Dear Flight Attendants,

A short time ago, the National Mediation Board (NMB) officially notified the AFA and management negotiating teams that it has delayed our return to mediation until July by canceling the negotiations session scheduled for the week of May 12th.

Once in mediation, the NMB has control over our meeting schedule and they have the authority to decide that a mediation session should be canceled.

Do we agree with this decision?  No!  We would always be ready to meet and make progress in our quest for a new contract.  We have expressed our frustration that there is no available meeting date in June. Despite our protests, mediation will resume in late July.

Even if we wanted to meet earlier than July, AFA and management do not believe it is in the best interest of either party to proceed without the sanction of the NMB.  However, as a show of good faith management has agreed to absorb AFA’s costs resulting from the relatively last-minute cancellation.

Given that we have no choice, AFA will make good use of the downtime.  We have already established meeting dates for our own internal review of the negotiations survey.  Additionally, we will hold a joint AFA negotiations training with the Negotiating Committee and the Master Executive Council (MEC) leadership.  AFA International trainers, legal staff and department heads will also participate in the training.

While this is an unfortunate delay, we are determined to take advantage of the situation and use it to prepare for the next session and demonstrate to the NMB–and management–just how serious we are about getting back to the table and fighting for the contract that we all deserve.

Our sincere thanks to management for covering the cancellation fees.  The parties are looking forward to getting back to the table the week of July 21^st.

In solidarity,

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

Your Negotiating Committee–MEC President Jeffrey Peterson, Kristy Stratton, Lisa Pinkston, Jake Jones and Christina Frees

Dear Flight Attendants,

The online portion to the follow up AFA negotiations survey by Hart Research Associates will remain open through Sunday, May 4, 2014.  As a reminder, your AFA leadership is currently at the 42nd Annual AFA-CWA Board of Directors meeting in Orlando.  We are responding to all inquiries during breaks between meetings and thank you for your patience.

A second round of email invitations containing individualized links to the online survey were sent a short time ago by Hart Research Associates.  Check your spam/junk folder in case the invitation is there.

Important: Do not share your link with anybody or else others could take the survey on your behalf.  The email address used by Hart Research Associates for the invitations is FlightAttendantSurvey@hart-research.com.

If you have NOT received a survey or if you completed the phone survey AND received an email invitation, contact FlightAttendantSurvey@hart-research.com and request an email invitation. Provide your first and last name and your PeopleSoft number. 

(We are using PeopleSoft numbers as identifiers and did not provide Arctic numbers due to privacy and security concerns.  Your PeopleSoft number can be found on the Inflight webpage on the upper left hand corner.)

It is extremely important that your voice be heard. Make sure to complete the survey!

In solidarity,

Your MEC—Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Gesch, Becky Strachan, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn and Sandra Morrow; and

Your Negotiating Committee—MEC President Jeffrey Peterson, Kristy Stratton, Lisa Pinkston, Jake Jones, Christina Frees and AFA Senior Staff Negotiator Paula Mastrangelo

Dear Flight Attendants,

Your Master Executive Council (MEC) along with many of you are extremely frustrated with the challenges we’re experiencing regarding the email survey invitations from Hart Research Associates.  The good news is, for most who have taken the survey, we have received feedback that it is comprehensive and worthwhile.  It is extremely important to the MEC that all Flight Attendants have a reasonable opportunity to take the survey.  We have been in contact with Hart Research Associates and have jointly agreed to extend the survey.  The survey will not close until the MEC is satisfied that all Flight Attendants who wish to take the survey have had the opportunity to do so.

As a reminder, your AFA leadership is currently participating in the AFA Board of Directors (BOD) Meeting in Orlando, FL.  As part of our representational duties, the BOD meetings are scheduled from 9 AM to 9:30 PM each day through Wednesday evening.  We are working through the survey challenges as quickly as possible given the time constraints and the necessary coordination with our survey vendor Hart Research Associates.

We wish we had the answers as to why some Flight Attendants have not received their survey invitation.  Emails are being sent directly by Hart Research Associates and although an address list was provided by the MEC to Hart, the AFA email system is not being used to send the invitations.  At this time, we do not know why some people have received the invitations while others have not.

If you have not received the survey invitation and have not yet provided your contact information to survey@alaskamec.org, please do so as soon as possible.  If you have already reached out to survey@alaskamec.org, please be patient as your contact information has been forwarded to Hart Research Associates and they will be following up.  We know some of you have been waiting several days for contact.

It is important that you wait to receive your own personalized invitation to the survey as it contains a link that is unique to you.  If you use the link that is associated with another Flight Attendant’s email invitation, your response will overwrite any previous responses tied to that link.

More information will be communicated as it becomes known.  Rest assured that the survey will remain open for responses until the MEC directs Hart Research Associates is directed otherwise.

In Solidarity,

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