[See also Healthcare Insurance: Premiums [JCBA] and Healthcare Insurance: Premiums 2 [JCBA]]

Q:     My concern is the TA clause regarding healthcare insurance premiums frozen at the 2019 rates. To my understanding, the clause has no bearing or protection regarding the $1500 the Company gives to the employee Health Savings Account (HSA) to assist with the high deductible plan. So technically the Company could rescind that amount starting in 2019 if this TA passes, and the high deductibles would be completely the responsibility of the employee. The $1500 is not a contractual item.  Currently we have protection and a cap on what our premiums can increase each year, which I believe is 20% for 2019. With this TA our premiums would be frozen at the 2019 rate, not our current 2018 rate.  If I run the numbers, it would be to my benefit to have my premiums increase even to the max of 20% verses having the Company rescind the $1500 they award to our HSA. Premiums notoriously increase each year and if our premiums are frozen, the Company’s share will increase. With that said, I don’t see the Company still giving money to help with the high deductibles. The Company will have to make up their share of increased premiums somewhere, and rescinding the $1500 would be the obvious as it is not contractual and just out of the goodness of the Company’s heart.

A:     The Company contribution to the Health Savings Account (HSA) has historically been and will remain management discretion under the TA. The Company has been providing annual financial incentives to move employees over to the high deductible plan by contributing to the HSA when employees switch to (or, depending on the year, are simply enrolled in) the high deductible plan. The year-on-year cap is 15%, so the 2019 healthcare insurance rates cannot increase more than 15% from 2018 (not 20% as indicated in the question). Additionally, the Flight Attendant cost share cannot be more than 20% of the actual cost to the Company. If management were to eliminate the HSA contribution, it would have to do that for all employees. This in turn would disincent employees from switching to (or remaining on) the high deductible plan, which is the exact opposite of management’s goal to migrate as many employees as possible from the higher cost PPO to the lower cost high deductible plan.

Q:     My crew today is all convinced that L-VX FAs will not receive L-AS work rules if the TA is ratified. Each of us is reading it differently. Is it just the money? Or will L-VX FAs get the L-AS contract?

A:     If the TA is ratified, L-VX FAs will start receiving the equivalent of L-AS pay on many of the L-AS contractual pay provisions (converted from TFP to block-hours until L-VX is transitioned fully to TFP). If the TA is ratified, L-VX FAs will also receive many of the L-AS contractual provisions starting at Date of Ratification. However, many of the L-AS scheduling-related work rules will not become effective until Full Implementation, which is currently expected in March 2019. Although the JNC pushed hard for L-AS contractual work rules to be implemented earlier, that is not possible due to programming limitation in Sabre (VX) and JCTE (AS) as well as staffing constraints on the VX partition.  Details regarding the timing of JCBA implementation for L-VX FAs is in the L-VX Implementation Timetable LOA TA.

Q:     If the TA is not passed, will L-AS FAs still experience aircraft differences training this year? Also…the differences training is mentioned many times in the blog as taking place this summer and fall. As summer is approaching (our next bid month is May!), do you have any information as to who will be scheduled and when? Will we have much notice as to when our training will be? If we have recurrent in June, for example, will it be incorporated with differences training? Or will it remain separate?

A:     Transition training (i.e. aircraft differences training) within both partitions will go forward regardless of the status of the TA. All Flight Attendants who are medically able to attend training are required to do so. The ‘live’ portion of differences training (there is also some computer based training) will be two days completely separate from Recurrent Training. The training is anticipated between July and November, with bidding for the training in late April to early May. More information can be found in the Airbus Transition Training LOA. The MEC is also planning a standalone communication to address differences training.

Q:     I can’t seem to find the part in the TA about getting retro pay for L-AS Flight Attendants back to January 2018. Is that true, and if it is, will L-AS FAs be getting the on the April 20th paycheck if the TA passes?

A:     Retro pay for L-AS FAs to January 1, 2018, is located in the L-AS FA Transition Agreement 2018 (located on the Merger TA & Info page) under “JCBA Implementation Schedule.” If the TA is ratified, L-AS retro pay is anticipated on the May 20th paycheck.

