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This message is for pre-merger Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants

This information applies to Legacy Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants who were on a maternity leave of absence any time from December 2014 to approximately December 2017.

Most, if not all affected Flight Attendants, have received an email from AFA requesting information related to their maternity leave of absence.  Based on information received from the Company and these surveys, the MEC Grievance Committee has put together documentation containing proposed restitution affected Flight Attendants may be entitled to, if any.

Affected Flight Attendants may be entitled to restitution if:

  • They were forced to maximum coordinate (use 70 TFP) when they requested minimum coordination (9 TFP); or
  • They were removed from active payroll/paid leave status which also barred them from continuing to purchase active employee rate health insurance.

If an affected Flight Attendant purchased COBRA or other outside insurance, the last day to provide full documentation is Monday, May 28, 2018.

If you are an affected Flight Attendant and are curious to what AFA determined your personal proposed restitution to be or if you have any questions, please contact MEC Grievance Committee Chairperson Stephanie Adams at stephanie.adams@afaalaska.org.

With the recent ratification of the Joint Collective Bargaining Agreement (JCBA), Legacy Virgin America Flight Attendants will begin paying AFA dues at date of ratification plus 3 months, currently targeted for July 15.

How Can I Pay My Dues?

The easiest and preferred way to pay your dues is through payroll deduction. You can sign up for automatic payroll deduction of dues by completing a Dues Check Off form.  This form can be downloaded from the AFA Alaska website or you can pick up a copy near the AFA lock boxes in the SFO and LAX villages.  Once you’ve completed the form, mail it to AFA International Membership Services (the address is on the bottom of the form) or place it in the AFA lock box and we’ll mail it in on your behalf.

Click here to download a copy of the Dues Check Off form

Please note that the Dues Check Off form is a different form than the AFA Membership Application.  Completing an AFA Membership Application does not automatically sign you up for payroll deduction of dues; you must complete the Dues Check Off form as well.  It is not possible to complete or submit the Dues Check Off form online, AFA International must have a signed paper copy to submit the request to the Company for payroll deduction.

How Much Are Dues?

Dues are currently $50 per month.  This amount is the same for all AFA Members.  AFA dues are set by the AFA Board of Directors, the voting members of which are comprised of all Local Council Presidents from all of the airlines that make up AFA.

Who Is Obligated to Pay Dues?

All Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants (including Legacy Virgin America) who have completed four full calendar months of employment are obligated to pay AFA dues.  This obligation is spelled out in section 26 of the collective bargaining agreement.

Where Do My Dues Go?

The vast majority of dues dollars are directly allocated to fund the work at each airline (Local Council, Master Executive Council, Negotiations, and System Board).  The remaining amount supports the International Office and the Government Affairs, Air Safety, EAP, and Communications Departments, each of which provides expert services that are Flight Attendant focused and provide resources for the local leaders and committees of Flight Attendants at each airlines.  100% of dues dollars are allocated to priorities that provide Flight Attendants representation.

Questions?

If you have questions about AFA dues, please email us at vx@afaalaska.org.

In Solidarity,

Your Council 35 Officers – Melissa and Jamie

The Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) has updated this implementation quick reference guide. The list below is separated into L-AS and L-VX provisions to easily distinguish the changes for each Flight Attendant group.

Pre-Merger Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants (L-AS)

Provisions Retroactive to January 1, 2018

  • New Pay Rates. Across-the-board 4.5% increase effective at DOR and retroactive to January 1, 2018. May 5th paycheck will still reflect the old pay rates due to the seniority synch-up process. New rates based on seniority dates including credit for time spent in initial training will be reflected on May 20th paycheck for April flying. Retro for January through March flying will also be paid on May 20, 2018.
  • Elimination of 1/12thvacation accrual reduction. [Section 14.A.1-2.] Any reduction s of vacation accrual under the former provision will be corrected by October 2018 in time for 2019 vacation bidding.

Provisions Effective Date of Ratification (DOR) or soon after (as noted)

