Your AFA Dues 2015: Funding Our Flight Attendant Priorities

June 15, 2015 05:00

Note from your Master Executive Council (MEC): This document was prepared by the AFA International office as a resource for flight attendants and is available on the AFA Board of Directors website here as well as on the AFA Alaska website here.

Your AFA Dues 2015: Funding Our Flight Attendant Priorities

As union members, our power comes from two sources:

1) an informed, active membership speaking as one; and

2) all of us contributing dues to resource our priorities.

Member dues maintain the essential programs and services that AFA members rely on every day. Everyone hears about negotiations, contract grievances and due process with job security, but your union dues support so much more – especially since our union is the leading voice on safety, health and security in the cabin.

AFA leaders examine every budget to ensure we can maximize the value of our dues. We are AFA – the dues are simply one way that we all chip in and collectively contribute to defend and advance our careers.

The method established within our Constitution and Bylaws (C&B) ensures that the dues structure is reviewed annually. Prior to the start of each fiscal year, we take a snapshot of the dues average of all CWA members, including AFA, to determine the dues rate for the future budget year. This dues realignment, referred to as the ‘CWA dues average,’ is a part of our Merger Agreement, which was approved by a full AFA membership vote in 2003. Dues may be increased above this dues average in order to support the priorities of AFA members, but through careful review and respectful consideration AFA leaders were able to hold dues to this average dues rate.

AFA is committed to maintaining a sound financial base to support activities that benefit Flight Attendants. Our dues rates are still among the lowest in aviation. Mergers have resulted in AirTran and US Airways AFA members (approximately 20% of our membership) no longer contributing to our collective resources. Despite this resource challenge, locally elected Flight Attendant leaders who form the AFA-CWA Board of Directors successfully adopted a budget to keep that vast majority of our budgets exactly the same. The only change made to budgeting was a restructuring of the number of AFA staff, which reduced the budget maintained by our International Office.

Local, MEC, Negotiations and System Board budgets will remain the same – which maintains our democratic member-driven organization by pushing the $2 monthly dues increase to the budgets that directly fund representation at a local level. Meanwhile, AFA utilized an Early Out option to restructure our professional staff ranks. Although fewer staff remain, we were able to maintain strong AFA Departments of attorneys, professional negotiators, safety, health and security experts, AFA EAP mental health professionals, Government Affairs specialists, Membership Services/Accounting and we are in process of redesigning Communications with new, combined positions.

We were also able to maintain all of the affiliations that keep our voice strong through coordination with other aviation unions, the AFL-CIO resources and national structure as well as coordination with transport unions around the world. This maintains our standing in legislative or policy discussions in Washington, DC and around the world – critically important perhaps more than ever as globalization presents serious threats to our jobs, as well as opportunities if we continue to exercise our voice effectively through our world-wide networks. (See the 2015 International President’s Report for a review of some of this work)

Dues have held relatively steady, increasing just three times over the past 22 years. Beginning in June of this year, our dues will change to $50 per month in accordance with our Constitution and Bylaws. When you consider the voice we have through our union, and all of the work we must do to advance and defend our careers – we are putting our dues dollars to good work. Our collective action, organized through our union and funded by our collective contributions, is what really makes the difference. We are all AFA and we encourage all Flight Attendants to join and stand with us: “We are Stronger Together, Better Together.”

Dues Dollars Help Provide:

A legally binding negotiated contract.
Due process to defend our jobs and grievance procedures.
Professional negotiators and labor attorneys.
Expert safety, health, and security advocates for your protection.
A strong voice on Capitol Hill.
An award-winning AFA Employee Assistance Program.
Strength in numbers as a member of a democratic, member-driven organization
Flight Attendant focused advocacy.

We are AFA – our dues are simply one way that we all chip in and collectively contribute to defend and advance our careers.

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Gesch, Becky Strachan, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Sandra Morrow and Stephen Couckuyt

2015 – AFA Dues – Funding Our Flight Attendant Priorities

New Open Time Trading System Implementation Delay

June 13, 2015 17:00

Just when you thought implementation of the new contract was going (relatively) smoothly…

According to the Contract Implementation Schedule, Open Time was scheduled for implementation in July for the August bid month. Unfortunately, AFA received notice from management yesterday that implementation of the new Open Time trading system will be delayed at least one month.

You may access an electronic copy of the notice (that lists all the technical reasons for the delay) here.

Reasons why it is taking so long

AFA has participated in almost all of the implementation meetings and updates and we can assure you that management and Jeppesen (the provider of Maestro and eMaestro) have been working on updating the crew tracking and trading system ever since the contract ratified. There are several reasons why it is taking so long to reprogram the system:

Alaska will begin transitioning to a new crew tracking system later next year but until then we have to manage to get along with our current system.

Maestro/eMaestro is antiquated and fragile. All parties are being cautious with any changes because there is concern that significant new programming will destabilize the system enough to completely crash it. For those of you who have been around long enough, can you imagine having to go back to email trades? Not good!

There are very few programmers left at Jeppesen who even work with the underlying framework of Maestro/eMaestro. Only two carriers use this system (one being Alaska). That means there are limited resources that can be allocated to reprogramming.

AFA and management believe it is prudent to wait another month

Alaska Airlines management and AFA do not want to go live with a new Open Time trading system that has the possibility of crashing not only Open Time but also electronic trip trading in general. Although this is a disappointing development, we want the new Open Time system to be a success. Therefore AFA and management believe it is prudent to wait another month in order to provide more time to properly debug the system. As a reminder, the trial period of the new Open Time trading system begins once the system is actually implemented.

