Latest News – Page 174

[AS] Jeppesen Crew Access Update

June 7, 2017 15:00

This message is for pre-merger Alaska Flight Attendants

This evening at 10 PM, the largest update for Crew Access to date will be installed. The update, which should take approximately 40 minutes, includes a combination of fixes and new items. Included are approximately 30+ fixes will directly affect our workgroup.

The most anticipated and long awaited installation is the ability for Reserves to Advertise and Trade in Crew Access. Reserves will no longer have to use the “Reserve Trading Board” after this evening. Attached to this communication is a PDF which gives instructions on how to Advertise, Grab, Trade, Shift, and Split Reserve blocks and days.

Below is the list of the fixes and enhancements that are included in this evenings update.

Will no longer see Pilot flying preferences when logging into Crew Access.
Lineholder will no longer be able to self-assign trip longer than the reserve block picked up.
Lock on last 5 days of month functional
Hotel reservations no longer lost on call-out
Server clocks are now synced
FA now able to advertise SIP departing more than three hours out
Quick Trip Report – TFP now showing and Times displayed
Premium trips on Published Roster will now show 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 etc.
Hotel information no longer lost on SIPs
“Ignore” button added to Notification window in Crew Access
Days will now show as limited at 10am day prior once self-assigning starts
Sipped trips that do not report on same day as original trip will now show correct day and trip number
Addition of vertical delineation between calendar days
HomeBase filter will no longer show all bases
LAX no longer listed as Co-Terminal on LTFA
Charter rest rules being applied correctly
Notifications that were acknowledged but still popping up will go away
“HTTP method POST not supported” message resolved
Issue of check in time same as departure resolved
Limiting FAs to single session. If logged in twice, you will have some functionally in the first session but will NOT be able to process transactions.
“Enter” key no longer functional when trying to complete consecutive trades

Reserve Specific Changes

Ability to Grab, Trade, Split Reserve days now functional
- Ability to Direct Trade multiple reserve blocks with another FA
- Ability to Advertise end of month and/or beginning of next month’s reserve blocks individually.
- Reserve FAs able to give away their FAS to another FA with the same reserve block and classification
- Able to direct trade multiple reserve blocks
- Able to grab multiple reserve blocks
LTFA will recognize start time based on release time of previous trip. 11.5 hours and 9 hours if waived rest.
- New FAs will now show on LTFA Report
Standalone airport standbys will receive 5.0 TFP
Reserves that self-assign Premium trips will no longer see “1.5, 2.0, 2.5” in Roster or “Premium” in Published Roster

After this installation, we will be receiving regular updates from Jeppesen every six weeks. We still have a laundry list of items and we have been working hard with Alaska Airlines management as well as Jeppesen management to resolve these issues quickly. We appreciate your patience and we will continue to advocate for Flight Attendants and use all resources available to ensure timely fixes.

If you have any questions about this update to Crew Access, please contact your Local Scheduling Committee.

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

[AS] Coming Soon: Online Issue Reporting for AFA

June 6, 2017 05:00

This message is for pre-merger Alaska Flight Attendants

Over the past year, your AFA Master Executive Council (MEC) has been working to develop an online system to allow Flight Attendants to report contractual issues and other concerns. We’re pleased to announce that this new online system will be launching next week.

The new AFA Alaska online support center will allow you to document scheduling and reserve concerns, situations where you might be facing discipline, potential contractual grievances, and any other issue where you might need AFA support. After you’ve filed a ticket on an issue, the issue will automatically be routed to the appropriate AFA committee member or officer for follow up. You’ll also be able to track the progress online and add additional information for your AFA representative to have available.

Be on the lookout for more information about the new system including access information next week.

