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        You are here: Home / Archives for Committees / Scheduling Committee

        Open Time Trial Survey Results – June 2016

        June 17, 2016 17:00

        The Open Time Trial survey for June 2016 concluded yesterday morning (June 16, 2016), and the results are now available.

         

        Survey completion information

         

        915 surveys were completed and 24 were partially completed. If a Flight Attendant submitted more than one survey, only the last submission was counted. The Master Executive Council (MEC) strongly encourages all Flight Attendants to contribute to the monthly Open Time Trial surveys.

         

        Survey overview

         

        The results continue to show a clear need to improve general understanding of the Open Time Trial and a strong dissatisfaction for the current system.

         

        Understanding of the Open Time trading codes

         

        79.7% of respondents do not understand or are still learning the Open Time trading codes (TO/DD/CP/TX/no code) and how to trade sequences in Open Time based on those codes. This is a small improvement over last month.

         

        AFA Alaska has produced an Open Time trading codes quick reference guide (see “Understanding Open Time Trading with the Codes” for additional information.)

         

        >>> Click here to view the “Open Time Trading with the Codes” quick reference guide in a Portable Document Format (pdf). <<<

         

        Understanding of the estimated time frame for making any programming changes to Open Time

         

        A very slight majority (51.2%) reported they understand the time frame involved for making any programming changes to the Open Time system.

         

        Based on membership feedback the MEC will make a determination on the future of Open Time:

         

        • Prior to making a determination, the MEC would like to gather several months of survey results and other data pursuant to AFA Alaska CBA §12.F.8.d [Exchange of Sequences: Open Time Trial] for review. The Open Time Trial is scheduled to last up to a year before a final decision has to be made—unless the Association and management mutually agree to extend the trial.

         

        • If the MEC determines to go “back to book,” reverting to the former Open Time system could take approximately one year. This is because the new JCTE crew management system would need to be reprogrammed with the rules for the former OT system. (It is currently being programmed with the new OT rules.)

         

        • If we do go “back to book,” AFA will start negotiating a new system as outlined in CBA§12.F.9 [Exchange of Sequences: Open Time Trial: Cancellation of Open Time Trial]. Implementation of a replacement OT system would likely take a minimum of nine months after reaching an agreement with management.

         

        Strong dissatisfaction with the Open Time Trial

         

        73.4% indicated they are dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the Open Time Trial. If a decision were to be made today regarding the future of the Open Time Trial, 84.3% of respondents would prefer to revert “back to book” to the old Open Time system (based on IT limitations) and begin negotiations on a new system; whereas 15.7% would prefer to keep the current system.

         

        Detailed survey results

         

        >>> Click here to view the detailed AFA Alaska Open Time Trial Survey Results for June 2016. <<<

         

        AFA Alaska will review the concerning survey results with management at our next biweekly Open Time Trial Review meeting. This month’s survey also included a comments section, and the MEC is currently in the process of reading over the feedback.

         

        In solidarity,

         

        Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Satterlee, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Sandra Morrow, Stephen Couckuyt; LEC Presidents-elect Tim Green and Brice McGee

         

        AFA Alaska Open Time Trial Survey for June 2016 Results Summary

        Filed Under: Latest News, Scheduling Committee Tagged With: 2016, Open Time, OT, ot trial, Trial

        Summer 2016 Staffing Challenges

        June 16, 2016 13:00

        The AFA Alaska Master Executive Council (MEC) has received numerous requests from Membership for us to respond to the latest communications from management regarding pairing construction and schedules (April 27 “Division Communication: Staffing & Scheduling Info” and May 7 “Division Communication: June Schedule Summary”). The MEC completely understands how upsetting these communications are to Flight Attendants. Your AFA Alaska officers and committee members have also been extremely frustrated.

         

        Management has produced a lot of statistics in the past month and a half trying to convince you that staffing levels and the pairings really aren’t that bad. Management has even made (not so?) veiled suggestions in various forums that staffing would be okay if sick leave utilization would just go down. AFA could waste a lot of words picking apart the numbers and critiquing management’s approach, but really…what’s the point?

         

        The MEC is just as done with the charts and graphs as you are, and we’re tired of Flight Attendants being blamed for using their earned sick leave, which is a negotiated benefit. It’s as simple as this: Summer staffing is a mess and the pairings really have been that bad. ‘Nuff said, right?!

         

        For those of you who want more detail, here is the “straight scoop” from AFA’s perspective:

         

        1. Management grossly overestimated the impact of the new contract on staffing requirements during the budget-planning season last year.

         

        Based on staffing projections made at that time, several classes planned for 2016 were put on hold. Consequently, management hired many less Flight Attendants than originally planned, which caused a domino effect. In constructing a staffing model for the upcoming budget year, it probably would have been more prudent for management to use a rolling average using several years of data rather than less than a full year of experience under a new contract.

         

        1. After many updates to eMaestro, Open Time programming was finally corrected early this year to the negotiated OT Trial.

