LEC President Update: May 2016 – June 2016

Dear Seattle Flight Attendants,

In an effort to communicate the work done on behalf of the Seattle Officers, we are introducing a new quarterly update. This update is designed to inform and educate the members of the work done by their elected AFA Officers. We hope you find this update to be helpful and informative.

For this first report we will begin with the month of May. The Seattle Officer group was very busy with the day-to-day work of the union in addition to multiple meetings and conferences.

The LEC President does not bid a line and spends most days in the AFA office running the council’s day-to-day* business. The Vice President, Jake Jones, is also the MEC Scheduling Chair and does not bid a line. He spends the majority of his time at the Flight Ops building between the AFA office and his desk in the scheduling department. Secretary/Treasurer, Linda Christou, bids a line and attends to AFA work during and between trips. Council Representatives, Adam Clarey and Stephanie Adams also bid lines and attend to work during and between trips. When the LEC President is in Greece the Vice President and Secretary attend meetings, if necessary, on behalf of the LEC President. Most of the work done on behalf of the LEC Officers is via emails, phone calls, and text messages.

            *Please note that each Officer, on a daily basis, can receive up to 20 emails, multiple phone calls, text messages, and visits in the AFA office from Flight Attendants with questions, comments, and concerns in addition to the meetings we attend. The LEC President can receive more than 30 emails per day from various sources.

The first week of May, Seattle grievance reps attended three meetings with members, participated in an AFA International conference call to review the upcoming BOD agenda items, and answered multiple emails/phone calls from members. Most common questions are scheduling/trading questions and medical/ worker’s compensation leave questions.

May 11-12: New Hire Graduation and Seattle base orientation. SEA Officers and SEA Reserve Chair, Carole Babcock, attend graduation and new hire orientation. One meeting attended to by a grievance rep.

May 17: AFA LEC Base Meeting.

Per the AFA Constitution and Bylaws, each council is responsible for holding two meetings per year~ with one meeting to held prior the annual AFA Board of Director’s meeting. The purpose of this meeting is to review the agenda items and seek direction from the members on how the President should place her vote on the agenda items. Please click the following link for the notes from this meeting:

http://afaalaska.org/sea/council-19-meeting-minutes-and-committee-reports

May 18: LEC President attended the Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) meeting and the MEC Scheduling Meeting.

ADR is a meeting established to review concerns with management on a variety of issues that affect Flight Attendants. The desire is to resolve the issues and alleviate filing grievances.

MEC Scheduling meeting: MEC Scheduling Chair, Jake Jones, and LEC Scheduling Chairs, Martin Vance and Rita Tillou, meet with management to discuss current concerns and address issues.

May 19: Grievance reps attended two meetings with members. LEC President attended to work in the AFA office.

May 20-26: Attended the AFA Board of Director’s Meeting in Atlanta, GA. May MEC Meeting held Saturday in Atlanta. LEC Secretary Linda Christou presented to the Board on behalf of Council 19 for her work on membership. Council Rep Adam Clarey also attended the conference.

May 30/31: LEC President attended ADR meeting and Officers followed up with members on multiple issues from ADR.

June 1: Critical Incident Response Program (CIRP). LEC Officer Linda Christou and Council Rep Adam Clarey attended the annual training with members of EAP, ASHSC, and management.

June 2: LEC President attends monthly “tie in” meeting with Director of Seattle Base Operations, Carmen Williams.

June 6: LEC President attended to work in AFA office.

June 7: SEA Scheduling Committee meeting, Grievance rep attended one meeting, and Labor Leaders* Meeting.

Members of Seattle’s scheduling committee met to discuss current issues. Ron Calvin attended part of the meeting and the committee voiced concerns over pairings, quality of life, and summer staffing.

*Labor Leaders is a quarterly meeting attended by all labor leaders at Alaska and management at Alaska.

June 8: LEC President attended to work in AFA office.

June 11-15: LEC President attends CWA President’s meeting and Legislative affairs conference in Washington DC.

June 16: LEC President attended to work in AFA office. LEC Reserve Chair attended Quarterly Reserve meeting. MEC and LEC Reserve Chair(s) meet with Kieran Whitney and his staff to discuss/address current issues.

