AFA Alaska

Association of Flight Attendants-CWA Alaska Airlines Master Executive Council

Click here to report an issue to AFA
You are here: Home / Archives for Council 35 SFO

Council 35 News – November 2020

Leave a Comment

Important Dates

December 1: PING on IMD (Don’t get locked out!) 
December 2-16: Travel Open Enrollment
December 31: Q4 CBT

Due Soon!  PING required for IMD

Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) is a security process for authenticating users by requiring two methods to sign in – generally a password and another form of identification. Many already using this process to access sites such as online banking, and Alaska is now rolling it out to all employees for PeopleSoft and Office365 products.  The deadline to enroll in MFA is December 1, and employees that do not enroll by the deadline will be locked out of AS accounts.  Enrollment information will be sent to all employees via company email. 

Committee Update

Reserve:

Council 35 would like to offer a special thanks to Rachel Sebastian for her commitment to SFO the last few years as Reserve Chair.  As a resident of the Portland area, Rachel is now lucky to be based at home and has transferred to PDX.  With the new opening, Reserve Committee member Kyle Ogiela, has now volunteered for the chair position.  Welcome Kyle!
Get to know Kyle in his own words:

Kyle started his aviation career in April 2018.  He was born and raised in Las Vegas where he then went on to serve a mission and lived in Paraguay for 2 years. He then attended BYU and obtained his Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in painting while taking advantage of several remote study programs that took him throughout Europe, Tonga, and New Zealand. Following school he went to Atlanta where he went into operations management with Pest Control companies which finally culminated with him moving to Seattle in 2007. In 2018 he turned his work experience toward aviation.  When he started as an agent he quickly moved to become a coach and then a lead. He jumped on the opportunity to transition to inflight and was the 1st graduating class of 2019.  He has loved the decision to come to inflight and even more excited having the opportunity to serve.  At the end of last year he joined the reserve committee.  He jumped right in to being a reserve buddy for the newer classes. He loves the ability to dive in and find answers.  He looks forward to learn more and of course assist in any way every day.

Human Rights:

Back in June we introduced Sejal Patel as a new HR Committee member.  We are happy to report she has accepted the chair position for Council 35.  Thank you Sejal!

End-of-Year Reminders

Record Improvement:

JCBA§32.G.4 defines the year-end record improvement process for Flight Attendants. If a Flight Attendant has no more than 4 attendance points at the end of the year, s/he achieves 480 annual TFP, and the FA does not accumulate any points for the months of November and December, then her/his point balance will be brought to zero.  The manual adjustment occurs mid-January which will be reflected on FAs attendance point records.

Guest Passes

Convert your unused companion travel passes before the end of day December 31st. Passes can be ticketed for 3 months after the conversion date.  Once converted the passes can be found in FLY:
FLY>> Guest Passes>>Manage Guest Passes

How do I contact Council 35 Officers?

Using a personal email address, the preferred methods of contact are:

  • Open an Online Support Request ticket
  • Officer group email sfo@afaalaska.org (if one officer is flying /unavailable other officers can respond)
  • Individual officer emails (if information is for a specific officer)
  • Calls/text (if situation requires more urgent attention)

When contacting Council 35 officers please avoid the following methods:

  • Sending to/from alaskaair email (subject to company audits and therefore not private)
  • Officer personal Facebook/social media accounts (not actively monitored for AFA concerns)
  • Excessively lengthy texts (please use email for important information as it’s easier to respond and forward to appropriate resource-texts should be reserved for alerts to an issue that requires a timely response)

Please allow at least one business day for a response to any method of contact (email, phone, text).  

Stay healthy and safe!

