What goes into effect today, Saturday, January 31, 2015?

New Junior Assignment provisions

If the operation requires flight attendants to be Junior Assigned, Crew Scheduling will no longer call flight attendants at home in addition to JA’ing F/As on duty. JA will move exclusively to F/As on duty only in inverse seniority order of those legal for the assignment. If your phone rings and you are off duty, no more worrying about whether or not it is CSKD!

Voluntary Junior Available (VJA) is still in effect through the April bid month. Premium Open Time will replace VJA in May.

Management flying as an extra

Management may fly as an extra position. The program is likely to start slowly but Inflight management’s latest goal is for each base supervisor to fly one sequence per month with one overnight sequence per quarter. However, there is no limit to the number of times a supervisor may fly as an extra.

Inflight has pledged a good faith effort to notify crews in advance of the flight that a supervisor will be part of the crew compliment as an extra position. Although there is no contractual requirement, notification is being targeted for the day prior if possible. Members of senior Inflight leadership such as Ron Calvin are determining the supervisors’ assignments.

Discipline may not result from a supervisor working as an extra being a “sole source” of discipline. This means in order for crew to be subject to discipline there would have to me multiple sources of information to corroborate an observation made by a supervisor working as an extra. Safety issues will be eligible for submission under ASAP. If you have less than a positive experience with a supervisor working as an extra, please contact your LEC leadership to provide feedback so AFA can pass this along to upper management.

Section 3 Scope D.1.c.1-4:

 

3.D1.c.   Inflight management may work as a Flight Attendant on a sequence under the following provisions:

 

(1.) The Inflight management employee may work a scheduled sequence only in an open position as the D FA on a three (3) person crew or an E FA on a four (4) person crew.

 

(2.) S/he will be considered a working member of the crew and must follow all requirements in the Flight Attendant Manual (FAM) and all limitations in the applicable Sections of the CBA (e.g. duty and rest provisions). S/he will be considered a “crewmember” for the purpose of this provision. Her/his effective seniority will be considered to be the most junior Flight Attendant on that flight.

 

(3.) The Inflight management employee must work an entire sequence or a portion of a sequence broken at a SIP. The sequence must be legally constructed out of a Flight Attendant domicile.

 

(4.) No single-source discipline may result from the Inflight management employee’s presence on the sequence. Safety issues will be eligible for submission under the Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP).

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In solidarity,

Your Contract Committee—MEC President Jeffrey Peterson, Kristy Stratton, Lisa Pinkston, Jake Jones, Christina Frees and AFA Senior Staff Negotiator Paula Mastrangelo

Second Weekly Implementation meeting this past week

AFA and management are making good progress towards implementation of the new contract. Additionally, the parties continue to resolve various challenges as we continue further into the implementation process. In the past week the Alaska Airlines Information Technology (IT) department has done much work on the various TFP calculators. AFA will work on vetting the usability and accuracy of the calculators but for now we recommend the calculators be used only as a very tentative guide.

Reserve ER “conversion” pay!

Good news for flight attendants sitting reserve in December, January or February! Due to technological constraints, ER days could not be removed from Reserve’s schedules as quickly as the parties originally anticipated during active negotiations. Some of you noticed there was a modification to the Implementation schedule between the published version and the 12/29/2014, which delayed when pre-plotted ER days went away. In consideration of the Reserves, AFA and management agreed Reserves may submit for extra pay essentially as if the pre-plotted ER days were already gone. Pre-plotted ER days will be removed in the March bid schedule.

In the meantime, Reserves may submit additional pay for activity between between December 2014 and February 2015 as follows:

• 1^st and 2^nd ER day in the month = free
• 3^rd ER day in the month = 1.5x the trip rate for activity during an ER duty period or 1 TFP paid above reserve guarantee (!) if not used
• 4^th ER day or more in a bid month = 2x the trip rate for activity during an ER duty period or 1 TFP paid above reserve guarantee (!) if not used

Submit via an Activity Claim Form in the World of Inflight (http://asainflight.alaskaair.com) –> ‘Forms’ –> ‘Pay Forms’ –> ‘Activity Claim Form’. Fill in the “1.5 x Standard Trip:” (for 3^rd ER) or “2.0 x Standard Trip:” (4^th or more ER) for activity flown during the ER duty period at the appropriate premium rate. Otherwise fill out the “Other: (Trips/Dollars/Explain Below)” field with “1.0” and in the “Comments:” field indicate “1.0 TFP ER day not used.” You must fill in the other required fields (base / flights / sequence / pay month / activity month / activity day) as appropriate.