  • 401(k) Match Increase. 401(k) employer match increased to 7.5%. (If you are not currently contributing at least 7.5% you should increase your contribution as soon as possible to achieve full matching!) Flight Attendants may make changes to their contribution up until May 10, 2018, to apply to their April 2018 flying, which will be paid on May 20, 2018.
  • Seniority “Sync-Up” Date.Includes credit for initial training. Will apply to pass travel, vacation accrual and bidding (no change in relative seniority). Contractual 30-day protest period ends and Integrated Seniority List (ISL) will be final on May 3, 2018.
    • New badges will be issued to all Flight Attendants
    • Will not change your RT base month
  • Bank Point Award (2 bank points). One time reduction and/or credit of two (2) total points to his/her attendance points balance. The manual process of reducing or crediting each Flight Attendant’s point total has begun. If a FA reaches any level of discipline prior to the completion of manual adjustments, s/he will have her/his two points reduction applied prior to discipline being issued.
  • Might Be Late (MBL) Grace Period. 5 minute grace period [Section 32.C & E]. Flight Attendants must call Crew Scheduling and advise of MBL prior to scheduled check in time. The duty supervisor will send a report to the FA’s performance supervisor, who will check the actual scan-in time. If scan-in is not within the 5 minute grace period, attendance points will apply.
  • Ground Commuting Provision.[Section 28.G]
  • Holiday Pay Scheduled or Actual Provision. The new provision for scheduled or actual holiday pay will be in effect for the next contractual holiday: July 4, 2018. [Section 21.H.2]
  • Holiday Pay “Show No-Go” Premium. The new provision for holiday “Show No-Go” pay will be in effect for the next contractual holiday: July 4, 2018 [Section 21.H.3]
  • Medical Leave of Absence Provision. Minimum of 4 years without company approval: immediate halt to terminations in progress under former 1-year maximum duration without company approval. [Section 15.C.2]
  • Vacation Coordination Bank. To maintain insurance while on a leave of absence. [Section 15.M.2.c]
  • $75 Parking Stipend. Inflight sent an email communication to all Flight Attendants (Ron Calvin: “New Options with FA Parking” – April 11, 2018) with a link to the sign-up form. Due to many questions about the form and the tight deadline for May, management will honor requests made after the April 15 deadline to begin the stipend in May. Please note this is a monthly option, so it can be elected at any time; however, it must be submitted by the 15thof the month prior. A link to the form will be published on the Flight Attendant webpage. A Flight Attendant needs to submit a new form only when s/he wishes to change her/his parking election. [Section 28.H.2]

Pre-Merger Virgin America Flight Attendants (L-VX)

Provisions Retroactive to January 1, 2018

  • New Pay Rates.Across-the-board pay increase effective at DOR and retroactive to January 1, 2018. New pay rates for April 2018 flying will be reflected on April 30, 2018, paychecks. Retro pay for January through March flying will be paid on May 15, 2018.
  • Greater of Scheduled or Actual Block Time.Calculated on a segment-by-segment basis beginning January 1. Programming changes are required, so management anticipates paying this retroactively on May 31.
  • Reserve Premium. Greater of Reserve Premium or $2.83/block hour flown while on reserve. This requires a software change, so management anticipates July flying will be paid on August 15, and January through June retro will also be paid on August 15.
  • Per Diem Increase. Increased to $2.50 per hour. Will be reflected on May 15 paychecks for April flying, and January through March retro will also be paid on May 15.
  • Holiday Premium (2x pay).Retroactive to include New Year’s Day and will be paid on May 15 if applicable.

Provisions Effective Date of Ratification (DOR) or soon after (as noted)

  • New Pay Rates.Red Circle provision in effect for eligible Flight Attendants.
  • Trade Below 70. Ability to trade down to 50 block hours to another Flight Attendant – please see management email for instructions on trading.
  • Reserve Minimum Day. Increased to 4.3 credit hours/day of reserve. Increase will be reflected on May 15 paychecks for April flying.
  • Reserve Premium. Greater of $100 or $2.83/block hour flown while on reserve
  • Pre-Board Pay. Twenty-six block minutes (0:26) or (0.5 TFP equivalent) when asked to pre-board a flight (does not apply to RRR). Flight Attendants must currently submit via Crew Comment field in Rainmaker. Management is working on an automated process.
  • Greater of Scheduled or Actual Block Time.Calculated on a segment-by-segment basis.
  • Full Deadhead Pay. 100% pay for deadheading, retro to 4/1/2018. Increased pay will be reflected on May 15 paychecks for April flying.
  • Show-No-Go Pay Increase. Increased to 2:39 credit hours. This is an automated pay process and is tracked on the Flight Attendant’s line by CSS.
  • Charter Pay. Increased to 2x pay. Pay will be automated and applied by CSS if charters operate.
  • Sit Pay. If “sit” in excess of 2:00 (scheduled or actual) between flights, Flight Attendants receive pay of fifty-three block minutes (0:53) (above guarantee for reserves).  “First fight of day” sit pay:  Sit pay, above, applies to the first flight if there is an actual delay in excess of 2:00 in addition to ground holding pay. This provision requires a software change, so management anticipates July flying will be paid on August 15, and January through June retro will also be paid on August 15.
  • International Pay.Increased to $1.13/block hour, applies when customs is not pre-cleared. This will be reflected on May 15 paychecks for April flying. This must be manually added to paychecks, so International Pay will not be visible in Rainmaker.
  • ITL Program Transition. Flight Attendants will begin bidding to be in the “A” pool at the end of April for June. “A” pay will start in the June bid month and will first appear on the July 15 paycheck, if applicable.
  • Premium Open Time. Increased to 1.5x pay for trips picked up. This pay is automated.
  • Operational Assignment Premium. Increased to 1.5x pay. This pay is automated.
  • Holiday Pay Premium.Increased to 2x pay; new holiday: July 4th.
  • Might Be Late (MBL) Grace Period.5 minute grace period [§32.C&E]. A Flight Attendant must call CSS and advise of MBL prior to scheduled check in. A MBL code will be placed on the schedule, and a supervisor will check the FA’s line to verify the scan-in time. If check-in is not within the 5 minute grace period, attendance points will apply.
  • Extended Maternity Leave. L-AS policy available to L-VX Flight Attendants. Any Flight Attendant who returned to work from a Maternity Leave after January 1 who would like to take Extended Maternity Leave should contact her leave analyst.
  • Base Swaps. Minimum 3-month base swapsavailable between LAX and SFO-based L-VX Flight Attendants. Notification required May 1st for swap effective June 1st.
  • Management Seniority Accrual. Supervisors/management on seniority list may not accrue seniority for longer than they have been a line Flight Attendant.