Q:     I was trying to find the VX Playbook 2017 revision that is listed on the “L-VX FA Transition Agreement 2018 TA”. It is not on Alaska’s World, in Goodreader on the IMD, or on VX Connect (the 2014 version is the most recent on VX Connect). I believe it used to be accessible through Alaska’s World for Teammates (the VX employee version). Where can I access it now or has it been replaced by the AS “Our People Policy”?

A:     The VX Interim Playbook 2017 has been pulled down by management in several locations because it was replaced by the AS “Our People Policy.” That version can still (as of 3.12.2018 @ 5pm PT) be found on Alaskasworld “Virgin America teammate playbook gets a new home” (September 27, 2017) or directly accessed here (login required).

The relevant language is as follows:

Personal Days (rev. Mar. 2010)

Personal days or personal time are paid hours off to be used at your discretion, with prior team leader approval per your team’s work rules. Personal days are accrued each pay period starting on your hire date, while you are in active, paid status. All regular full-time, non-crew Teammates accrue two eight-hour personal days each year of employment, or 16 hours of paid personal time. Regular part-time non-crew Teammates who work at least 18.5 hours per week will accrue two four-hour personal days per year of employment, or eight hours of paid personal time. Crewmember personal day entitlements are set forth in the work rules for those departments.

The maximum number of personal days that you are able to accrue is capped at 1.5 times the regular rate of accrual.

Non-exempt, non-crew Teammates may use personal days in one-hour increments. Exempt, non-crew Teammates may use personal days in full or one-half day increments. For example, a HQ exempt Teammate who works a standard workweek may take a one-half day off by utilizing four hours of personal days time.

Some examples of what personal days can be used for are holidays that are not designated company holidays for your department, time out of the office for regular doctor or dentist appointments, to supplement sick or vacation time, or for any personal matter. “

In the event that you leave Virgin America, you will be paid for all accrued and unused personal days through your date of separation.

[See also Productivity Premium Program (PPP) [JCBA]]

Q:     I have a question about the new PPP program set to replace the QPP program under the TA. Specifically, I’m concerned about the ability to pick up extra flying since every FA who wants the productivity bonus will need to pick up 5 TFP per month.  It seems like this will make it very difficult, if not impossible, to find any trips either in open time or FA/FA. This is even more troubling given the fact that our awarded monthly lines of flying are continually being built to lower and lower TFP per month.

A:      Average line awards are low at currently because L-AS is temporarily overstaffed in anticipation of aircraft differences training starting in a few months and the summer staffing needs. That situation will not be a permanent condition. A majority of Flight Attendants will benefit from the PPP because unpaid and paid vacation (including Longevity PTO) will count towards achieving the PPP, whereas vacation does not count towards achieving QPP. However, the requirement to fly 5.0 TFP  over one’s PBS bid award equivalent for the monthly blocks and 40.0 TFP over the 8-month block is a requirement of the provision for your consideration under the TA.

It is important to note that a “transitional only” agreement would have needed to be ratified by a majority of the entire membership (L-VX and L-AS). The JNC and the MEC were concerned that a “transitional only” agreement would have been challenging to ratify because the current 2014-2019 agreement ratified by only a 10% margin (55% to 45%) on the L-AS side. Based on membership feedback from the Merger Negotiations survey, we concluded that it would have been questionable to put out the same agreement for ratification and expect a groundswell of support if that agreement did not contain improvements.

Q:     What would the integration look like if AFA had not sought improvements to the current CBA for L-AS FAs? In other words, where would L-VX stand with pay and work rules, and how long would it have taken to get them under our contract had the JNC negotiated a transitional agreement (that presumably would have taken less time to negotiate)?

A:     It is likely that L-VX would have been brought up to the current Alaska pay rates (that would not include the additional 4.5% increase in the TA), but it is not possible to say with certainty when those pay rates would have been effective. There would have been no impact to L-VX work rules because the March 2019 target date for Full Implementation is based on aircraft differences training (to be completed by year’s end 2018) and Sabre (L-VX) and JCTE (L-AS) programming constraints. In other words, a “transitional only” agreement would still have the same March 2019 target date for Full Implementation (i.e. transition from work rules to the L-AS contractual provisions). However, a “transitional only” agreement would not have included the additional pay increase, 401(k) match, extra holiday, change from QPP to PPP, no 1/12th reduction for vacation accrual, 4 year medical leave duration, etc., that are contained in this TA.