In solidarity,

Melissa, Aladrian, James and Brad

Melissa Osborne, LEC President •  Melissa.osborne@afaalaska.org • 415-275-1322
Aladrian Hillmon, LEC Vice President • Aladrian.hillmon@afaalaska.org •  415-991-3791
James Ikehara, LEC Secretary •  James.ikehara@afaalaska.org  • 415-289-9011
Bradley Young, Council Representative • Bradley.young@afaalaska.org • 916-508-3503

Joint Council Membership Meeting Registration

California Membership Meeting: November 16th, 2020

The next membership meeting for Council 35 members will be Monday, November 16, 2020 at 1100 on Zoom. The purpose will be to discuss the AFA Board of Directors Meeting scheduled for November 18, 2020. This meeting will be a combined council meeting and open to all Council 35, 18 and 15 members in good standing (up-to-date on dues).  

You must register to attend.  Please review the agenda prior to the meeting.

In solidarity,

Melissa, Aladrian, James and Brad

Melissa Osborne, LEC President •  Melissa.osborne@afaalaska.org • 415-275-1322
Aladrian Hillmon, LEC Vice President • Aladrian.hillmon@afaalaska.org •  415-991-3791
James Ikehara, LEC Secretary •  James.ikehara@afaalaska.org  • 415-289-9011
Bradley Young, Council Representative • Bradley.young@afaalaska.org • 916-508-3503

Council 35 News – October 2020

Important Dates

NOW: Seasonal Boots (AFA asked and management said yes!)
October 28-November 18: Benefits Open Enrollment
October 31: Halloween (stay safe!)
November 1: Fall Back-Daylight Savings Ends 
November 16: CA Membership Meeting
December 1: AS Multi-Factor Authentication Enrollment Ends (Don’t get locked out!)

California Membership Meeting Nov 16th

The next membership meeting for Council 35 members will be Monday, November 16, 2020 at 1100 on Zoom. The purpose will be to discuss the AFA Board of Directors Meeting scheduled for November 18, 2020. This meeting will be a combined council meeting and open to all Council 35, 18 and 15 members in good standing (up-to-date on dues).  You must register to attend.  If you have any agenda items to discuss or specific questions please submit to sfo@afaalaska.org by November 9, 2020.

Trending Performance Investigations and Disciplines

CBT

Discipline for failing to complete quarterly CBTs are continue to trend.  Flight Attendants returning from leave are given 60 days to complete CBTs.  The Council 35 Grievance Committee has been successful in assisting FAs dispute discipline when evidence of technical difficulties exist.  Being busy and forgetting to complete the CBT has not been accepted as extenuating circumstances to miss a CBT deadline and the discipline will remain.  If more than one CBT deadline is missed, discipline will progress to higher steps on the discipline scale (ie 2 missed CBTs in 18 month period will escalate to a Written Warning).

Reserve Violations

Reserves that spend their reserve days out-of-base or not remaining within airport during airport standby continue to be investigated.  Violations of the reserve proximity requirements will result in termination on the first offense.  Please see JCBA§11 for rules regarding reserve availability periods.

Qualifying for FMLA after Staffing and Furlough Mitigations Leaves

To qualify for FMLA, FAs need to work 504 hours within a rolling 12 month period.  With so many FAs taking leaves this year, qualifying for FMLA is a struggle for many.  AFA approached management to request a waiver or exemption to qualifying hours.  Management declined to change required hours to remain consistent with other work groups in the company.  This means that if an FA doesn’t qualify for FMLA, the intermittent leave option will not be available.   Continuous leaves will be offered through Matrix as a (non-FMLA) medical leave.

MFA for AS Accounts

Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) is a security process for authenticating users by requiring two methods to sign in – generally a password and another form of identification. Many already using this process to access sites such as online banking, and Alaska is now rolling it out to all employees for PeopleSoft and Office365 products.  The deadline to enroll in MFA is December 1, and employees that do not enroll by the deadline will be locked out of AS accounts.  Enrollment information will be sent to all employees via company email.