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Linda Christou, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Melissa Osborne, Tim Green and Brice McGee

[AS] Open Time Negotiations Update – June 1, 2017

June 1, 2017 09:00

For release to pre-merger AS councils only

Open Time Tentative Agreement reached

Your Negotiating Committee recently reached an agreement in concept with Alaska Airlines management regarding a new Open Time system. As a reminder, the Master Executive Council (MEC) ended the Open Time Trial last July (see “Open Time Trial Cancellation” for additional background). The MEC’s decision was based on overwhelming membership feedback from the Open Time satisfaction surveys and pursuant to Collective Bargaining Agreement §12.F.9 [Exchange of Sequences: Open Time Trial]. The parties have been negotiating a potential successor Open Time system ever since AFA provided notice to management of the cancellation last summer.

The Negotiating Committee presented a draft full text Open Time Tentative Agreement (TA) for the MEC’s consideration two weeks ago. The MEC was impressed with many elements of the proposed new Open Time system, which is in many ways a fusion of the 2012-2015 “Back to Book” Open Time system and the current system. Some highlights of the proposed Open Time system include incorporating the beloved “day for day or greater” trading of Back to Book with the ability to drop into Open Time much like the current system.

The MEC unanimously voted against releasing the Open Time TA due to a lack of implementation guarantees

Despite the Negotiating Committee’s best efforts, management would not agree to implementation guarantees. The MEC and the Negotiating Committee held a special conference call meeting last week to discuss our concerns with a lack of such guarantees. After much consideration, the MEC has unanimously voted against releasing the Open Time TA for membership ratification.

The MEC has heard loud and clear that you expect meaningful and specific implementation guarantees. Therefore, the MEC is sending the Negotiating Committee back to the table to achieve implementation guarantees, and management has been informed of our expectations. Management acknowledged receipt and is planning to meet with Jeppesen in the coming week or so to discuss options.

What is “Back to Book”?

The “Back to Book” Open Time system is the trading system outlined in the 2006-2010 Flight Attendant Agreement as modified by the 2011 AFA Arbitration Award No. 6-99-2-18-11 “Withholding Open Time.” This modified trading system was in place 2012-2015. The contractual language associated with this system is found in CBA §12.F [Exchange of Sequences – Back to Book: Open Time Trading]. The “Back to Book” Section 12 Exchange of Sequences follows the regular Section 12 and precedes Section 13 Uniforms in your contract. The arbitration award follows LOA 6 Contract Implementation Schedule and precedes the index.

Where is “Back to Book”?

Flight Attendants have been inquiring where is the “Back to Book” Open Time system. Management has been citing “IT limitations” as the reason for why reverting “Back to Book” is still delayed: “If reverting, the timeline for rolling back will be dictated by IT limitations” (§12.F.9.a [Exchange of Sequences: Open Time Trial]). Management says that Jeppesen has not had the resources to program “Back to Book” due to all available resources being allocated to implementation of the new crew tracking and trip trading system. However, the next scheduled update to the trading system places Alaska onto the “main branch” of the program, which is more or less the stock version.

Therefore, it seems obvious to AFA that IT limitations can no longer be used as an excuse for why “Back to Book” is delayed. We will be filing a contractual grievance disputing the “Back to Book” implementation delay in the coming days.

AFA will provide an update once management formally responds to the grievance and has an opportunity to meet with Jeppesen to consider implementation guarantees. After all the disappointments with extremely delayed implementation timelines and a disastrously executed transition to the new trip trading system, it’s time to make a stand!

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Linda Christou, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Melissa Osborne, Tim Green and Brice McGee

Your Negotiating Committee – MEC President Jeffrey Peterson, Kristy Stratton, Lisa Pinkston, Christina Frees and AFA Senior Staff Attorney Kimberley Chaput

[AS] Trip Trading Contractual Grievances – May 2017

May 30, 2017 17:00

For release to pre-merger AS council only

AFA is as disappointed as you in our new Jeppesen Crew Access (JCA) system. Between San Diego’s Open Time not opening on time and system slowdowns throughout the day, once again the experience on Open Time day this month was subpar. AFA advocated that management provide a “do over” Open Time day to make up for all the trouble, but management declined due to concerns over operational liability.