Q:     I see a lot of FAs asking, “Why couldn’t L-VX just be brought up to the L-AS pay scale and work rules immediately without negotiation?” Admittedly I know there is a process, but I am not completely familiar with the why and why nots. Could AFA please address this particular question?

A:     Management could have brought up L-VX to the L-AS pay scale immediately, and AFA would have agreed to that approach. AFA and management agreed to interim pay rate increases in April 2017 shortly after AFA was certified by the National Mediation Board as the representing union for L-VX FAs, but management would not agree to additional increases in order to maintain some bargaining leverage (as was explained in the JNC blog “Representation and Pay Rate Disparity [VX]” post). Realistically, achieving full L-AS contractual work rules would not have happened any earlier than under the Merger TA because of programming constraints in Sabre and JCTE. Even in a “transitional only” contract, there are many provisions that still would have needed to be negotiated in order to bring L-VX on the L-AS contract, such as sick leave, Attendance Policy, uniform allotment, et cetera, and the related implementation timelines for those transitional provisions.

Q:     Page 3 of the Summary of the VX Transition Agreement states “All 480 provisions will NOT affect L-VX FAs until the calendar year 2021. The qualification year will be 2020.”  On page 2 under “Ability to Trade Trips Below 70 hours” it states “at full integration (targeted for March 2019) VX FAs may trade down to -0-.”  So are the L-VX FAs held to the same 480 rules that L-AS FAs are for the year 2019 and 2020?

A:     The 480 provisions will not affect L-VX Flight Attendants until the calendar year 2021 (with flying in 2020 for qualification). L-VX Flight Attendants will not be flying and working under the JCBA until Full Integration (targeted for March 2019), so L-VX FAs will not have a full calendar year under the JCBA provisions until 2020. Keep in mind that until DOR (April 3, 2018), L-VX Flight Attendants are working under current L-VX work rules, which specify that they cannot drop below 70 block hours per month. After DOR and until Full Integration, L-VX FAs can trade down to 50–but only to another Flight Attendant. That means all L-VX FAs are subject a 70 block hour monthly minimum (50 block hour monthly minimum if traded to another FA after DOR), so all L-VX Flight Attendants will fly well over 480 for 2018 and a long ways toward the 480 up to Full Integration in 2019. Once again, L-VX FAs will be subject to the 480 provisions the very first year after they have a full calendar year of activity as an Alaska Airlines Flight Attendant (i.e. accruing 480 qualifications in 2020 for application in 2021).

Q:     If this TA goes through, will those of us who still have our Stuff Happens Pass (SHP) be able to use it through Jan 2019 or will it be immediately taken away? I understand we will no longer accrue a new one once it is used this year, but will we still have the ability to use the one we have right now in the event the TA passes?

A:     The Stuff Happens Pass is scheduled to sunset per the VX Commuter Policy LOA, this is found in Paragraph H. “Stuff Happens Pass Sunset Clause”:

Stuff Happens Pass Sunset Clause: If the Commuter Policy is extended beyond the four (4) bid month trial period of October 2017 through January 2018 indicated in §G [Trial Period] above, the Stuff Happens Pass (SHP) will be sunset beginning January 31, 2018, on a go-forward basis as follows:

1.  A Flight Attendant will no longer be eligible to ‘accrue’ additional SHPs if s/he uses the SHP on or after January 30, 2017.

2.  The SHP will be fully retired for all Flight Attendants effective January 31, 2019, or whenever the last eligible Flight Attendant uses her/his remaining SHP (no later than January 30, 2019, whichever occurs first.

The sunsetting of the SHP will happen regardless of whether the TA passes or not, but the SHP will continue beyond the ratification date of April 3, 2018. L-VX FAs who still have a SHP will be able to use it through January 30, 2019. If the TA passes, the remainder of the L-VX Commuter Policy will stay in effect until full integration, which is currently scheduled for March 2019.