IT support staff will be in the SFO Village to offer assistance during the following dates and times:

  • November 3: 0630-1500
  • November 4: 0630-1500

Increases to High-Deductible Health Insurance Plan

Your Council 35 Officers have fielded many questions regarding increases in the consumer choice health insurance plan.  The JCBA §23.A.3 defines the option: “The Company will offer a high-deductible group-insurance plan. Flight Attendants will pay no more than any other work group to participate in the plan.” The regular PPO is limited to a 15% increase over current rates in §23.A.1 and did not increase for 2021. The PPO rates are frozen at the 2019 rates per JCBA§23.A.2 

Committee Update:  Benefits and Retirement

Council 35 is happy to welcome a new volunteer for our members.  Caleb Leo is our new SFO Benefits and Retirement Chair!  As we welcome Caleb we would also like to extend a special thank you to Majo Tanco, LAX Benefits Committee member, for filling in during the last few months and helping SFO members during the COVID-19 crisis. Get to know Caleb, in his own words:

Caleb started his airline career with Virgin America in 2011. He soon learned that many Federal and State employee protection laws that he had always taken for granted no longer applied to him, because airline crew are governed by the Railway Labor Act (RLA) of 1926. The RLA only affords airline workers one federally guaranteed right, the right to band together and bargain collectively with the air carrier.  After suffering scheduling and pay abuses that previous employers, like Verizon Wireless and Apple, could never have gotten away with, Caleb joined other like-minded Flight Attendants and became a union activist and organizer. Together, after a contentious battle, they successfully voted in a union. Now at Alaska Airlines, Caleb is still passionate about fair treatment and workers’ rights. Workers’ rights are human rights.

How do I contact Council 35 Officers?

Using a personal email address, the preferred methods of contact are:

Open an Online Support Request ticket
Officer group email sfo@afaalaska.org (if one officer is flying /unavailable other officers can respond)
Individual officer emails (if information is for a specific officer)
Calls/text (if situation requires more urgent attention)

When contacting Council 35 officers please avoid the following methods:

Sending to/from alaskaair email (subject to company audits and therefore not private)
Officer personal Facebook/social media accounts (not actively monitored for AFA concerns)
Excessively lengthy texts (please use email for important information as it’s easier to respond and forward to appropriate resource-texts should be reserved for alerts to an issue that requires a timely response)

Please allow at least one business day for a response to any method of contact (email, phone, text).  

In solidarity,

Melissa, Aladrian, James and Brad

Melissa Osborne, LEC President •  Melissa.osborne@afaalaska.org • 415-275-1322
Aladrian Hillmon, LEC Vice President • Aladrian.hillmon@afaalaska.org •  415-991-3791
James Ikehara, LEC Secretary •  James.ikehara@afaalaska.org  • 415-289-9011
Bradley Young, Council Representative • Bradley.young@afaalaska.org • 916-508-3503

California Councils Joint Membership Meeting November 16, 2020

Board of Directors Membership Meeting

The next membership meeting for members will be Monday, November 16, 2020 at 1100 on Zoom. The purpose will be to discuss the AFA Board of Directors Meeting scheduled for November 18, 2020.  This meeting will be a combined council meeting and open to all Council 35, 18 and 15 members in good standing (up-to-date on dues).  

Agenda, time and registration details will be sent in a separate communication. 

We look forward to seeing you there!

-Your AFA Alaska California Council Officers-

  • Melissa, Aladrian, James and Brad (SFO@afaalaska.org)
  • Tim, Kelese, Martin and Bryan (LAX@afaalaska.org)
  • Brice, Melanie and JR (SAN@afaalaska.org)

Council 35 News – September 2020

Important Dates

  • September 30 (Today!): Q3 CBT
  • October 2:  SFO Benefits Meeting 
  • October 2-16: Vacation Bidding Round 2

Reminder: SFO Benefits Meeting October 2

The SFO International Benefits Center, in conjunction with United Council 11 and Alaska Council 35, is sponsoring an online and phone session for Flight Attendants that have been impacted by the effects of COVID-19. Topics to be discussed include unemployment benefits, health care, job placement services and community resources.

