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Good Jobs Nation Rally in Washington, DC Tomorrow

#DenyNAI is all about making sure we are a “Good Jobs Nation.” The Master Executive Council (MEC) has received permission for any AFA Alaska members who are in the DC area to show up to the rally in uniform—please make sure to wear your union pin. RSVP by contacting MEC Government Affairs Chairperson Krystle Berry at krystle.berry@afaalaska.org.

 

Tomorrow, Wednesday, December 7, Bernie Sanders, Keith Ellison and Danny Glover are coming to speak at a rally in D.C. held by Good Jobs Nation. We need to raise awareness on the dangers of Norwegian Air International (NAI) every way we can, and this is the perfect opportunity. Don’t allow the Department of Transportation (DOT) to double-cross EU and US aviation workers without a fight!

TIME:

Wednesday, December 7, 2016 1000-1100 EST

LOCATION:

Freedom Plaza (Washington, DC)

13th St and Pennsylvania Ave NW

Washington, DC 20004

Join in and help protest the DOT’s decision regarding NAI!

In Solidarity,

Your MEC—Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Satterlee, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Tim Green, Brice McGee; MEC S/T-elect Linda Christou; and MEC Government Affairs Chairperson Krystle Berry

Flood Congress with Calls! It’s About Our Jobs!

December 6, 2016

Flight Attendants,

On Friday, the U.S. Department of Transportation wrongly approved a foreign air carrier permit for Norwegian Air International (NAI). The decision sets aside the labor protections that were central to the U.S.-EU Open Skies Agreement. We know. We were there! We had a seat at the table when this administration negotiated the Agreement, and now just like any labor contract, the administration needs to make good on this aviation trade deal. This is our about our jobs and our nation’s ability to move millions of people and connect with the rest of the world.

Norwegian can fly to the U.S. today. We are allies with the U.S.-based and Norwegian-based crews who fly today under U.S. and Norwegian labor law. But NAI, flagged in Ireland, sets up a ‘flag of convenience’ model in aviation—the same business model that destroyed U.S. shipping. NAI will use this ‘flag of convenience’ model to hire crews from countries with the lowest labor and safety standards, such as Malaysia or Thailand.

Watch this video to learn of about the dangers of flag of convenience.

We will not accept this. We will act. We will never stop. We will never accept abrogation of our rights.

1. Call Congress Now

Every Flight Attendant needs to call every day this week!

Connect directly to your Senate offices: 1-855-980-2338

Connect directly to your Representative’s office: 1-855-980-2306

“Hello, my name is _________ and I am a constituent. I’m a Flight Attendant calling to urge my Representative/Senator to take action to STOP Norwegian Air International from flying to the U.S. under a completely new set of rules. The DOT NAI approval opens the door to a flag of convenience model that will lead to outsourcing 300,000 U.S. aviation jobs, just like it decimated the U.S. shipping industry. This is about good U.S. aviation jobs and enforcing our trade deals.”

2. Good Jobs Nation Rally in Washington, DC – Wednesday

#DenyNAI is all about making sure we are a Good Jobs Nation – show up in uniform with your union pin and RSVP at info@afacwa.org.

This Wednesday, December 7, Bernie Sanders, Keith Ellison and Danny Glover are coming to speak at a rally in D.C. held by Good Jobs Nation. We need to raise awareness on the dangers of NAI every way we can and this is the perfect opportunity.

TIME:
Wednesday, December 7, 2016 1000-1100 EST

LOCATION:
Freedom Plaza (Washington, DC)
13th St and Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20004

Mentorship Program Update – November 2016

Inflight management has been actively pursuing a mentorship program over the past year

As many of you know, Inflight management has been actively pursuing a Flight Attendant mentorship program over the past year in order to supplement Initial Training. Management has allocated significant resources towards implementing a program—even going so far as to hiring outside consultants. Several of you have had an opportunity to help develop the mentorship program by providing feedback as participants in system-wide focus groups. The Master Executive Council (MEC) thanks all those who have supported the effort.

Mentorship program would require contractual waivers

Numerous aspects of a mentorship program—even a trial program—would require deviations from current contractual provisions. In other words, AFA and management would have to agree to contractual waivers in order to launch such a program. Although the MEC has been impressed with the developments so far, we are declining to move forward at this time. Why?

Why the MEC is declining to move forward

The MEC appreciates management’s enthusiasm for a mentorship program, but Inflight management has been too enthusiastic in its communications on the topic. Management has gone so far as to write on more than one occasion that a mentorship program will be launching in the near future—despite the fact that the MEC has not agreed to do so. The MEC lodged our objections to these communications verbally and in writing, but even so management sent out another one saying the exact same thing shortly thereafter. What are your AFA leaders to make of that?

Besides feeling that management is being overly presumptuous, the MEC cannot justify implementing a somewhat costly new program right now. In our humble opinion management has yet to adequately address a multitude of issues important to the membership: turning off all trip trading for up to 78 hours during the upcoming Jeppesen Crew Exchange cutover, on-going implementation delays for Reserve self-assignment and repositioning, serious problems with vacation bidding and vacation Open Time trading, lackluster new Inflight web site, no calendar sync external to Outlook, et cetera. When we start to see movement in the right direction from management, the MEC is willing to reconsider our position.

In Solidarity,

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

Open Time Negotiations Begin

The AFA Negotiating Committee met with management November 14-17 this week in Portland to negotiate a new Open Time system. Representing Alaska Airlines management: Vice President of Inflight Services Andy Schneider, Managing Director of Labor Relations Elizabeth Ryan, Director of Inflight Crew Scheduling Kieran Whitney, Manager of Inflight Operations Performance Mike Link and Manager of Financial Planning & Analysis Brittany Schaub. Vice President of Labor Relations Greg Mays also made a guest appearance on Monday to kick off the week.