Minor typo in the 12/29/2014 Implementation Schedule

Due to an inadvertent clerical error, there is an error on line 73 of the revised Implementation Schedule dated 12/29/2014. The line reads “New Junior Assignment provisions and Premium Open Time.” However if Premium OT goes into effect on 1/31/2015 that conflicts with line 119 which states Premium OT will be implemented on 5/1/2015: “9.E. – FA’s will be allowed to pick up trips posted in open time (OT) at premium rate. FA’s are not able to trade a trip into OT to pick up a trip designated as premium in OT.”

The Contract Committee has definitively confirmed via our bargaining notes and other records the phrase “and Premium Open Time” should be deleted on line 73 to resolve the conflict and correctly reflect intent between the parties. A link to the corrected version of the Implementation schedule follows this paragraph. Please note the deletion of those four words on line 73 is the only difference between the version published on 12/29/2014 and today. AFA apologizes for any confusion.

Implementation Schedule 12/29/2014 v2

Meeting next week in Portland to focus on finalizing the document for publication

The parties’ Contract Committees and several subject matter experts will meet next week in Portland, OR, to focus on finalizing the TA2 document for publication. It is our goal to publish and distribute the new contract as soon as possible.

* * *

In solidarity,

Your Contract Committee—MEC President Jeffrey Peterson, Kristy Stratton, Lisa Pinkston, Jake Jones, Christina Frees and AFA Senior Staff Negotiator Paula Mastrangelo

 21.R. Quarterly Productivity Premium

A Flight Attendant will receive a Quarterly Productivity Premium (QPP) if Worked TFP during a calendar quarter exceeds the TFP equivalent of the Flight Attendant’s combined monthly PBS bid award in that calendar quarter.

What is Worked TFP?

Worked TFP is all paid TFP excluding vacation/PTO and sick leave. Worked TFP includes (but is not limited to) regular TFP, Sit Pay, 4 trip minimum, ground delay, stranded pay, pre-boarding, pay protection, jury duty, deadhead, surface deadhead, Recurrent Training, Company business, Union business, et cetera.

Do I have to achieve my PBS bid award every month in order to be eligible for the QPP?

No. The QPP is based on exceeding the PBS monthly bid award combined over the three months in the calendar quarter.

Example:

January 2015 – 80 TFP

February 2015 – 80 TFP

March 2015 – 80 TFP

In order to achieve the QPP for Q1 2015, you must fly 240.1 TFP anytime during Q1. You could fly 100 TFP in January, 100 TFP in February and 40.1 TFP in March or any combination thereof. As just a few examples, Sit Pay, Recurrent Training, ground delay pay, boarding pay are all “bonuses” above one’s bid award that will help you achieve the QPP.

How does vacation/PTO affect the QPP?

Vacation/PTO is included in the PBS bid award, so it counts towards “setting the bar” for the QPP. However, Worked TFP does not include vacation/PTO, so vacation/PTO does not count towards “meeting the bar” for QPP.

Example:

January 2015 – 80 TFP (28 TFP vacation, 52 TFP flying)

February 2015 – 80 TFP

March 2015 – 80 TFP

If you just fly your line and have one sit over 2 hours sometime in Q1 (52 TFP + 80 TFP + 80 TFP + 1 TFP = 213 TFP), you will not achieve the QPP. The “bar” is set at 240 TFP but you have only flown 212 TFP plus the 1 TFP Sit Pay = 213 TFP. You must fly at least 240.1 TFP in Q1 to achieve QPP. Although you do not have to fly over your vacation, you do have to fly the equivalent of any vacation/PTO and sick time at some point in the quarter, plus exceed the quarterly bid award by 0.1 TFP.

Quarterly Productivity Premium video

What is the definition of a Jet Bridge Trade?

A Jet Bridge Trade is a trade between Flight Attendants at the same domicile. Flight Attendants may trade or give away a sequence or a portion of a sequence at any station. The trade or giveaway may occur no earlier than three hours prior to departure from domestic and international flights, but no later than the commencement of boarding. SIPs are not considered a Jet Bridge Trade. See Section 5 Definitions and Section 12 Exchange of Sequences paragraph C.7.