All Flight Attendants

No furlough protection for all Flight Attendants effective April 3, 2018 through December 31, 2019.

* * *

All the relevant documents describing the negotiated changes can be accessed on the Merger TA & Information Page.

In Solidarity,

Your JNC – MEC President Jeffrey Peterson, Jennifer Wise MacColl, Jamie Cogen, Lindsey Steele and AFA Senior Staff Negotiator Paula Mastrangelo

Time Sensitive Urgent Request – WA State Paid Sick Leave Law
AFA is looking for Seattle based Flight Attendants who reside in Washington State who have experienced one or more of these situations since the start of 2018.
Here are the potential situations that we’re looking for that had to occur after 1/1/2018:
  • A probationary SEAFA who had to go on Sick Leave 90-180 days post-DOH and who was not given the option to be paid accrued Sick Leave.
  • A SEAFA who wanted to use Sick Leave for preventive (or preventative) care but obviously was not afforded the opportunity to do so.
  • A SEAFA who was given Attendance Points for using Sick Leave.

If this has happened to you, please email Grievance Chair, Stephanie Adams at  Stephanie.Adams@afaalaska.org within the next 24 hours. Please provide your Name, Hire Date, People Soft, and the Date of Occurrence.

Thanks for your patience as the Seniority Merger Integration Committee (SMIC) collected and compiled responses to your most frequently asked questions (FAQ).  We have posted a document with these questions and answers.

You can find the link to the FAQ document in the email version of this article.  Please check your personal email for a message from the AFA Alaska Seniority Merger Integration Committee containing the link to the FAQ document.  If you did not receive the email, please contact your Local Council Officers.

The questions included in this FAQ are:

  1. Where can if find the merged seniority list?
  2. How was the seniority list integrated?
  3. How was the seniority list integrated with the classes that had the same seniority date for both L-AS and L-VX? (same-day tie-breakers)
  4. Did everyone keep their relative seniority?
  5. How did the SMIC determine the initial training credit for the L-AS FAs?
  6. Did Jet America Flight Attendants get training credit when they merged with Alaska?
  7. What if I believe my seniority information is incorrect on the new list?
  8. When will I be able to see seniority by base?
  9. Where is the seniority information for FAs working in a supervisor/non-flying role for Inflight?

If you have any additional questions, please send them to seniority@afacwa.org.

In Solidarity,

Your SMIC – Sandra Morrow, Rolando Teran, Lynne Voigtsberger and Marie Maxwell

Your Master Executive Council (MEC) Officers, Local Executive Council (LEC) Presidents, and many other LEC Officers and Committee Chairs will be attending the 46th Annual AFA Board of Directors (BOD) meeting next week in Atlantic City, New Jersey.  This annual meeting is where AFA conducts the business of our Union at the international level.

Schedule of Events

Sunday, April 8 Executive Board Meeting (MEC President from each airline)
Monday, April 9 Board of Directors Meeting
Tuesday, April 10 Board of Directors Meeting continues
AFA International Officer elections
Wednesday, April 11 Board of Directors Meeting continues

This schedule does not include necessary travel to/from Philadelphia (the closest airport served by Alaska Airlines) and surface travel to/from Atlantic City. Attendees will be traveling on the dates before and after the BOD meeting.

BOD Meeting Agenda Items

Your LEC President represents you and the other members of your Local Council on the Board of Directors and will be casting votes on your behalf at the BOD meeting.  Your MEC Officers serve in an ex-officio capacity on the BOD but do not have voting privileges.