         

        During this past fall and early winter, Open Time was mis-programmed with more liberal trading rules than negotiated, which led to a false sense of trading flexibility.

         

        1. Line averages started creeping up at the same time as Reserves numbers were lowered.

         

        Staffing, fairly rapidly, went from personal drops being offered on most days to Premium Open Time being offered on most days and much higher Reserve utilization. Flight Attendants became increasingly reluctant to pick up, started holding out for premium, and during this time Open Time was more restrictive than in the previous months.

         

        1. During this same period, management selected pairings solutions for several months based more on lower cost and better statistics (from their perspective) than on Flight Attendant satisfaction.

         

        To be fair, lower costs will always be a primary driver in pairing construction, but AFA strongly believes management could have been doing more to achieve both.

         

        1. In response to a grass roots letter writing campaign by Flight Attendants protesting the poor quality pairings, management wrote some communications that in AFA’s opinion were extremely “tone deaf” to our group.

         

        Flight Attendants don’t want to be told that they are being asked to work “less than one extra day” per bid month. What does that even mean, anyway? Plus, don’t provide us with statistics based on duty periods rather than calendar days. Flight Attendants bid and trade based on calendar days, and we know when numbers based on duty periods don’t match up with our everyday experiences.

         

        Finally, don’t throw the Negotiating Committee under the bus by making it seem like they signed off on more 4-day pairings in exchange for Minimum Pay Rules. Yes, the possibility was discussed that achieving MPRs could lead the pairing optimizer to construct more 4-day pairings. However, your Negotiating Committee knew Flight Attendants want it all and said as much to management: We desire more productive pairings (using our definition of “productive” not management’s) and a mix of pairing lengths that suits the needs of our diverse group.

         

        So where does this leave us?

         

        The good news is management has come to the realization that we are understaffed. Vice President of Inflight Services, Andy Schneider, recently sent out a communication and produced a video that went a long way towards taking ownership of the situation. She authorized spending a decent amount of money in order to select AFA’s one-position and three-position pairings solutions for the month of July with the hope of improving quality of life and Flight Attendant satisfaction. She also approved hiring several more classes this year.

         

        The bad news is that adding new classes now is too little, too late—at least for this summer. The flight schedule is ramping up to maximum block hours very shortly, so any additional Flight Attendants on the rosters will not significantly lower the ever-increasing line averages or reserve utilization system-wide for several months. In fact, the line averages are not expected to start coming down in any noticeable way until fall—and this is mostly likely true for reserve utilization as well.

         

        AFA will continue to advocate to management that constructing and selecting pairings solutions with a reasonable emphasis on Flight Attendant satisfaction is money well spent. The MEC is also open to exploring mutually agreeable creative solutions with management in order to improve the summer staffing challenges. Finally, your AFA leaders are actively following your feedback regarding the Open Time Trial.

         

         

        The MEC applauds Andy’s recent efforts to turn around the summer staffing challenges, and we are hopeful she will continue the trend.

         

        In Solidarity,

         

        Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Satterlee, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Sandra Morrow, Stephen Couckuyt; LEC Presidents-elect Tim Green, Brice McGee; MEC Scheduling Committee Chairperson Jake Jones and Scheduling Committee

        Filed Under: Latest News, Scheduling Committee Tagged With: 2016, Scheduling, staffing

        AFA Alaska Open Time Trial Survey June 2016

        June 14, 2016 05:00

        [Note: This is a re-issue of a Membership release that was originally distributed via email on June 10th (see http://afanewsletters.org/view/?id=194).]

         

        Pursuant to AFA Alaska Collective Bargaining Agreement §12.F.8.D.5 [Exchange of Sequences: Open Time Trial], the Master Executive Council (MEC) is conducting a monthly poll of membership regarding your satisfaction with Open Time. Your candid responses will help the MEC determine the course of the Open Time trial.

         

        It is important to focus on Open Time functionality, not the technical issues with logging into the system, when answering the questions.

         

        You must enter your Arctic number in order to take the survey. We’re asking for your Arctic number to ensure each Flight Attendant receives one vote per month and is not for tracking purposes. If a survey is submitted more than once with the same Arctic number, all responses using that Arctic number will be excluded for this month.

         

        > > > To take the AFA Alaska Open Time Trial Survey for June 2016 click here. < < <

         

        The survey will close on Thursday, June 16th at 9am Pacific Time. By popular request, the MEC has added a free form comments field at the end of the survey. The LEC presidents will review the comments.

         

        Thank you in advance for your feedback. In the interest of full transparency, the MEC will publish a summary of results once the responses have been tallied.

         

        In Solidarity,

         

        Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Satterlee, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Sandra Morrow, Stephen Couckuyt; LEC Presidents-elect Tim Green and Brice McGee

        Filed Under: Latest News, Scheduling Committee Tagged With: 2016, Open Time, OT, survey, Trial

        Understanding Open Time Trading with the Codes

        May 18, 2016 17:00

        As reflected in the Open Time Trial Survey Results for May 2016, 87.8% of respondents reported they do not understand or are still learning the Open Time trading codes (TO/DD/CP/TX/no code) and how to trade sequences in Open Time based on those codes.