If Flight Attendants are Jet Bridge trading how low can either FA waive their Domicile Rest (rest between sequences)?

Either Flight Attendant may contractually waive their rest down to nine hours release to report. In order to comply with CFR rest requirements, rest may be subsequently scheduled or operationally reduced to eight hours. See Section 8 Hours of Service paragraph M and the Addendum to Section 8 #13.

Why can FAs not waive their own rest down to eight hours between sequences?

14 CFR 91.1062 requires that Flight Attendants be scheduled with nine hours of rest in order to have no other scheduling restrictions for the following duty period.

If I Jet Bridge Trade, then add the portion of the Jet Bridge Trade to another sequence is that considered a Base Turn?

Yes, if the Jet Bridge Trade attaches flying on the last day of a sequence or portion of a sequence to flying on the first day of another sequence already on one’s line and combines them into the same duty period. There must be no less than one hour forty-five minutes (1:45) block to block between the last flight of the first sequence and the first flight of the second sequence. If a Jet Bridge Trade is made after the completion of a sequence and there is no additional scheduling obligation on one’s line, then it is not considered a Base Turn and only Jet Bridge Trading rules apply.

What is the maximum Base Turn duty period?

The Base Turn duty period cannot exceed fourteen hours per CFRs. See Section 8 Hours of Service paragraph T.

Why would a Jet Bridge Trade not be approved?

The trade or give-away will be granted unless doing so would cause an illegality (CFR) or delay in boarding. If the Jet Bridge Trade request is made less than one hour prior to departure, trades will be processed only if Crew Scheduling has the capacity to handle the request. The Jet Bridge Trade must be made with less than three hours to departure of the outbound flight.

If Flight Attendants complete a Jet Bridge Trade who will receive the hotel?

The inbound FA will keep the hotel, unless otherwise mutually agreed between the Flight Attendants completing the Jet Bridge Trade. Crew Scheduling and management will not get involved in disputes over hotel accommodations affected by Jet Bridge Trades.

When does the inbound FA’s per diem end and the outbound FA’s per diem begin pursuant to a Jet Bridge Trade in which a sequence is split?

The inbound FA’s per diem will start at the beginning of her/his sequence and end forty-five minutes prior to the departure of the outbound flight given away in the Jet Bridge Trade.

The outbound FA’s per diem will begin forty-five minutes prior to the departure of the outbound flight picked up in the Jet Bridge Trade and the per diem will end at release of the sequence.

Weekly Implementation meeting

AFA has established a weekly Implementation meeting with management to review, track and clarify issues related to implementation of the new c0ntract. The first meeting occurred yesterday—Tuesday, January 20, 2015. It was a very productive introductory meeting and AFA is pleased to report that overall everything appears to be on track with the timelines set forth in the Implementation Schedule.

TFP Calculators are not accurate

It seems all of the TFP calculators are not accurate at this time. AFA and management continue to work with the Information Technology (IT) department to resolve the discrepancies.

When will a final version of the new contract be published?

The Negotiating Committee is working very hard to get the document finalized for publication. Just developing the index is a very time consuming task all by itself. Keep in mind that not only is AFA involved in this process, but also so is management.

AFA and management have agreed to meet for three and a half days during the first week of February. We will be meeting outside of Seattle in order to minimize distractions and focus on the task. Once we are closer to finalizing the document then AFA will provide an estimate for the published contract.

In the meantime, you may access an electronic version of the TA2 document here.

Rumor patrol: “secret section” of the contract

AFA is aware of rumors that a new “secret section” of the contract is being written for the purposes of inclusion in the final document. This rumor is absolutely false. Be assured there are no new contract sections pending or being considered.

New Contract Q&A and email address

Have questions about the new contract? Contact your respective Local Executive Council (LEC) officers or you can email the Negotiating Committee at contract@afaalaska.org. We have added a section to the AFA Alaska website called “Contract Q&A” at http://afaalaska.org/contract/qa. Going forward any posts related to provisions in the new contract will be located here for easy access. Be looking for our first article about Jet Bridge Trades in the very near future!

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In solidarity,

Your Contract Committee—MEC President Jeffrey Peterson, Kristy Stratton, Lisa Pinkston, Jake Jones, Christina Frees and AFA Senior Staff Negotiator Paula Mastrangelo