Your Master Executive Council (MEC) conducted interviews last week for the two open Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) member positions. The MEC would like to thank the 15 candidates who demonstrated a willingness to represent our Flight Attendants in joint contract negotiations. After thorough deliberation, the MEC has appointed Jennifer Wise MacColl and Lindsey Steele to the positions. Your full AFA Alaska JNC is MEC President Jeffrey Peterson, Jen Wise MacColl, Lindsey Steele and AFA Senior Staff Negotiator Paula Mastrangelo.

MEC President Jeffrey Peterson

Jeffrey Peterson grew up in Anchorage, AK, and graduated from A.J. Dimond High in south Anchorage. Jeff achieved a Presidential Scholar Award in 1991 and went on to attain a BA in Psychology from the University of California, San Diego. Prior to becoming a Flight Attendant, he spent several years in hotel management working for Marriott International and a franchise company associated with Marriott Hotels. He started out his Flight Attendant career 15 years ago in Los Angeles. Jeff has also been based in Seattle and now San Diego. Jeff’s term as AFA-CWA Alaska MEC president began on July 1, 2011, and he is in his second term of office, which ends December 31, 2016. Jeff currently splits his time between his apartment in San Diego, his family’s condo in Puerto Vallarta and the AFA office in Seattle.

Jennifer Wise MacColl

Jen Wise MacColl started flying in July of 1996 and was based in Anchorage for her first year.  The rest of her career has been spent in the Seattle base.  She is the current MEC Grievance Chairperson and has held that position since 2010. Jen has participated in many AFA committees over her career including Government Affairs, EAP/CIRP and Voice. She earned her BA in Political Science from the University of Washington and is supported through all her endeavors by her husband Scott and two kids Landon and Riley.

Lindsey Steele

Lindsey Steele has been an Alaska Airlines flight attendant since 2012. She chose to start out her career in Anchorage in order to fully embrace the Alaska culture, much to the surprise to her classmates and trainers. Lindsey later transferred to Los Angeles to reside with her family in the suburbs of Azusa She comes from a family with strong union roots dating back to the 1940’s with her grandfather. Lindsey’s mother has been a Union member all of Lindsey’s life, and now Lindsey continues the tradition as a proud AFA member. Her goal for the forthcoming merger between Alaska Airlines and Virgin America is to instill a renewed faith and unity in the membership through a strong contract.

Paula Mastrangelo

Paula Mastrangelo, AFA Senior Staff Negotiator, was the bargaining representative and chief spokesperson for AFA at Alaska Airlines in the 1990s.  She resumed that role after taking time off, and has been involved in negotiating contracts with Alaska, including the current agreement.  She has started her career with the F.A.S.T. division of the AFL-CIO and has negotiated many international union agreements.

The Joint Negotiating Committee works to obtain interim safeguards including a fence agreement with management (which maintains separate Inflight operations for a specified period of time) and merge the collective bargaining agreement(s) and/or respective work rules into a collective bargaining agreement for the combined airline. Additional information about the JNC can be found at http://afaalaska.org/merger/jnc.

Current news from AFA Alaska about the Alaska Airlines/Virgin America merger can be found at http://afaalaska.org/merger.

In Solidarity,

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

Your Joint Negotiating Committee – MEC President Jeffrey Peterson, Jennifer Wise MacColl, Lindsey Steele and AFA Senior Staff Negotiator Paula Mastrangelo