June 17: LEC President attended Benefits meeting with Employee medical relations, leave analysts, members from Matrix Absence management, MEC Benefits Chair and MEC Grievance Committee to discuss concerns surrounding current FA leave processes.

June 20: LEC President attended to work in AFA office and grievance rep attended one meeting. Seattle Base Safety Meeting attended by LEC Secretary, Linda Christou.

June 21: LEC President attended several scheduled calls with LEC Chairs and performance supervisors concerning grievance issues.

June 22-25: LEC President out flying the line.

June 26: LEC Officers had the privilege of participating in the Seattle Pride Parade.

June 27: Grievance reps attended two meetings. LEC President (elected to the AFA International Leadership Development committee) participated in conference call for upcoming training and attended to work in AFA office.

June 29: Base Orientation attended by Council Representative Adam Clarey and SEA Reserve Chair Carole Babcock.

June 28-30: MEC Meeting. Interviewed candidates for Joint Negotiating Committee.

What is an MEC meeting?

The Master Executive Council (MEC) is comprised of the 3 appointed MEC Officers, MEC President, MEC Vice President, and MEC Secretary and the 5 elected Local Executive Council Presidents (LEC). Each month the MEC meets to address concerns, discuss current topics affecting each base and the AFA committees, and review latest updates/issues from management.

The work of the MEC is captured in the newsletters we distribute to members. You can read the latest news from the MEC at:

http://afaalaska.org

You can find Seattle’s latest news at: http://afaalaska.org/sea

Seattle Council 19 is currently looking for people to join several of the local committees. Below is a list of the available opportunities:

 

Reserve Committee

The Reserve Committee shall be responsible for monitoring all problems specific to flight attendants on reserve status.

Committee Chair: Carole Babcock

 

Government Affairs

Experience in government affairs work and/or political background is helpful, but not required. Committee members should be registered to vote. The committee will monitor and pursue legislative activities that relate to the AFA-CWA political agenda and to build positive relationships with your elected officials.

Committee Chairperson: Christel Hall

 

Hotel

Good organizational skills are required. Attend meetings and possible travel to review hotel sites. The purpose of this committee is to investigate flight attendants’ complaints about hotel facilities, and also to periodically check these facilities for any decline in quality.

Committee Chairperson: Jodi Snow

 

ISSC

This committee shall meet with management to discuss any change in service, procedures to be followed, and other pertinent matters prior to the implementation of such service. Qualifications include working knowledge of cabin service procedures and ability to attend joint union-inflight briefings.

Committee Chairperson: Linda Christou

 

Air Safety, Health and Security Committee 

This committee shall work with managment on matters pertaining to cabin and flight attendant safety and health. The safety chair shall be the primary contact with managmenet, the FAA and the Air Safety, Health and Security Department at the AFA-CWA International office. This committee should be composed of members with an interest in improving the health and safety of the flight attendant membership and the aircraft and passengers of the airline as well.

Committee Chairperson/Vice Chairperson:  Susan Lee & Steve Vincent

 

Benefits

The Benefits Committee works to educate and provide assistance to Flight Attendants in all matters involving benefits (including insurance, maternity, worker’s compensation, and leave of absence programs).

Committee Chairperson: Kathy O’Malley

 

If you are a member in good standing and are interested in applying for one of the above positions, please send your resume and/or letter of interest to Council 19 LEC President Laura Masserant at laura.masserant@afaalaska.org

Seattle Flight Attendants,

Please find the attached minutes from the May 17th LEC Base Meeting.

Also, the local committee chair reports are listed below.

AFA-CWA Council 19 Base Meeting

May 17^th 1-4

I. Call to Order: Meeting was called to order by Laura at 1:10pm

      a. Call for late agenda items – None

      b. Late agenda items – None

      c. Announcements – The merger with Virgin America and Survey Results posted

II. AFA BOD Agenda Items

14 agenda items discussed and can be found on the AFA International site

Laura and Adam led in depth discussions on all 14 agenda items. Council 19 members, in    attendance, provided excellent and direction to Laura on how she should vote at the BOD.

III. LEC Update

      A. Officer Update

      1. LEC President, Laura Masserant: It’s been busy. During time in Greece (Crete) I take phone calls, text messages, and answer emails. I am always happy to discuss my work and commute with any of the members. I am in the States through the end of June and back the middle of July through mid August.

