Dear Flight Attendants,
This past week the Master Executive Council (MEC) voted to adopt the following resolution to support the continuing efforts of contract airport workers in the Alaska Air Group to organize: AFA Alaska MEC Resolution in Support of AAG Contracted Workers.
Council 19 Seattle President Laura Masserant and MEC Government Affairs Chairperson Bev Bullock have been working with Jonathan Rosenblum, the campaign director for Working Washington, to help promote awareness of contract workers’ plight and their desire to organize throughout our system. Many of you may have one of the bag tags, “AFA Says: Make every airport job a good job” that were handed out last summer in Seattle.
From Laura: “Last summer I had the privilege to speak at a local news conference in the Sea Tac airport where I explained what I see on a daily basis as a Flight Attendant who interacts with the airport workers: broken cleaning equipment, or no equipment; stories from the men and women who fuel the planes about safety and health hazards they experience every day in their jobs; and I witness the wheel chair attendants who push and pull wheelchairs with baggage up and down the jet bridges without assistance. I also shared the stories of how the cleaners cannot call in sick for themselves or for their children for fear of losing their job.”
As union members we enjoy the right to bargain for a contract that provides a safe work environment, duty day limitations, and the ability to bargain for job protections and higher wages. Unorganized workers at many of our airports do not have these rights. This is why the MEC voted to adopt this resolution and why we will continue to support airport workers around the Alaska Air Group system.
In Solidarity,
Your MEC—Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Gesch, Becky Strachan, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Sandra Morrow and Stephen Couckuyt
