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Virgin America ITMs: Ready to Get Involved?

We are anticipating that the National Mediation Board (NMB) will rule this week that AFA is the collective bargaining representative for Virgin America ITMs.  In anticipation of this ruling, the process of getting an AFA Local Council established and set up for Virgin America ITMs is already underway.  AFA Council 35 will be made up of all Virgin America ITMs based at JFK, LAX, and SFO and will be a part of the Alaska Airlines Master Executive Council.

Transitional Local Council Officer Appointments

Transitional Local Council Officers for Council 35, both a President and a Secretary, will be appointed by the AFA International Officers soon after the NMB issues its determination that AFA is the collective bargaining representative.  Transitional Officers will serve for a period of approximately four to six months until elections can be held to fill those positions.

If you haven’t already shared your feedback regarding who you would like to serve in these appointed positions, please do so by completing the online form (link provided by email).   Just a reminder that the feedback period will close on Wednesday, April 11.

Sign Up to Get Involved! 

Involvement is one of the key hallmarks of AFA.  As a member-driven Union, the more people get involved, the better your Local Council and our Union will function.  If you’re interested in getting involved in AFA and Council 35, we want to know!  Please take a few moments to complete the volunteer interest form and let us know how you might be interested in getting involved.

Click here to access the Council 35 Involvement Interest Form >>

Questions?

If you have any questions, please send an email to vx@afaalaska.org.

 

In Solidarity,

Your AFA Alaska MEC Executive Officers – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer and Linda Christou

Bidding Deadline Extended

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:

  • In the previous functionality, when top down inclusion got to the prefer off day of week bid, it would add them in date order, trying to build a line with each additional date.
  • In the new functionality, when top down inclusion gets to the prefer off day of week bid, it will look at all possibilities to maximize the total number of that day that you get off.  It attempts to build a line with at least 1 of that day off, then at least 2 of that day off, etc.  It continues this process and attempts get as many of those days off in the completed line as it can.

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.

Important! PBS Bidding Issue

A message from your PBS Committee

We are currently seeing an issue with some people not being able to submit their bids.  It is related to a change in terminology with ‘Forget’ and ‘Redo’.
If you are unable to ‘submit’, check your Default bid to make sure that there are not any ‘Redo From’ lines that are all alone…with no ‘Forget’ line coming before it.  That is what is preventing you from being able to ‘submit’ your Current or Default bid.  You will need to delete the stand-alone ‘Redo From’ line(s) in order to be able to submit your bids. Then add new ‘Forget Line’ and ‘Redo From Line’ bids if desired.
Also, if you are someone that likes to copy a previous month’s bid and paste it into your Current bid, you’ll need to re-enter any Forget and Redo From lines from scratch.  If you try copying/pasting, don’t include any ‘Forget’ or any ‘Redo From’ lines when moving the old bid to this month’s Current bid.
Another issue is that being able to ‘forget’ one type of bid line is not working properly.  You will not see any ‘Prefer Off’ by day of week lines showing up on the list of lines you can ‘forget’. A work-around is to ask for those days by date, not day of week…they now show on the list and are ‘forgettable’.
For example, instead of saying ‘Prefer Off Friday’, you will need to say ‘Prefer Off May 5, May 12, May 19, May 26’…now you will see that line on the list of lines you can ‘forget’ later in the bid.  If you don’t plan on ‘forgetting’ Fridays then you would not need to do this and can simply enter ‘Prefer Off Friday’.
We apologize for these issues…we weren’t notified in advance about this.  The problem stems from Navblue changing the terminology from ‘Forget’ to ‘Forget Line’ and from ‘Redo From’ to ‘Redo From Line’.
For help, email PBS.QA@alaskaair.com

Zika Letter of Agreement

AFA and Alaska Airlines management have entered into a letter of agreement (LOA) to facilitate eligible Flight Attendants to avoid flying to areas affected by the Zika virus. The provisions of this agreement are voluntarily available to Flight Attendants who are pregnant, attempting to become pregnant or whose partner is attempting to become pregnant.

The AFA Alaska contract page has been updated to include the Zika LOA, which is now in effect.

If you have any questions, contact your LEC president.

In Solidarity,

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

[REMINDER] Onboard Sexual Assault Survey Closes April 2nd

Congressional offices and victim rights advocates have reached out to AFA about the incidents of onboard sexual assault that has been reported by several media sources. As the expert voice in the cabin, AFA can make a difference for Flight Attendants and the passengers in our care.

This 1-minute anonymous survey, distributed by AFA, will help us gather information about Flight Attendants’ experiences with passenger on passenger onboard sexual assaults.

Your answers will help AFA better understand the extent and nature of this issue. The survey will be open through Sunday, April 2, 2017.

Take the survey >

In Solidarity,

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

Council 30 (ANC) LEC Officer Election Results

Polls closed at 12 PM PT today for the election of Council 30 LEC Officers, representing Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants based in Anchorage. The following AFA Flight Attendants have been elected to Local Council Officer positions: LEC President: LeiLauni ScheidemanLEC Vice President: Heather ReierLEC Secretary: Anne Madsen View the certified election results here >> These newly elected officers […]

Apps To Help You Save Money On Food

Our AFA Employee Assistance Program (EAP)/Professional Standards Committee recognizes that Flight Attendants may be facing increasing challenges when it comes to accessing affordable food, whether on the road or at home. We want you to know that you are not alone. In response to these difficulties, we have compiled a list of apps to help […]

What You Need To Know About The FAA Capacity Cuts

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced plans for a 10% reduction in flight capacity across 40 markets, starting this Friday. According to news reports, these schedule reductions will begin on Friday and will gradually increase throughout the weekend until they reach the full 10% by the following week. Reports also suggest that all Alaska […]

Council 47 (LAX pmHA) LEC Officer Election Results

Polls closed at 12 PM PT today for the election of Council 47 LEC Officers, representing Hawaiian Airlines Flight Attendants based in Los Angeles. The following AFA Flight Attendants have been elected to Local Council Officer positions: LEC President: Joshua AokiLEC Vice President: Paul IkiokaLEC Secretary: Beth Hayes View the certified election results here >> These newly elected […]

Pre-Merger Alaska MEC Committee Interviews—December 2025

This message is for pre-merger Alaska Flight Attendants In accordance with Article VI.C of the AFA Alaska MEC Policy and Procedure Manual, the terms of office for the MEC Committee Chairpersons and other MEC-level positions align with those of the MEC Officers. Since the current term for the MEC Officers will conclude on December 31, […]

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