Attending the AFA BOD in Atlanta 5/20 and returning on 5/20. Linda and Adam will also be attending. Remember that anyone can come to a BOD if in good standing.

June 12^th through 15^th Laura is attending the CWA President’s meeting and Legislative conference in Washington DC.

MEC meeting is June 28-30^th and the MEC will be interviewing for the “Merger Integration Committee.” Over 30 Seattle FA’s applied for the “Merger Committee.” This was an amazing turn out!

Council 19’s FB page is being reignited to help address scheduling questions and concerns. Make sure you follow us on Facebook: AFA Council 19 Seattle.

Grievance work has slowed down since the holidays. We have no reports of any discipline as the result of “RED FLAG” customer comments.

2. LEC VP, Jake Jones: I am extremely busy with scheduling issues, pairing building. I am in the office most of the week dealing with scheduling issues. I am not doing as many grievances as scheduling duties and pairing work along with flying takes most of my time.

3. LEC Secretary, Linda Christou: I continue my work updating the Salsa database along with membership status. Meeting and grievances have slowed down a little and I fill in for Laura, in the AFA office, when she is in Greece.

4. Committee Reports: Sent out in an update to Council and posted on our AFA webpage. 

IV. Open Time Trading Q & A

            A little history~ In 2006-2012 FAs were dumping entire schedule into OT. Ann Ardizonne discovered  how FAs were “downtrading” schedules and began started “checkerboarding” OT. A grievance was filed by AFA, which was denied by the company and went to arbitration. AFA won. However, as part of the arbitrator’s decision, several aspects of OT came into play, withholding trips,” checker boarding,” and a loss of transparency occurred.

As a result, FAs sought a different OT system during negotiations. Going back to book brings back Crew Scheduling control over Open Time, checkerboarding, loss of transparency, withhold trips and close/open the days after first 24hrs at their leisure.  But typically, days remained closed.

The negotiation committee conducted a very thorough investigation in the back to book  OpenTime system to provide something similar in nature, but ultimately different. Something FAs           were adamant to achieve.

We even conducted a survey by Hart and received feedback on how FAs used open time and trading functionality.

            Jake spent a great deal of time at the end of the meeting going over the functions and system mishaps of OT. He did a small presentation on how to trade with the codes. Council 19 members had some great questions and several ideas to help others learn the system came forward.

JCTE is up and running in October.  Unfortunately, staffing still is a problem and we are about 80

FA’s short right now and even with new classes coming online, we still will be short.

As a result of short staffing, management moved average flying up to cover reserve numbers. Staffing based off of the 3^rd quarter (high QPP flying).

V. Virgin America Q & A

FA’s asking about how the seniority would work and integration according the AFA Constitution

And By-Laws is “adjusted date of hire.” This is the task of the “integration committee.” This is  something that will be discussed at the special merger meeting at the BOD on the 25^th. More information will be forthcoming after this meeting.

Virgin is part of TWU and are without a contract, but do have TA’d sections.

VI. Budget Review

For information on the budget please contact LEC President, Laura Masserant

            Meeting adjourned at 4:20pm

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SEA Air Safety, Health and Security Committee Update

AIR QUALITY

NEW Air Quality Cards are now available in the SEA ready room.  Please pick up some for your crew the next time you check in upstairs. They are in a box by the co-mail baskets.

SPACE BINS

Stephanie Garnett and Ronda Ruderman participated in a review of the Boeing Space Bins.  As a result of their feedback Boeing has designed an assist mechanism similar to the ones on the BSI bins, which will provide some assistance.   If a bin is extra heavy 2 F/As should close together.

CARRY ON BAGGAGE

Procedures in your manual support caution in assisting with heavy bags and you are not required to lift bags.  This is still, by far, our top injury.  You can assist by finding a location and directly customer to place item, lend a hand while using proper body mechanics, and implement the “Tug Test.”

MAIN CABIN SERVICE FLOW

Steve Vincent and Stephanie Garnett participated in a Main Cabin Service Flow Workshop.

