Master Executive Council (MEC)
- Our AFA Alaska Master Executive Council (MEC) met this week on Tuesday, April 12 and Wednesday, April 13 to conduct their ongoing work to represent our Flight Attendants.
- As part of the meeting, the MEC met with members of inflight, labor relations, and executive management to discuss issues and concerns that are facing our work group and need to be addressed.
- The next Regular MEC Meeting is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, May 24. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to your LEC President if you have any questions.
The April 2022 Regular MEC Meeting was held this week on Tuesday, April 12 and Wednesday, April 13. The meeting consisted of updates provided by our MEC Officers, LEC Presidents, Grievance Committee, and Scheduling Committee. Our MEC also reviewed written reports submitted by other AFA MEC Committee Chairpersons about their current programs of work.
MEC Mobilization Committee Chairperson Interviews
Part of Tuesday was spent interviewing candidates for the MEC Mobilization Committee Chairperson position who will be responsible for coordinating mobilization activities across all six bases during upcoming contract negotiations. Our MEC would like to thank all of the candidates who expressed a willingness to serve and interviewed for the positions. We’ll have more information tomorrow morning about the outcome of the interviews.
Meeting with Management
As part of most Regular MEC Meetings, our MEC meets with management to review current issues and challenges that Flight Attendants are facing. Attendees from management this month included EVP & COO Constance von Muehlen, Managing Director of Inflight Operations Michaela Littman, Director of Inflight Crew Scheduling Denia Pisia, Vice President of Labor Relations Jenny Wetzel, and Director of Payroll Leah Ables.
Some of the topics that were discussed include:
- Leave and absence management issues. The approval process has been slow and employees have not been receiving timely responses to inquiries and requests.
- PBS bid award delays and frustration surrounding management errors (note: the discussion with management took place before the bid award publishing deadline and a contractual violation had not occurred yet).
- April OPR goals and management’s claim that inflight did not meet the safety goal due to a partial slide event. Based on information published on Alaska’s World, inflight did meet the goal as there is no stipulation that a slide event causes the goal to be missed. Our MEC has requested that management pay out according to the goals that they published.
- Pilot staffing and associated flight cancellations. Management has indicated they plan to make schedule adjustments in May based on the amount of flying remaining in open time after pilot bidding is complete.
- Excessive use of reassignments by Crew Scheduling and frustration that Flight Attendants have an expectation to work the trips they bid/picked up when they come to work.
- Spring incentive premium and feedback received from Flight Attendants about how the incentive was constructed. There is significant dissatisfaction about vacation pay being excluded from Worked TFP and the high threshold necessary to receive the incentive payout.
- Pairing construction and cost analysis. AFA has a long-standing request that management analyze pairings after the bid period is complete to determine what pairings actually end up costing the company. This data could potentially be used to support changes in pairing construction to reduce undesirable trips that end up costing the company more money in the long run.
- Company marketing activities on social media, particularly on TikTok. Looking for answers from management as to what the intent of the content is and who it is being marketed toward.
Questions?
If you have any questions about this month’s Regular MEC Meeting, please reach out to your LEC President.
