffing challenges. Finally, your AFA leaders are actively following your feedback regarding the Open Time Trial.

         

         

        The MEC applauds Andy’s recent efforts to turn around the summer staffing challenges, and we are hopeful she will continue the trend.

         

        In Solidarity,

         

        Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Satterlee, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Sandra Morrow, Stephen Couckuyt; LEC Presidents-elect Tim Green, Brice McGee; MEC Scheduling Committee Chairperson Jake Jones and Scheduling Committee

        Filed Under: Latest News, Scheduling Committee Tagged With: 2016, Scheduling, staffing

        Performance Based Pay Correction

        June 15, 2016 05:00

        AFA Alaska recently became aware that an error occurred with respect to how Performance Based Pay (PBP) was calculated for some Flight Attendants. Flight Attendants who were coordinating sick leave with Short Term Disability (STD) and/or Long Term Disability (LTD) did not have their sick leave pay counted toward their PBP.

         

        AFA Alaska brought these facts forward through the Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) process, and management has since corrected the error. Affected Flight Attendants received email notification of the correction, which was paid on their May 20, 2016 paycheck.

         

        If you have any questions regarding the correction or if it applies to you, contact one of your Local Executive Council (LEC) officers.

         

        In Solidarity,

         

        Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Satterlee, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Sandra Morrow, Stephen Couckuyt; LEC Presidents-elect Tim Green and Brice McGee; MEC Grievance Committee Chairperson Jennifer Wise MacColl and MEC Grievance Committee Representative Stephanie Adams

        Filed Under: Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), Latest News Tagged With: 2016, ADR, grievance, PBP

        AFA Alaska Open Time Trial Survey June 2016

        June 14, 2016 05:00

        [Note: This is a re-issue of a Membership release that was originally distributed via email on June 10th (see http://afanewsletters.org/view/?id=194).]

         

        Pursuant to AFA Alaska Collective Bargaining Agreement §12.F.8.D.5 [Exchange of Sequences: Open Time Trial], the Master Executive Council (MEC) is conducting a monthly poll of membership regarding your satisfaction with Open Time. Your candid responses will help the MEC determine the course of the Open Time trial.

         

        It is important to focus on Open Time functionality, not the technical issues with logging into the system, when answering the questions.

         

        You must enter your Arctic number in order to take the survey. We’re asking for your Arctic number to ensure each Flight Attendant receives one vote per month and is not for tracking purposes. If a survey is submitted more than once with the same Arctic number, all responses using that Arctic number will be excluded for this month.

         

        > > > To take the AFA Alaska Open Time Trial Survey for June 2016 click here. < < <

         

        The survey will close on Thursday, June 16th at 9am Pacific Time. By popular request, the MEC has added a free form comments field at the end of the survey. The LEC presidents will review the comments.

         

        Thank you in advance for your feedback. In the interest of full transparency, the MEC will publish a summary of results once the responses have been tallied.

         

        In Solidarity,

         

        Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Satterlee, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Sandra Morrow, Stephen Couckuyt; LEC Presidents-elect Tim Green and Brice McGee

        Filed Under: Latest News, Scheduling Committee Tagged With: 2016, Open Time, OT, survey, Trial

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