SEA BASE MEETINGS

We hold a local Seattle Base Meeting twice a year and invite six Flight Attendants.  These have been very popular and effective.  It’s a great way to provide input to the Safety Committee and become familiar with base issues.  The next meeting will be in October.  Look for the invitation in your Outlook email from Carmen Williams, SEA Base Manager.

PORT OF SEA EMPLOYEE BUS

Take care when getting on and off the bus.   If the bus is not lowered to the curb, feel free to ask the driver.

AFA WEBSITE

There is a lot of good information on our AFA CWA website.  Click on the Safety Tab! http://www.afacwa.org/safety_health_security

Interested in air safety, health and security? We have openings on this committee! Please contact Susan Lee or Steve Vincent for more information.

SEA LEC Chair, Susan Lee and SEA Vice Chair, Steven Vincent, Ronda Ruderman, Laura Masserant

Benefits Committee: Medical Leaves, Workers’ Compensation and Maternity

Our committee is always busy with helping our fellow Flight Attendants with Leave of Absences, on the job injuries, FMLA, and many more questions.  We continue to partner with Inflight, when needed, to help resolve issues.  Many calls we received are basic questions regarding our medical plan, inquires on medical leaves and the process of applying for a leave, and the differences between FMLA vs Sick Family, etc.

The medical leave handbook in available online on your Flight Attendant homepage under the FORMS tab. It’s important to review the handbook, write down your questions, and contact one of your committee members PRIOR to starting your leave.

We are seeking additional members for this important committee! Contact Kathy O’Malley for more information.

SEA LEC Benefits Chair, Kathy O’Malley

Committee members: Laura Masserant and Linda Christou.

Employee Assistance Program and Professional Standards

MEC EAP Vice Chair, Jeanne McCleave, SAN LEC Secretary, Melanie Buker, and I are working closely with management on a return to cabin drug/alcohol change in policy.  We are also working closely with Heather Healy and Skywest airlines to review other return to cabin policies.  We are hopeful to have a rough draft of the Alaska Airlines return to cabin policy by the FADAP conference in September!

The current statistics for EAP cases, system wide for Alaska, is:

2,762 cases for 2015= 88.38%, which is the highest in the industry.

SEA: 1,510 cases  = 87.10%

To register for the

6th Annual FADAP Conference:

www.fadap.org

SEA LEC EAP Chair, Lisa Haugen

Committee members: Andrea Korican, Carole Babcock, Lori Collins, Mimi Sterling, Norm Bernard, and Paula Minor

Government Affairs

 Please welcome Kris Hall as the new LEC Chair for Government Affairs! Kris has been very active on this committee since joining last fall and will fill some big shoes left by Krystle Cook~ but Kris will fill those shoes just fine! Kris has spent time with Krystle attending several Legislative affairs conferences and is fully prepared to tackle this important role.

Thank you, Krystle, for your dedication and undying energy that you have provided the committee! We wish you all the best in PDX!

The committee is working extra hard with several key pieces of legislation that directly affect Flight Attendants: FAA Reauthorization Bill, 10 hrs rest, and Deny NAI.

For more information on these important issue visit our webpage: afaalaska.org.

LEC Chair, Kris Hall

Committee members: Adam Clarey, Jennifer Wise MacColl, Steve Poynter

 Hotel Committee

DTW~ As of June 1st, FAs will start layovers. FAs will stay at the Doubletree. Nichole Turner is tasked with sharing information on food options. The hotel van will be available to transport crews to restaurants up to a 5-mile radius.

IAH~Currently 2 hotels being used:  Marriott Woodlands and the Hilton Greenspoint.

Marriott Woodlands is the long layover hotel.

Hilton Greenspoint is for layovers less than a 13hrs. The Hilton has a van that will drive within a 5 mile radius so crews can get food.

Everyone must remember that we do not have language in our contract for short or long layover hotels.

CABO~ Unfortunately, the hotel will not negotiate a lower meal cost.  Crews do receive the complimentary breakfast.

OGG~The only hotel that AFA recommends is the Marriott Wailea.

The Marriott will finish their renovations by the end of Nov’16.

AFA recommends Alaska move 10 rooms to the Maui Coast to help with room placement and Chad Koehnke agreed.