AFA is continuing to pressure management on a daily basis to ensure the Company provides us with an operable real-time trip trading system. Although we are seeing improvements to JCA over time, those improvements are too little, too late. The following is a list of JCA-related contractual grievances filed to date with their respective status.

New Grievances

Grievance No.: 36-99-2-27-17-Violation of §12.C.2-3 Open Time Trip Drop. This grievance alleges the Company’s violation of Collective Bargaining Agreement §12.C.2-3 [Exchange of Sequences: Trading Procedures], past practice and all related sections of the Collective Bargaining Agreement when it denied Flight Attendants the ability to drop a sequence in Open Time at contractually designated times, e.g. SEA at 2:00pm PT.

Details: The Company agreed it violated this provision of our CBA. The Company is working with the IT Department and Jeppesen to resolve the issue. This is tentatively scheduled for implementation on May 31^st.

Grievance No.: 36-99-2-28-17-Violation of §12.C.1 Real-Time Trading Procedures. This grievance alleges the Company’s violation of Collective Bargaining Agreement §12.C.1 [Exchange of Sequences: Trading Procedures], past practice and all related sections of the Collective Bargaining Agreement when it did not provide Flight Attendants a real-time electronic system for processing sequence trades, picks-ups, drops and give-aways because it requires frequent refreshing of one’s internet browser in order to view updated trading data and availability.

Details: The Company agreed it violated this provision of our CBA. The Company’s remedy is that until JCA is modified, there is a manual workaround requiring Flight Attendants to refresh their browser to view an updated screen. AFA very much disagrees with the Company’s remedy and will be disputing it.

Grievance No.: 36-99-2-29-17-Violation §12.C & §30.B.5 Trading and Requalification Training. This grievance alleges the Company’s violation of Collective Bargaining Agreement §12.C [Exchange of Sequences: Trading Procedures] & §30.B.5 [Training: Recurrent Training], past practice and all related sections of the Collective Bargaining Agreement when its crew tracking system (Jeppesen Crew Access) did not allow a Flight Attendant to electronically trade trips that were on his/her line in a bid month in which s/he is scheduled for requalification training.

Details: AFA is awaiting the Company’s response.

Grievance No.: 36-99-2-30-17-Violation §12.C.3 SAN Open Time. This grievance alleges the Company’s violation of Collective Bargaining Agreement §12.C.3 [Exchange of Sequences: Trading Procedures], past practice and all related sections of the Collective Bargaining Agreement when it did not begin access to Open Time trading in the San Diego Flight Attendant domicile (SAN) at 9:00am PT on May 15, 2017.

Details: AFA is awaiting the Company’s response. (The Company eventually opened SAN OT at 10:00am PT.)

Unresolved Grievances

Grievance No.: 36-99-2-2-17- Violation of §11.H.7. Denial of Reserve Automated Posting and Trading of Assignments. This grievance alleges the Company’s violation of Collective Bargaining Agreement Section 11.H.7. [Reserve/Reserve Exchange of Days, Pick-Ups and Trades], past practice and all related sections of the Collective Bargaining Agreement when its new Jeppesen Crew Access trading system denied Reserve Flight Attendants automated posting and trading of reserve assignments.

Details: The Company denied violating this section of the CBA. This grievance is on the list to arbitrate unless fixed prior. (This is tentatively scheduled for implementation on May 31^st—finally!)

Grievance No.: 36-99-2-4-17- Violation of §9.E. & §12.E. All Open Time Trips Withheld from Open Time and Premium Pay Removed. This grievance alleges the

the Company’s violation of Collective Bargaining Agreement Section 9.E. [Junior Available//and Premium Open Time/Premium Open Time] & 12.E. [Exchange of Sequences/Open Time], past practice and all related sections of the Collective Bargaining Agreement when on or about February 9, 2017, and on or about February 16, 2017, all Open Time trips across the entire system were withheld from Open Time and premium pay was removed. This is an ongoing violation, and this grievance intends to include all future violations.

Details: The Company agreed it violated this provision of our CBA. This grievance also includes any later violations. We are mediating this issue for a remedy on July 5, 2017.