         

        Open Time Trading with the Codes Quick Reference Guide

         

        Consequently, AFA Alaska has prepared a short (six page) Open Time Trading codes quick reference guide. The Master Executive Council (MEC) thanks the Council 30 Anchorage Local Executive Council (LEC) officers and Scheduling Committee chairperson for developing the guide.

         

        >>> Click here to view the “Open Time Trading with the Codes” quick reference guide in a Portable Document Format (pdf). <<<

         

        Click the following to view each page of the “Open Time Trading with the Codes” quick reference guide in picture format (jpg):

        OT Trading with the Codes 1 of 6

        OT Trading with the Codes 2 of 6

        OT Trading with the Codes 3 of 6

        OT Trading with the Codes 4 of 6

        OT Trading with the Codes 5 of 6

        OT Trading with the Codes 6 of 6

         

        If you have any questions, contact your local Scheduling Committee or Local Executive Council (LEC) officers.

         

        In Solidarity,

         

        Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Satterlee, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Sandra Morrow, Stephen Couckuyt; LEC Presidents-elect Tim Green, Brice McGee; MEC Scheduling Committee Chairperson Jake Jones

        Open Time Trading with the Codes Quick Reference Guide

         

        Filed Under: Latest News, Scheduling Committee Tagged With: 2016, Open Time, OT, Trial

        Open Time Trial Survey Results – May 2016

        May 16, 2016 22:00

        The Open Time Trial Survey for May 2016 concluded this morning (May 16, 2016), and the results are now available.

         

        Survey completion information

         

        1,055 surveys were completed and 87 were partially completed. A small number of Flight Attendants submitted more than one survey, in which case only the last submission was counted. There were also a few entries without Arctic numbers, so those were excluded; going forward the survey has been updated to disallow submissions without Arctic numbers. The Master Executive Council (MEC) encourages all Flight Attendants to contribute to future monthly Open Time Trial surveys.

         

        Survey overview

         

        The results show a clear need to improve general understanding of the Open Time Trial and a strong dissatisfaction for the current system.

         

        Understanding of the Open Time trading codes

         

        87.8% of respondents do not understand or are still learning the Open Time trading codes (TO/DD/CP/TX/no code) and how to trade sequences in Open Time based on those codes.

         

        AFA Alaska is putting the finishing touches on an Open Time trading codes quick reference guide and will publish that very soon.

         

        Understanding of the estimated time frame for making any programming changes to Open Time

         

        A majority (53.6%) reported they do not understand the time frame involved for making any programming changes to the Open Time system.

         

        Based on membership feedback the MEC will make a determination on the future of Open Time:

         

        • Prior to making a determination, the MEC would like to gather several months of survey results and other data pursuant to AFA Alaska CBA §12.F.8.d [Exchange of Sequences: Open Time Trial] for review. The Open Time Trial is scheduled to last up to a year before a final decision has to be made–unless the Association and management mutually agree to extend the trial.

         

        • If the MEC determines to go “back to book,” reverting to the former Open Time system could take approximately one year. This is because the new JCTE crew management system would need to be reprogrammed with the rules for the former OT system. (It is currently being programmed with the new OT rules.)

         

        • If we do go “back to book,” AFA will start negotiating a new system as outlined in CBA §12.F.9 [Exchange of Sequences: Open Time Trial: Cancellation of Open Time Trial]. Implementation of a replacement OT system would likely take a minimum of nine months after reaching an agreement with management.

         

        Strong dissatisfaction with the Open Time Trial

         

        76.1% indicated they are dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the Open Time Trial. If a decision were to be made today regarding the future of the Open Time Trial, 81.1% of respondents would prefer to revert “back to book” to the old Open Time system (based on IT limitations) and begin negotiations on a new system; whereas 18.9% would prefer to keep the current system.

         

        Detailed survey results

         

        >>> Click here to view the detailed AFA Alaska Open Time Trial Survey Results for May 2016. <<<

         

        AFA Alaska will review the survey results with management at our upcoming biweekly Open Time Trial Review meeting. Additionally, your MEC officers are very concerned about these statistics and will thoroughly discuss the survey results at this month’s MEC meeting; the May MEC meeting will occur this coming weekend in Atlanta prior to the annual AFA-CWA Board of Directors meeting.

         

        In solidarity,

         

        Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Satterlee, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Sandra Morrow, Stephen Couckuyt; LEC Presidents-elect Tim Green and Brice McGee

        AFA Alaska Open Time Trial Survey Results May 2016

        cropped-AFA-Alaska-Logo-Transparent-Background.png

        Filed Under: Latest News, Scheduling Committee Tagged With: 2016, Open Time, OT, Trial

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