Representing the Flight Attendants of Alaska + Hawaiian
AFA is pleased to announce that out of domicile jet bridge trades (§12.C.7) will be implemented on Monday, May 1, 2017. As a reminder, out of domicile jet bridge trades will count towards the out of domicile pick-up limitations of two per bid month per §12.H.
In Solidarity,
Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Linda Christou, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Melissa Osborne, Tim Green, Brice McGee; and MEC Scheduling Committee Chairperson Zac Weeks
Alaska Air Group management has been working with operational leaders, third-party safety consultants, labor leaders, workgroup and union representatives, and the uniform supplier (to be announced later) in order to develop a new safety standard for the upcoming custom uniform program. AFA is very pleased to report that management has made a commitment to certify the primary uniform pieces in the custom uniform to an industry-leading safety standard: the Standard 100 by OEKO-TEX®. (OEKO-TEX® is pronounced “eco tex” like “eco” in “eco-friendly” and “tex” like the first syllable in “Texas”.)
There may be a need and/or desire to source non-custom pieces from a third-party vendor in some instances, in which case the Company will first seek suppliers that adhere to the American Apparel and Footwear Association (AAFA) Restricted Substance List (RSL) or another safety standard of equal caliber. Based on all the information we have been given so far, AFA anticipates that the Flight Attendant custom uniform will be composed almost exclusively of pieces certified to the Standard 100 by OEKO-TEX®.
AFA and Alaska Airlines management had originally discussed the Standard 100 by OEKO-TEX® during our investigations into textile sourcing and manufacturing safety resulting from Flight Attendant health concerns with the TwinHill uniform. AFA pushed for adopting the Standard 100 by OEKO-TEX®, but management deemed the standard as too expensive to achieve at that time. By partnering with the custom uniform supplier, Alaska Airlines is now able to implement this robust safety standard more cost effectively than was previously possible.
Even with the Standard 100 by OEKO-TEX® certification, it is impossible to guarantee that all Flight Attendants will remain free from reactions to the custom uniform pieces. In fact, research indicates it is likely that five to ten percent will experience some form of dermal reaction as a result of cutting over to new uniform pieces. However, AFA appreciates that management has taken proactive steps to improve the safety of our uniforms and reduce the possibility of more serious health effects by adopting the Standard 100 by OEKO-TEX® and the AAFA RSL into our custom uniform program.
Based on behind the scenes progress so far, we are very hopeful the custom uniform program will be well received and the cutover in 2019 will go as smoothly as possible.
In Solidarity,
Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Linda Christou, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Tim Green, Brice McGee; AFA Uniform Committee Chairperson Bob Moore; and AFA ASHSC Chairperson Seth Heiple
AFA has been made aware of a technical glitch that is creating issues accessing JCA on computers running the Windows 10 operating system. If you are using a computer running Windows 10, only Internet Explorer will currently allow access to JCA—no other browsers will allow access to the system due to the glitch.
The browser icon on the desktop (the blue “E”) is the Windows Edge browser, one of the browsers that is not working. Use the search field found in the menu bar or start menu to search for and open Internet Explorer.
Alaska Airlines IT has been advised of the issue and is working to restore normal access. There is currently no ETA on a fix to the system.
Access to JCA using Apple operating systems (including the IMD) is unaffected.
In Solidarity,
Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Linda Christou, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Tim Green and Brice McGee
In preparation for Open Time this Saturday, some changes to Crew Access have been made to help minimize the spinning propeller issue that occurred last month.
If you should encounter the spinning propeller, Jeppesen suggests that you continue to submit any additional trades, even if the propeller is still there. They are working on a permanent fix for this issue but want you to maximize the opportunity to manage your schedules in the meantime.
In the example below, the Flight Attendant would like to Advertise SEA-DFW, DFW-SEA as a SIP for Grab.
1. Add the trip to your Trade Cart
2. Select Split activity
3. Select the flight, in this case AS719 SLC-SEA, before the portion of the trip wanting to be sipped.
4. Select After (In this case the F/A wants to sip the portion of the trip after SLC-SEA.)
5. Select the trade option and complete the advertisement
You will see ½ of a green line next to your trip in your Roster View once your trip has been successfully advertised.
Please review the training video for additional information about Splitting a Trip. FA Website > Schedule & Bidding > Crew Access Help > Tutorial Videos & Guides
Recently, you may have seen the addition of FRS2 for recurrent training in Seattle. There is not a difference between FRS1 and FRS2. You may trade and pick up either one. So, if you are awarded a FRS1 and you want to trade into another date that has FRS2, your trade will be approved. You may also click on the grey triangle on the top right to see the list of flight attendants who will be attending that class.
Once dual recurrent trainings are offered in Seattle, FRS2 will be used to indicate an afternoon recurrent training.
If you have any questions, please contact your Local Scheduling Committee.
We are aware of some issues with some Flight Attendants not being able to submit their bids. This is related to a change in terminology with ‘Forget’ and ‘Redo’. Another issue discovered is being able to ‘Forget’ one type of bid line is not working properly. The new functionality is designed to maximize the number of days off you get with the prefer off bid.
In both the previous and new functionality, if a complete line cannot be built in the first completion attempt, it will go into top down inclusion:
Because of this changed functionality it was determined that a ‘forget’ was not necessary for this bid as it is attempting all possible combinations to get the best possible result. As an alternative, you can use ‘Avoid Pairings if Departing On Friday’ instead of ‘Prefer Off Friday’ as that would be forgettable. Also, using ‘Avoid Pairings if Duty on Friday’ could be used an alternative as well.
As a reminder, all negative (prefer off, avoid) bids should be placed in the order of priority in your bid group. Bids are read in order of importance from the top down.
Considering these issues and new functionalities, we have extended the bidding window. Bidding will now close on Tuesday, April 11, 2017 at 09:00. Bid results will still be published at the regularly scheduled time.
*** Please note, the date for Open Time trading will NOT change. ***
Once again, we apologize for any confusion these issues have caused. We are in contact with Navblue and are working on a solution to ensure programming changes are communicated to us well in advance of bidding.
Thank you for your understanding. If you have any questions or need PBS help, please email PBS.QA@alaskaair.com.