* * *

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Gesch, Becky Strachan, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Sandra Morrow, Stephen Couckuyt; and MEC Scheduling chairperson Jake Jones

6.12.15 OT Delay letter to AFA

Where is the Printed Contract?

June 12, 2015 17:00

What is taking so darned long?

AFA is still working as quickly as possible with management to finalize the contract in preparation for publication. So what is taking so darned long?

This is the first negotiations to revise and clean up the contract basically cover to cover since 1994

One challenge is that although there have been several rounds of negotiations since we inherited our contract from Southwest Airlines in 1994, this is the first negotiations to revise and clean up the entire contract basically cover to cover. Based on the negotiations surveys and input from your Negotiating Committees and the Master Executive Council (MEC) leadership, this round of negotiations was mandated to include more “heavy maintenance” than in the past.

The Alaska Airlines management and AFA negotiating committees did their absolute best to meet this mandate prior to publication of the Tentative Agreement. However, the reality is that once the TA2 document went “live” as a working contract the parties found several passages that deserved clarification. Our thought process is that we all have to live with this document for at least another four and a half years, so it’s important we get the printed contract just right in order to maximize readability.

Limited management resources due to Beyond Service Experience

Another challenge is limited management resources due to Beyond Service Experience (BSE). Although BSE is technically unrelated to contract cleanup work, Inflight management is fully immersed in BSE in addition to running the airline. Consequently, scheduling adequate time for cleanup work has been a challenge for the past several months. This isn’t a criticism of BSE but we’re simply explaining the reality of limited time with Inflight management due to BSE. Regardless of BSE, both parties are highly motivated to complete the contract document.

Dispute over the Quarterly Productivity Premium

A third challenge is the dispute over the Quarterly Productivity Premium (QPP). AFA communicated to you about this issue in the “Quarterly Productivity Premium (QPP) Update – April 24, 2015.” In addition to the original issue with QPP there have been some other tangential disputes related to QPP that have arisen since that communication. However, both parties have been working very hard to resolve QPP outside of the arbitration process. Please be assured your MEC will be fully briefed on any terms and will decide how to proceed. Ideally the parties would like to incorporate any modifications to QPP into the final print version, so we’re holding off on finalizing the contract document for just a little longer to see how QPP plays out.

Stranded Pay in Section 21.N

The final challenge is Stranded Pay in Section 21.N. Frankly, the parties ran out of time to deal with Stranded Pay at what became our final negotiating session in Chicago. As a reminder, the parties were under significant pressure from the National Mediation Board (NMB) to reach a deal in Chicago “or else.” (What the “or else” meant in our minds was the very real possibility of no more mediation sessions for quite some time.) With the addition of all the new Minimum Pay Rules, what was already very complicated in Stranded Pay under the old contract became even more complicated. Not only that but there is significant grievance history on Stranded Pay. Both parties believe modified language to 21.N is warranted so that everybody understands how Stranded Pay works.

The good news…

The good news is that we really are very, very close to moving to the next steps in the process. Those steps would include a final walkthrough with the MEC for approval and then the document would be indexed. At that point the final document would be sent off the printer for publication and the electronic version would be made immediately available on the AFA Alaska website as well on the Inflight Mobile Device.

Typical turnaround time for a published contract is somewhere between three months to over a year

As a reminder, the Master Executive Council (MEC) asked AFA International how long it typically takes to publish a contract following ratification and were informed that we’re well within the ballpark: ranging between three months to over a year. We’re still doing our absolute best to minimize the turnaround!

* * *

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Gesch, Becky Strachan, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Sandra Morrow and Stephen Couckuyt

Website for the Board of Directors meeting

June 12, 2015 05:00

The AFA International office is in the process of documenting the actions and decisions taken at this year’s Board of Directors (BOD) meeting.

While not complete, some of the key documents from the BOD are now online. Please feel free to go to the BOD website (http://afa-bod.org/) where you will find the International president’s report, remarks of the three International officers, a listing of all agenda Items, a listing of all resolutions, and information about how AFA uses dues money to fund Flight Attendant priorities (“Your AFA Dues: Funding Our Flight Attendant Priorities”)*.

AFA will have other items to post to the BOD website in the coming weeks. This includes items such as a dues pie chart and accompanying text (“Where Do My Dues Go?”)*, BOD awards (text and photo for each), videos & photos (delegates & staff), speakers bios, and links to organizations (e.g. Airline Ambassadors, TTD, UniteHERE, RAFA, CWA, etc.).

*The Master Executive Council (MEC) will be publishing this information over the next few days.

We hope you find this information useful. If you have any questions, contact your Local Executive Council (LEC) officers.

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Gesch, Becky Strachan, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Sandra Morrow and Stephen Couckuyt

“Shoegate” Update – June 11, 2015

June 11, 2015 18:00

What is going on with “Shoegate”?

In a recent bulletin, Inflight management announced a new manual revision is at the printers and will be distributed June 17^thalong with several Emergency Interim Bulletins (EIBs) that are forthcoming in the next few weeks. The Master Executive Council (MEC) anticipates that one of the EIBs will contain new language in regards to the Company uniform and appearance standards. AFA has been working with Inflight management to develop a new policy that is acceptable to both parties but unfortunately we were not able to fully reach agreement.

Consequently AFA will almost certainly be filing one or more grievances based on the final language of the impending manual revision. The MEC knows everybody is very frustrated with the developments over the past several months and we will provide another update once the grievance(s) has been filed.

In solidarity,

Your MEC—Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Gesch, Becky Strachan, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Sandra Morrow and Stephen Couckuyt; MEC Grievance chairperson Jennifer Wise MacColl and MEC Uniform Committee chairperson Bob Moore