OAK~ Alaska’s new security representative, Shawn McBride, the downtown Marriott and decided the hotel is unsafe for crew. MEC Vice Chair & SEA LEC Chair, Jodi Snow, is reaching out to Shawn McBride to discus this decision with the OAK Marriott.

SLC~ FYI…new transportation: Super Shuttle.

If you are interested in the joining this committee please contact Jodi!

SEA LEC Hotel Chair, Jodi Snow

Committee members: Jimmy Alfred, Brian Palmer

Inflight Service Committee~ ISC

Please note that we have a new MEC chair for this committee, Stephanie Garnett! Stephanie’s plan is to increase inclusion with the committee members/line holders and the company.

You are going to see a lot of things happening in the next year and don’t be surprised to see your flight testing different types of service flow an equipment for our new premium service. There have been 2 workshops that both ISC members, along with Air, Safety, and Health Committee members, have participated in. They have learned a lot and have been tweaking and time testing the flow in hopes that we will offer a consistent and safe service throughout the cabin.

New POS devices should be here in July and this should help speed up our service. We are seeking a better way to address catering concerns and hoping that Lucretia can come up with some way to streamline a way to address the concerns or shortages from a particular flight in a speedy way.

Tidbits are returning~ We are seeking ideas and suggestions from our group to help streamline our service and to give a consistent experience for our customers.

Announcements are now on your IMD. It is important to get in the habit of using your IMD to make your announcements and to limit your announcements to only the required announcements.

Menus are being updated and we will soon go back to having monthly cycles of food. FC menus are being refreshed and you could possibly see a version of small plates come back in 2017.

We are seeking several flight attendants to join this important committee. Contact Linda Christou for more information!

SEA LEC Chair, Linda Christou

Committee members: Ronda Ruderman, Donnelle Porter, Rob Atterton, and Tim Roddy.

Membership

As of May 10^th we have 2012 flight attendants based in Seattle and maintain an outstanding balance of dues owed of $7500.00. If you receive an invoice from AFA International it means that you owe past dues. Your dues come out of each 20^th paycheck and it is likely you did not have enough pay to cover the deduction. Your deduction counts towards the current month (i.e. May 20^th is for dues for the month of May). If you are in Bad Standing and in a Standing 5 for more than 90 days (Section 26 C, D & E) you can be invoked by International and face termination by Alaska.

Things that could cause you to be in arrears:

1. You are on a leave and not coordinating any type of sick leave or vacation pay with your leave (according to the C&B’s you must pay your first three months of a leave if not coordinating).
2. You are on a leave and coordinating sick leave or vacation but not coordinating enough to have dues auto deducted.
3. You flew low TFP in a given month and not enough to auto deduct.

Changes of Address/Email/Phone Numbers

Access the AFA International change of address form

Access the AFA Alaska email update form

Changing your address in PeopleSoft or with the company does not automatically change your address with AFA.  To ensure that your contact information with AFA is kept up-to-date, please submit a change of address to AFA International when you make a change in PeopleSoft.

A Special Note About Email Address Changes

If you have a change to your email address, you’ll also need to submit a separate email update to AFA Alaska, as the AFA International and AFA Alaska databases are separate systems that are not linked.  Please make sure to complete both the AFA International change of address and AFA Alaska email update forms above.

Reserve Committee

We have been busy daily answering Reserve questions and helping to resolve reserve issues.  On going concerns: Interruption of 9 hr Silent Rest, 4 K flying assignments and minimum rest. As summer approaches and our Reserve Numbers increase, we will have more coaching to do for those that have not been on Reserve for sometime.

We have just welcomed 11 New Hires from Class 2016-1 and are hoping for more from Class 2016-2 on July 1!!!!!

SEA LEC Reserve Committee Chair, Carole Babcock

Committee members: Julie Pinson, Dee Murphy, Judy Dybing, Phoebe Ganthman

Scheduling Committee

The SEA scheduling committee has been busy campaigning to “Voice” flight attendants concerns to management regarding the deteriorating quality of pairings, lack of flexibility, and high line averages that have particularly plagued the SEA base over the last 3 months.  We seem to have their attention for the moment, but will press on if things don’t improve. We meet monthly with management.

