Dear Flight Attendants,
Recently, Delta Air Lines ended its ground handling relationship with Alaska Airlines in many outstations across the United States. In cities where many of us are used to seeing Customer Service Agents (CSAs) in Delta uniforms providing customer service for our flights, we will now be working with a new set of CSAs. These CSAs are not Alaska Airlines employees, but are employed by a variety of ground handling companies who are under contract by Alaska Airlines to provide customer services for our flights.
The recent transition of Flight Attendants and Alaska CSAs to the Land’s End Business Outfitters (LEBO) uniform severely depleted the inventory of the pieces that are specific to our uniform program within the Land’s End inventory. Management has advised the Master Executive Council (MEC) that LEBO will not have enough stock to outfit the new vendor CSAs until later this year. These new vendor CSAs have been outfitted in old TwinHill pieces until LEBO stock has been replenished enough to allow for a transition. For your information, we have compiled the following list of stations throughout our system that are staffed by CSAs wearing garments produced by TwinHill.
Alaska Airlines Mexico CSAs
Alaska Airlines Mexico CSAs in the following stations continue to wear Alaska Airlines TwinHill uniforms:
- San Jose del Cabo (SJD)
- Puerto Vallarta (PVR)
- Mazatlan (MZT)
- Guadalajara (GDL)
- Mexico City (MEX)
Alaska Airlines Mexico CSAs are expected to be transitioned to LEBO uniforms by the end of April.
Vendor CSAs
Vendor CSAs in the following stations are currently outfitted with Alaska Airlines TwinHill uniforms:
- Kahului, Maui (OGG)
- Honolulu (HNL)
- Kailua/Kona (KOA)
- Lihue, Kauai (LIH), effective with the vendor change expected at the end of April
- Adak (ADK)
- Manzanillo (ZLO)
- Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo (ZIH)
- Salt Lake City (SLC)
- Tucson (TUS)
- Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW)
- Austin (AUS)
- San Antonio (SAT)
- Houston-Bush (IAH)
- Kansas City (MCI)
- St. Louis (STL)
- Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP)
- Fort Lauderdale (FLL)
- Atlanta (ATL)
- Philadelphia (PHL)
- Newark (EWR)
- Boston (BOS)
Vendor CSAs are anticipated to begin transitioning to LEBO uniforms on September 15, 2014. The transition is expected to be complete by the end of the year.
Horizon Air PSAs
Horizon Air Passenger Service Agents (PSAs) handle Alaska Airlines flights and wear some pieces manufactured by TwinHill that are not part of the Alaska Airlines uniform program. The PSAs are located in the following stations:
- Vancouver, BC (YVR)
- Bellingham (BLI)
- Spokane (GEG)
- Sacramento (SMF)
There is no plan for Horizon PSAs to transition out of their current uniforms.
The MEC has and continues to advocate for a faster transition time out of the TwinHill uniform for these CSAs. However, in our discussions with management we are continually told that LEBO stock will not be adequate to begin transition until at least mid-September.
Some of our Flight Attendants have had severe reactions associated with even casual contact with TwinHill uniform pieces. Because of the potential for these Flight Attendants to experience very severe reactions as a result of coming into close contact with vendor CSAs wearing the TwinHill uniform, the MEC believes it is important to make this information available.
In Solidarity,
Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Gesch, Becky Strachan, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn and Sandra Morrow