Under §12.F.9 [Exchange of Sequences: Open Time Trial] of our contract, AFA officially cancelled the Open Time trial in July. The contract provides that once the trial is cancelled, we will go “back to book”. “Back to book” means reverting to the Open Time system used in the 2006-2010 agreement and related 2010-2012 extension as modified by the “Withholding Open Time” arbitration award. You will find the language associated with “back to book” (BTB) Open Time in BTB §12.F [Exchange of Sequences Back to Book: Open Time Trading] of your contract. A copy of the “Withholding Open Time” arbitration award is also at the back of the contract.

Management is currently working on programming the old BTB OT system in the new Crew Exchange. As soon as programming is completed, we will go back to book. This is meant as a placeholder while the parties negotiate a new Open Time system.

The difficulty in negotiating any Open Time system is that management and Flight Attendants have interests that can be challenging to harmonize. From our survey and from our own experience, we know that Flight Attendants want more flexibility—whether to fly less or more, to get certain days off, or to improve the trips on their lines. Management wants to be able to run the operation without increasing its liability for uncovered flying, and to minimize premium pay, junior assignment and the potential for flight cancellations.

The week started out very collaboratively with both parties spending many hours crafting several different conceptual proposals. However, the Negotiating Committee became disheartened on Wednesday after management proposed changes to Open Time that in our opinion would be significantly worse for Flight Attendants than either the current system or the old system. There is no value in negotiating an Open Time agreement that would be worse than “back to book,” since “back to book” will apply if no new agreement is reached.

Consequently, we left the session disappointed.

The parties agreed to meet again on December 7-8 in Seattle. In the meantime, the Negotiating Committee will continue working on possible solutions. We welcome your thoughts and feedback at negotiations@afaalaska.org.

In Solidarity,

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

December 2016 “No Junior Assignment” Pledge

Let’s face it: Staffing last December turned into an absolute mess. Consequently, the AFA Master Executive Council (MEC) and Alaska Airlines management have had multiple conversations over the past several months about how to improve the experience this December.

We are pleased to announce that management took to heart the advice of the MEC and the AFA Scheduling Committee, and the parties have agreed to the following between December 15th and December 25th (inclusive of the 15th and the 25th):

  • No junior assignment (JA) off of any trips originating between December 15th and December 25th; and
  • Inflight management employees holding an FAA Flight Attendant certificate may perform Flight Attendant duties and be part of the minimum crew in order to avoid invoking JA provisions (temporary change to CBA §3.D [Scope of Agreement: Scope]).

>>> You may view the “December 2016 No Junior Assignment Pledge Memorandum of Understanding” by clicking here. <<<

This agreement may be extended through the end of the year by mutual consent of AFA and management if all goes well.

If you haven’t seen the “2016 Holiday Staffing Message from Crew Scheduling” video, check it out here: http://bit.ly/2016CrewSchedulingHolidayPlan.

The MEC is disappointed that management failed to recognize AFA leadership’s efforts to reach the “No JA pledge,” but we are pleased to see the Scheduling Committee’s contributions mentioned in the communication. We thank management for being willing to take on additional risk in order to avoid JA around the holidays.

If you have any questions or concerns, contact one of your local AFA officers or Scheduling Committee members. Wishing you a much less stressful holiday season than last year!

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Satterlee, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Tim Green and Brice McGee; and MEC Scheduling Committee Chairperson Jake Jones

 

afa-mou-2016-11-03-december-2016-no-ja-pledge

Scheduling Committee Meeting Recap – September 2026

This message is for pre-merger Alaska Flight Attendants On Tuesday, September 29, our pre-merger Alaska AFA Scheduling Committee Chairpersons and Representatives met virtually to discuss their ongoing work to represent our Flight Attendants and push for improvements in our workplace. Representing you at the meeting were Rebekah Olds (ANC), Rita Tillou (SEA), Melodie Anderes (PDX), […]

That’s a Wrap on Government Affairs Focus Month!

As Government Affairs Committee Focus Month comes to a close, we want to sincerely thank everyone who tuned in, asked insightful questions, and shared resources throughout September. Whether you watched a quick video on the van or started a conversation about voting in the crew lounge, your engagement made a difference. We started this month […]

Human Rights & Equity Committee Meeting Recap – 3rd Quarter 2026

On Wednesday, September 23, 2026, our AFA Human Rights & Equity Committee Chairpersons met for their regular quarterly meeting to advance ongoing activism, promote workplace equity, and champion meaningful policy improvements across our workplace. Your representatives attending the meeting were Nyachan Chuar (ANC), Soon Kim (HNL), Bruni Agosto-Pinal (pmHA LAX/SEA), Aaron Miller (PDX), Erika Daniel […]

MEC Town Hall Video and Q&A Recap – September 23, 2026

Whether you joined us live or are ready to watch on your own schedule, the full recording of our September 23 MEC Town Hall is now available! Catch up on the discussions and hear directly from our MEC Officers and AFA panelists. Watch the video anytime on our AFA Alaska + Hawaiian YouTube channel using the link below. (Note: […]

Hotel Committee Meeting Recap – September 2026

In September, our Hotel Committee participated in two meetings: the standing monthly meeting with Crew Hotels on September 14, and a Quarterly Business Review (QBR) with the company’s hotel procurement vendor, API, on September 23 (pmAS) and September 24 (pmHA) in Seattle.  Representing you at these meetings were Dori Marron (ANC), Jarod McNeill (SEA pmAS), […]

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