The first item of business was to review the proposed AFA budget for 2017/2018 which is to be voted on at this years AFA BOD meeting in PHX.
Those present asked Brice, to represent us with a vote he believes to be in the best interest of the members.
Committee Reports
Uniform – Denise Sheldon
- Uniform wear testing is scheduled Oct/Nov 2017
- Proposed fashion show media blitz – waiting on date
- T-shirt distributing starting now through June 30
- Wear dates July 1-4 through Labor Day weekend on the weekends (Friday-Sunday)
- Next quarterly meeting in SEA is Aug 9.
Air Safety, Health & Security – Ken Hawkins
- Lots of feedback regarding the new F/D guard procedure, F/A’s and Pilots generally feel this is a reduction in security. Many pilots instructing F/A’s to follow old procedures inflight
- Committee sent complaint letter to Andy regarding the (lack of) communication with the pilots.
- Feedback received regarding the use of catering cart blocking forward jump seat – to be discussed at next BSM.
- Trash management via Mexico – reports of F/A’s from other bases filling aft lav’s with trash due to lack of trash management.
- Positive feedback received from F/A’s regarding crew briefings – this is a focus item on 2017 Recurrent Training and it is resulting in more required briefings being done.
- SAN Gate 16 trip hazard reported to Claudia who had the Airport Authority replace the rubberized flooring, solving the problem.
- The F/A manual VX/AS merge process in ongoing and is should be completed by year-end
- A new Space Bin assist lever, called “BAM” (bin assist mechanism) is being installed which will make it easier to close the new bins (similar to the assist lever on the original bins.)
- New on-line injuries report form, which will replace the paper based I-21 will be rolled out shortly. It should improve the flow of information to/from management and committee is working to improve the first version of it.
- Numerous reports of bed bugs have finally resulted in a change in layover hotel for HNL.
- New FC champagne being boarded with a screw off top that is actually a plastic cork –(unlike the Salmon Creek brand) the pressurization will cause the cork to fly off as it’s being opened unless you keep a hold on it.
- Air contamination continues to be a problem with several reported each month – crews are reminded to keep the AFA Air Quality quick reference card with them and to report AQ issues to pilots immediately.
- New uniform wear testing to begin in October 2017 – uniform committee members and ASHSC chairs to be wear testers.
Benefits – Sonia Quackenbush
- There are some important things to remember when going on a medical leave.
- First, never let your sick bank go below 60 TFP. This minimum amount will ensure you can remain on payroll for up to six months and maintain your health insurance until you qualify for long-term disability.
- Second, if you are on a medical leave and need to maintain your health insurance you must send in a check for the premiums, they are no longer taken out of your paycheck. Watch for correspondence from Cobra Management Services.
- Third, there is currently an issue over the ability to use minimum TFP while on maternity leave/parental leave. A grievance has been filed and hopefully a resolution will be reached soon. I wish I had more/better information but there is nothing more to say at this time.
- Lastly, if you have any questions, concerns, need guidance please reach out to me. I am here to help.
Sonia Quackenbush
Cell: 951-252-5707
Email: squack22@gmail.com
Scheduling – Jacob Rahn
- JCT is still having problems. Many grievances have been filed that are being worked on and more coming in.
- There is a big update scheduled for next week and then every six weeks another update.
- SAN needs to increase by another 300 FA’s in order for the TCN to increase. Will be staying at 3 for a while.
- Navtech is working on an update, called Navblue, and we will probably not see it until 2018.
- Personal Drops and Charter Bids are moving to Sharepoint next week.
- Still having issues with Payroll and inconsistencies. Meeting scheduled with Denia soon to discuss and hopefully, work on solutions to the problems.
- Denia has asked for a scheduling manager, someone who can monitor the floor in scheduling.
- Some VX schedulers are coming to SEA and we are sending some of our schedulers down to SFO.
Inflight Service– Chase Vandergrift
- Frustration with feeling that nothing is being done. This is a combination of Inflight not knowing what Marketing is doing vice versa. That being said, then the AFA Committee Chair and members cannot accomplish anything.
- Having issues with SAN catering as well as BOS.
- Hawaii flights are running out of supplies.
- Not aware of any major changes coming down the pike.
- Hoping that the test flights working on the FC pre-order service are successful.
Hotel – Kanani Vallot
- New Hotel in HNL. Starting August 1st, going to a Hilton in Waikiki Beach.
- Renewals coming up in CUN/YVR/GEG.
- There is frustration that the site inspections are not being doled out more fairly. Would like to see the “nice” destination property inspections be given to others beside Laura and Jodi.
- Issues with API and new Company Representation. The company is starting to disregard our hotel standards such as restaurant amenities and basic safety issues. Pushing Holidays Inns and like properties.
- Having transportation issues at some properties for late arriving crews. Some hotels discontinue airport shuttle service later in the evening and this leaves some crews without rides to their hotel.
- Make sure to write up EVERYTHING through Crew Care! If you just tell a supervisor or send a regular email to someone, it does not count!
EAP – Jean Sharrock
- EAP in San Diego consists of Jean Sharrock, Shari Clark, Lisa Rhodes, and Ava McWilliams. They have been busy addressing the needs of our SAN flight attendants.
- FADAP is a conference-teaching mentors to deal with Flight attendant drug and alcohol addiction. This year it will be in Baltimore with Jean and Ava In Attendance.
- If you think a co-worker may need assistance with addiction please call them. If flight attendants are having problems at work or at home, it affects the whole workgroup. Please don’t be afraid to seek help.
- The committee has had many opportunities to further their education via trainings and webinars.
Reserve – Kristen Yermakov
- We just had our Quarterly Reserve Meeting on the 15th and although there weren’t too many SAN specific issues, generally they’ve identified a few glitches now that reserve posting and trading has been added to Crew Access. Any glitches were noted, including lineholders trading trips for reserve days and inability to grab reserve days etc. Grant said he would get together with Zac for further testing of the functionality of some of these concerns.
- One SAN specific issue I brought up was our Last Base Flight Daily report being inaccurate Mon-Fri. It lists the last base turn being Seattle, which lands at 11:48 pm. With the debrief this would not be legal for a one day reserve. This prevents reserves good for one day from being released after the 3:25 report PDX which is the correct base turn to commute home etc. They are looking into adjusting it.
- We also had a broader picture discussion regarding Crew Scheduling’s ability to process manual trades for legal grabs, trades, splits etc. Depending on the scheduler, when a reserve or LH for that matter contacts scheduling about a legitimate trade or split that crew access isn’t allowing, the scheduler will say that they can’t do it and tell them to open a ticket. Since most of these transactions are time sensitive, it is of course very frustrating to the FA. While there are some work arounds for these issues, they are not consistently followed by all schedulers. Grant expressed genuine concern in being fair with the FAs, while not overwhelming his schedulers with tons of manual trades. We’re hoping they’ll be a shift so that schedulers are able to accommodate these legal trades and grabs until crew access adequately reflects our contract
Important to know – Melanie Buker
- Reporting Workers Compensation and filing an i-21 will change around July 17th, look for more information in a bulletin being issued soon.
- The most accurate place to see your TFP flown is in your Status Report. While logged into JCT, look at the upper left hand drop down, click on Reports>Reports on Demand > Published Rosters>Put in the date and hit generate. It will show you everything flown to this date. Always make sure to cross check your pay sheet to this information.
- We created a bulletin board in Inflight crew room with the most common questions we are asked, be sure to check it out and snap shot anything of interest.
