Representing the Flight Attendants of Alaska + Hawaiian
The ORD hotel is no longer offering crews the 50% discount off food. This was a promotion that was being offered by the hotel. The discount will revert to the contractual 20% discount with crew ID.
Construction will be going on at ORD to the upper ramp. During the construction, all pick-up and drop off will be at the lower ramp, where all of the hotel shuttles pick up.
Please contact your Local Hotel Committee
According to the Contract Implementation Schedule, Open Time was scheduled for implementation in July for the August bid month. Unfortunately, AFA received notice from management yesterday that implementation of the new Open Time trading system will be delayed at least one month.
You may access an electronic copy of the notice (that lists all the technical reasons for the delay) here.
AFA has participated in almost all of the implementation meetings and updates and we can assure you that management and Jeppesen (the provider of Maestro and eMaestro) have been working on updating the crew tracking and trading system ever since the contract ratified. There are several reasons why it is taking so long to reprogram the system:
Alaska Airlines management and AFA do not want to go live with a new Open Time trading system that has the possibility of crashing not only Open Time but also electronic trip trading in general. Although this is a disappointing development, we want the new Open Time system to be a success. Therefore AFA and management believe it is prudent to wait another month in order to provide more time to properly debug the system. As a reminder, the trial period of the new Open Time trading system begins once the system is actually implemented.
In Solidarity,
Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Gesch, Becky Strachan, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Sandra Morrow, Stephen Couckuyt; and MEC Scheduling chairperson Jake Jones
6.12.15 OT Delay letter to AFA
Congratulations to Tim Green, our new LOCAL SCHEDULING CHAIR. He will be the person advocating for our LAX flight attendant schedules and overseeing scheduling issues.
With our new contract we formed a new MEC Scheduling Committee. Jake Jones was appointed by the MEC as the new MEC Scheduling Chair. Our LEC Scheduling Chair Tim Green will be working with him and other chairs from all other bases.
We are also excited that LAXFA Sherrijon Gaspard has been selected as AFA’s Pairing Analyst. She took over Jeff Stein’s position earlier this year.
We want to thank Tim, Jake, and Sherrijon in advance for all of their hard work ahead. Please reach out to either of them with any of your suggestions and concerns. They would love to receive your feedback.
Tim Green ScheduleLAX@yahoo.com
Sherrijon Gaspard sggaspard@gmail.com
What is going on with “Shoegate”?
In a recent bulletin, Inflight management announced a new manual revision is at the printers and will be distributed June 17th along with several Emergency Interim Bulletins (EIBs) that are forthcoming in the next few weeks. The Master Executive Council (MEC) anticipates that one of the EIBs will contain new language in regards to the Company uniform and appearance standards. AFA has been working with Inflight management to develop a new policy that is acceptable to both parties but unfortunately we were not able to fully reach agreement.
Consequently AFA will almost certainly be filing one or more grievances based on the final language of the impending manual revision. The MEC knows everybody is very frustrated with the developments over the past several months and we will provide another update once the grievance(s) has been filed.
In solidarity,
Your MEC—Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Gesch, Becky Strachan, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Sandra Morrow and Stephen Couckuyt; MEC Grievance chairperson Jennifer Wise MacColl and MEC Uniform Committee chairperson Bob Moore
Congress is set to start voting on Fast Track Legislation soon. Our congressional representatives need to hear from you! Fast Track paves the way for the biggest trade deal ever – the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), negotiated in secret, with the rules of the deal written by multinational corporations and investors. We can expect the same results as we’ve seen with NAFTA and similar so-called Free Trade Agreements. We need trade agreements that improve the lives of workers here and in the countries with whom we trade. Please take these two steps right now:
It only takes a couple of minutes and could mean the difference between a vote that helps our jobs or harms them!
In Solidarity,
Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Gesch, Becky Strachan, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Sandra Morrow, Stephen Couckuyt and MEC Government Affairs Chairperson Bev Bullock
This is a message from your AFA Alaska Government Affairs Committee. For more information about Fast Track, the Trans Pacific Partnership, or how to take action, contact your Local Government Affairs Committee Chairperson. You can also visit http://www.stopfasttrack.com or check out a short video (just over 2-½ minutes) at https://youtu.be/DnC1mqyAXmw.