Grievance No.: 36-99-2-6-17- Violation of §11.E. Low Time First Available (LTFA) Out of Order Assignments January 31 to February 2, 2017. This grievance alleges the Company’s violation of Collective Bargaining Agreement Section 11.E. [Reserve/Order of Assignment], past practice and all related sections of the Collective Bargaining Agreement when on or about January 31, 2017, at 8:00pm PST to February 2, 2017, at 11:00am PST, Crew Scheduling assigned Reserve Flight Attendants out of order because of the inability for Crew Scheduling to accurately verify order of assignments due to the cutover to the new crew tracking and scheduling system, Jeppesen Crew Access (JCA).

Details: The Company agreed it violated this provision of our CBA. We are mediating this issue for a remedy on July 5, 2017.

Grievance No.: 36-99-2-7-17- Violation of §11.E. Low Time First Available (LTFA) Out of Order Assignments Post Jeppesen Crew Access (JCA) Cutover. This grievance alleges the Company’s violation of Collective Bargaining Agreement Section 11.E. [Reserve/Order of Assignment], past practice and all related sections of the Collective Bargaining Agreement when starting on or about February 2, 2017 at 11:00am PST, and including all subsequent violations, Crew Scheduling assigned Reserve Flight Attendants out of order because of the inability for Crew Scheduling to accurately verify order of assignments due to the cutover to the new crew tracking and scheduling system, Jeppesen Crew Access (JCA).

Details: The Company agreed it violated this provision of our CBA. We are mediating this issue for a remedy on July 5, 2017.

Grievance No.: 36-99-2-10-17- Violation of §11.F.15, §11.H.7 & §11.H.8 Failure to Provide Automated Ability for Reserve Flight Attendants to Self-Assign and Trade APSB. This grievance alleges the Company’s violation of Collective Bargaining Agreement §11.F.15 [Reserve: Airport Standby], §11.H.7 & §11.H.8 [Reserve: Reserve Exchange of Days, Pick-Ups and Trades], past practice and all related sections of the Collective Bargaining Agreement when it failed to provide automated ability for Reserve Flight Attendants to self-assign and trade airport standby (APSB) assignments due to the cutover to the new crew tracking and scheduling system, Jeppesen Crew Access (JCA).

Details: The Company agreed it violated this provision of our CBA, and a fix was implemented to correct Reserve self-assignment and direct trading of APSB. The ability to advertise and trade APSB is tentatively scheduled for implementation on May 31^st.

Grievance No.: 36-99-2-18-17-Violation of §12.G.3 & §10.Y.7 SIP’d Sequences in Open Time. This grievance alleges the Company’s violation of Collective Bargaining Agreement §12.G.3 [Exchanges of Sequences: Sequence Interruption Point (SIP) Sequences] & §10.Y.7 [Scheduling: Sequence Construction], past practice and all related sections of the Collective Bargaining Agreement when it failed to identify SIP sequences placed into Open Time by the Company for pick-up/trade by Flight Attendants or assigned to (or self-assigned by) Reserve Flight Attendants; and thereby failed to pay all eligible Minimum Pay Rules on such sequences pursuant to §21.D [Compensation: Minimum Pay Rules].

Details: The Company denied violating this section of the CBA. The Company is looking into a manual workaround until it is fixed. This grievance is on the list to arbitrate/mediate unless fixed prior.

Resolved Grievances

Grievance No.: 36-99-2-12-17- Violation of §12.C.2-3 Allowing Out of

Domicile Trades, Pick-Ups, Drops and Give-Aways on Incorrect Dates. This grievance alleges the Company’s violation of Collective Bargaining Agreement §12.C.2-3 [Exchange of Sequences: Trading Procedures], past practice and all related sections of the Collective Bargaining Agreement when it allowed out of domicile trades, pick-ups, drops and give-aways on the fifteenth (15^th) and sixteenth (16^th) of the month rather than the required seventeenth (17^th) of the month.