To sign up for the next session on Friday, October 2nd, this link will take you to the online form. If you have specific questions you would like addressed, please ensure you complete the last item on the form. Should you need to contact SFO’s Business Center directly, they can be reached at 650-821-5242, or via email.A comprehensive brochure published by the SFO Benefits and Career Center which will help answer questions about the variety of services available. 

CWA Database Crash:  A message from AFA International

During this past week, the database at the AFA Membership Services Department experienced a significant technical disruption. While we are able to extract some member data, the problem limits our ability to access detailed information regarding your account. For example, if you need to pay outstanding dues, we are able to tell you the outstanding balance, but not the applicable month it covers. You would then be able to make payment by check or credit card (afacwa.org/payment).

If you have questions, you will find much information online (afacwa.org/membership).  If you need to contact us, please use the following link: https://www.afacwa.org/contact_membership_services.

In advance, we thank you for your patience as all responses will be delayed as we perform the necessary changes to our database. If your question requires research into your membership account, we anticipate the response may be no sooner than November 1.

Trending Performance Investigations and Disciplines

CBT

Discipline for failing to complete quarterly CBTs are continue to trend.  Flight Attendants returning from leave are given 60 days to complete CBTs.  The Council 35 Grievance Committee has been successful in assisting FAs dispute discipline when evidence of technical difficulties exist.  Being busy and forgetting to complete the CBT has not been accepted as extenuating circumstances to miss a CBT deadline and the discipline will remain.  If more than one CBT deadline is missed, discipline will progress to higher steps on the discipline scale (ie 2 missed CBTs in 18 month period will escalate to a Written Warning).

Reserve Violations

Reserves that spend their reserve days out-of-base or not remaining within airport during airport standby continue to be investigated.  Violations of the reserve proximity requirements will result in termination on the first offense.  Please see JCBA§11 for rules regarding reserve availability periods.

Farewell to EO Flight Attendants 

Council 35 officers would like to wish SFO Early Out (EO) Flight Attendants a fond farewell.  On behalf of the SFO membership we would like to thank you for your years of service and for making the decision to retire to alleviate furloughs due to COVID-19.  Best wishes to you and your family and best of luck in your next life adventure.

COVID-19 Safety Concerns Onboard

As reported in our September 9 Updates, service continues to put Flight Attendants at risk. Please continue to report any safety hazards that you experience while performing the expanded onboard service.  This could include instances of increased exposure to passengers (e.g. passenger removing their mask to speak to you, etc.) or other hazards related to service.  You can report these hazards through ReportIt! by submitting either a FAIR and/or ASAP for each flight on which they occur.  Include the terms “COVID-19″ and “service” in your narrative to ensure they are correctly categorized by management.  This data will help our AFA representatives to advocate for safe levels of service. 

#ReliefNow

Flight Attendants should continue to pressure Congress to put in place #ReliefNow. Make the calls to your state’s Representatives and Senators:

SENATE: 888-848-4824
HOUSE: 888-907-9365

Sample Script:
“Hello, I am a constituent calling to ask my Senator/Representative to save my job as an essential worker and airline employee. An overwhelming majority of Congress supports an extension to the Payroll Support Program for aviation workers to avoid massive job loss in October and also to ensure there’s no cancellation of service to small communities. We need a COVID-19 relief package with our payroll support passed TODAY. Our jobs are on the line right now and millions are hurting without this relief! Keep us connected to our jobs, paychecks, & healthcare. We are counting on you. Thank you.”

You can also find local office information by looking up your Representative and Senators at house.gov and senate.gov.  Visit the #ReliefNow page to find a mobilization event near you. 