We are pleased to add Denise Woodley to the scheduling committee. Denise has been an advocate for scheduling issues over the past few months and we are looking forward to her help on the committee.

Our next scheduling committee meeting will be held June 7th.

SEA LEC Scheduling Chair and Vice Chair, Martin Vance and Rita Tillou

Committee members: Rosalinda Chamberlin, Kelly Letourneau, Christina Frees, and Denise Woodley

Uniform Committee

Camp shirt

Feedback has not been positive and FAs complain the cut too full and does not breath well. Also, the shirt shows sweat stains.

Women’s dress

The new dress replaces the jewel neck dress it is not an addition.  Both can be worn but Lands Ends is no longer carrying the jewel neck dress and inventory will not be re-stocked.

Notes from Uniform working Committee Meeting 4/14 (Attended by MEC Uniform Chair, Bob Moore.)

Group Exercise

Went around the room and asked all to share how each topic (listed below) is important to their work group.

Communications

Standards

Design

Wear test

Fit Tour

Then, we broke into five groups to work on each topic as a team and then share what each group come up with.

Reviewed Goals and expectation for the working committee.

Reviewed time line for the uniform project.

Reviewed American Airlines Uniform Ambassador Program.

Would be the wear testers to promote and inform with employees updates (  I spoke with Ron and explained the expectation that AFA committee member would be used and we need projections for how many at each base if we need to add members.)

Wear test projected to begin the first quarter of 2017

SEA LEC Chair, Dean Silva Health

Committee members: Tyler Vail, Susan Knox, Timothy Christian, AnnMarie Laura, Grace Dunning, and Sala McDaniel

Stay Informed

and

Be Involved!

AFA-CWA Council 19

Base Meeting

When: Tuesday, May 17th, 2016

Where: Meeting location will be at the BEIJING ROOM on the mezzanine level (south end) of SEA-TAC Airport at the Sea-Tac Conference Center

Time: 1pm-4pm AFTER OPEN TIME!

(Parking will be validated on any floor except floor 4 in terminal)

Your AFA Officers are preparing for the annual AFA Board of Directors (BOD) meeting and we need to discuss the agenda items for the BOD and seek your input. We will be posting the agenda items for review and look forward to discussing them with you at the May 17th meeting.

Please bring all your Open Time trading questions for our scheduling experts; we will be having a Q&A regarding Open Time trading.  If you can’t attend our base meeting send us your trading questions to sea.scheduling@afaalaska.org.

We will be discussing Alaska’s acquisition of Virgin America, and share any information we have about merging together.

Agenda

I. Call meeting to order

   A. Call for late agenda items

   B. Late agenda items

   C. Announcements

II.  AFA BOD agenda items

III. LEC Update

   A. Officer Update

     1. LEC President Report

     2. LEC VP Report

     3. LEC Sec and Membership Report

     4. Committee Report

   B. Open Time Trading Q&A

   C. Virgin America Q&A

   D. Budget Review

In Solidarity,

Your Council 19 Officers

NATIONAL GROUP PROTECTION

SEATTLE BASE VISIT

MAY 2-6, 2016

SUPPLEMENTAL BENEFITS – 2016 ENROLLMENT

From May 2^nd—6^th, National Group Protection (NGP) will be in the crew lounge in Seattle to communicate the AFA supplemental benefit plans. Please look for the NGP benefit counselors during the on-site enrollment to enroll or make changes to your existing coverage. Please make an effort to come to the crew lounge during this week.

• Accident Insurance
• Critical Illness Coverage
• Whole Life Insurance

There are some benefit enhancements/upgrades this year, so please take the time to sit down with a benefit counselor and review your options. This is also an excellent time to make sure you have filed for your annual health screening benefits, which are part of the accident and critical illness benefit plans.

Forget to File Wellness benefits—-NGP CAN RETRO FILE 2 YEARS OF WELLNESS BENEFITS!

• Supplemental – these plans supplement any existing coverage
• Voluntary – members choose to participate
• Limited Underwriting – no medical or physical exams required
• Family Coverage – available with all of the plans
• Portable – members can continue coverage if they leave the company
• Payroll Deduction – premiums are paid through payroll deduction

If you have any questions regarding the upcoming enrollment, please contact National Group Protection (NGP) at 800-344-9016.