A total of 24 advance agenda items were submitted for consideration by the Board at this meeting. Each LEC held a Local Council meeting over the past several weeks to discuss these agenda items and gain your feedback.  You can find a list of these agenda items and complete language at http://afa-bod.org/index-of-agenda-items.

International Officer Elections

In addition to the consideration of agenda items, AFA International Officer elections will also take place at this year’s BOD meeting.  As your directly elected representative, your LEC President will be voting on your behalf for the offices of International President, Vice President, and Secretary-Treasurer.  For more information about International Officer elections including a list of announced candidates, click here.

Questions?

If you have any questions or thoughts about the BOD meeting or any of the submitted agenda items, please contact your LEC President.

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Linda Christou, Lisa Pinkston, Terry Taylor, Mario de’Medici, Melissa Osborne, Tim Green and Brice McGee

The separate, pre-merger seniority lists for AS and VX have been merged and we now have a single Integrated Seniority List.

The Seniority Merger Integration Committee (SMIC) completed this monumental task over the course of the previous 10 months.  The SMIC consists of representatives from each of our pre-merger airlines: AS members Sandra Morrow and Marie Maxwell; and, the VX members Lynne Voigtsberger and Rolando Teran.

The SMIC merged the lists in compliance with the AFA-CWA Constitution and Bylaws.  Everyone on each seniority list remains in the same relative order.  Everyone on the VX list retains the same seniority date, and those on the AS list have an adjusted seniority date that provides credit for the initial training period.

This merged list establishes the seniority dates and relative order for all 5,000-plus Alaska Flight Attendants.  For easy distinction of the merged list, VX members are shaded in a light red.  You can either scroll through the list or search on your name to find your seniority number and seniority date.

You can view the merged seniority list in the email version of this article.  Please check your personal email for a message from the AFA Alaska Seniority Merger Integration Committee containing the link to the list.

This list is being provided to management.  Going forward, this copy of the list will be “static,” but the seniority list that is published monthly on the F/A website will be updated and “live” in approximately 60 days.  It will change as new members are added or current members leave, but the seniority dates and relative order will not change.

The SMIC will be sending out an additional communication later this week with answers to the most frequently asked question.  It will include background on the methods used to determine initial training adjustments, the methodology used when FAs from both airlines had the same seniority date, and many other general questions.

If you have any questions or would like to contact the SMIC, please do so by email at the following address: seniority@afacwa.org.

In Solidarity,

Your SMIC – Sandra Morrow, Rolando Teran, Lynne Voigtsberger and Marie Maxwell

Polls closed today at 9 AM Pacific Time for voting on the Merger Tentative Agreement reached by the Joint Negotiating Committee in February 2018.  The results of the vote are as follows:

 

Voting FOR the agreement 3094 75%
Voting AGAINST the agreement 1011 25%
Total Votes 4105
Participation Rate of Eligible Voters 76.34%

As indicated above, the TA has passed.

Click here for a copy of the certified results.

What’s Next?

Several provisions of the Joint Collective Bargaining Agreement (JCBA), including new pay rates for both L-AS and L-VX Flight Attendants, take effect immediately.  Additional communications regarding JCBA implementation will be coming out over the next several days.

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Linda Christou, Lisa Pinkston, Terry Taylor, Mario de’Medici, Melissa Osborne, Tim Green and Brice McGee; and

Your JNC – MEC President Jeffrey Peterson, Jennifer Wise MacColl, Jamie Cogen, Lindsey Steele and AFA Senior Staff Negotiator Paula Mastrangelo

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Scheduling Committee Meeting Recap – October 2025

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Sick Leave Survey Now Open

Your Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) prioritizes your health and well-being and seeks to understand which aspects of our paid sick leave policy matter most to you. We encourage you to participate in the survey, which is open until Tuesday, November 11 at Noon PT, to ensure your voice is heard in shaping our support for your healthcare needs.

SEA Domicile Negotiations – October 2025 Update #2

This session was marked by the Negotiating Committee’s strong advocacy for protections and enhancements that would support the Seattle base as a viable option for transferring Flight Attendants. With insights from Ryan St. John, the Vice President of Finance, Planning, and Investor Relations for Alaska Airlines, the Negotiating Committee highlighted the necessity of combining data-driven strategies with hands-on experience and sufficient resources for long-term success.

Joint Contract Negotiations Session 8 – October 2025

During our recent negotiations, the Joint Negotiation Committee focused on key sections, particularly reaching a Tentative Agreement on Lodging and Transportation, which improves food availability and transportation safety. We also engaged with Council 19 to clarify negotiation processes and differences between contracts. Stay tuned for our upcoming session with management from November 18 to 20.

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