Contacting SFO Officers

Using a personal email address, the preferred methods of contact are:

  • Open an Online Support Request ticket
  • Officer group email sfo@afaalaska.org (if one officer is flying /unavailable other officers can respond)
  • Individual officer emails (if information is for a specific officer)
  • Calls/text (if situation requires more urgent attention)

When contacting Council 35 officers please avoid the following methods:

  • Sending to/from alaskaair email (subject to company audits and therefore not private)
  • Officer personal Facebook/social media accounts (not actively monitored for AFA concerns)
  • Excessively lengthy texts (please use email for important information as it’s easier to respond and forward to appropriate resource-texts should be reserved for alerts to an issue that requires a timely response)

Please allow at least one business day for a response to any method of contact (email, phone, text).  

Stay healthy and safe!

In solidarity,

Melissa, Aladrian, James and Brad

Melissa Osborne, LEC President •  Melissa.osborne@afaalaska.org • 415-275-1322
Aladrian Hillmon, LEC Vice President • Aladrian.hillmon@afaalaska.org •  415-991-3791
James Ikehara, LEC Secretary •  James.ikehara@afaalaska.org  • 415-289-9011
Bradley Young, Council Representative • Bradley.young@afaalaska.org • 916-508-3503

Latest News

AFA Update – November 20, 2020

In This Edition Grievance Committee Update Grievance Committee Update Grievance Committee The Master Executive Council (MEC) has been very hard at work ensuring disciplinary due process and contractual compliance on your behalf.  The contract requires a minimum of 13 arbitration dates yearly to dispute discipline/termination cases and contractual issues.  Termination cases are typically prioritized in order to […]

AFA Alaska Update – November 12, 2020

AFA Alaska Update – November 12, 2020 In This Edition Annual Benefits Open Enrollment COVID-19 Pandemic Update Recurrent Training Update AFA Disaster Relief – Multiple Disasters Union Plus Holiday Giveback Annual Benefits Open Enrollment Benefits Committee Annual Benefits Open Enrollment is underway, and you have until November 18, 2020 to make changes to your benefits for […]

AFA Alaska Special Update – November 2, 2020

AFA Alaska Special Update – November 2, 2020 In this Edition Vote! The Jobs Crisis Does Not Stop for the Election Vote! Government Affairs High voter turnout by union members helps increase the power of our solidarity. Visit vote411.org/afacwa for helpful election information. Election Day is Tuesday—please vote on or before November 3rd! The Jobs Crisis Does […]

AFA Alaska Negotiations Update – October 24, 2020

AFA Alaska Negotiations Update – October 24, 2020 Master Executive Council In This Edition Recap Negotiations Delayed Until 2021 Final Full Pay Scale Increase of 2.5% Effective December 17, 2020 Contract and Negotiations Education Recap The contract is amendable in December 2021, but negotiations may start one year prior to the amendable date if notice […]

AFA Special Update – October 2, 2020

AFA Special Update – October 2, 2020 In This Edition November 2020 Staffing and Scheduling #ExtendPSP #ReliefNow November 2020 Staffing and Scheduling Master Executive Council Very time-sensitive information to report here! At AFA’s request, management has sent an email (“Base Transfers – November”) to Company email addresses, sent another email to involuntarily furloughed (IVF’d) Flight […]

Top Posts & Pages

News By Month

News By Category

Air Quality Air Safety, Health, & Security Committee (ASHSC) Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) AS/VX Merger Benefits Committee Committees Communications Committee Contract Contract 2014 Negotiations Blog Contract 2021 Council 15 SAN Council 18 LAX Council 19 SEA Council 30 ANC Council 35 SFO Council 39 PDX EAP/Professional Standards Committee Featured Government Affairs Committee Grievance Committee Hotel Committee Human Rights Committee Industry News Inflight Service Committee Inflight Training Committee JNC Blog Latest News Local Councils Master Executive Council (MEC) Mobilization Committee Negotiations Pairing Construction Preferential Bidding System (PBS) Press Releases Reserve Committee Retirement Committee Scheduling Committee Uniform Committee

Want To Stay In The Loop?

The best way to stay connected with up-to-date AFA Alaska news and information is through a subscription to AFA Alaska emails!  Click the button below to sign up.  Already a subscriber?  You can make changes to your email by clicking below!
Sign Up