Dear Seattle Flight Attendants,
Yesterday was an emotional day for our work group and your LEC Officers appreciate the fact that this emotion may take some time to subside. Today we can reflect on our votes, either yes or no, but we must realize the importance of moving forward. Today, the work of understanding the changes and how the apply to you begins.
Seattle Flight Attendants came out with a 90.8% turnout and illustrates your dedication to the process. You are a highly educated and smart group of individuals and we need your help communicating the changes in a factual way. The MEC will also need your understanding and patience over the next few weeks as we work through some of changes. We understand that you will have questions, management has questions, and we will do our best to respond as quickly as we can.
In the mean time it is going to be important that you stay informed and read your new collecting bargaining agreement! There are still copies available in the in flight office.
You will find the implementation schedule in the back of the agreement: Letter of Agreement #6.
You can also review the following release from the MEC that highlights the changes that are in effect:
Common questions
Crew Snacks: Effective today crew snacks will no longer be boarded on your flight. We realize that many of you did not have sufficient notification to pack accordingly, but know that you have the ability to purchase items at 50% off the price on the airplane. The new crew rates should be loaded into the POS devices.
Jet Way Trading: This is a manual process and you will have to call scheduling to process the trade
Sit time: Pay begins today and will be paid by filing an activity claim form. All other minimum pay rules begin no later than May 1, 2015.
Junior Assignment: Only 2 provisions begin today- the 2.5 pay for the assignment and the ability to trade the JA assignment.
Management Can Fly to Prevent Cancellation
Beginning next week
Sick Leave Make Up
Remember that sick leave make up replenishes tfp to your sick bank. If you called in sick for a 2-day trip worth 10.0 you can pick up 2 Reserve sick leave make up days to replenish this amount. You will be paid sick leave from your bank, but then will be able to replenish that tfp. If the 2-day reserve block provides you with a trip value that exceeds 10.0 that overage amount is paid directly to you. This overage amount will count towards your 480 thresholds.
Changes Beginning January 2015
The new 480 thresholds begin on January 1, 2015. No changes right now to the current accruals.
Medical/Maternity Leaves with Short Term Disability coordination can be 9.0 or 9.3, or between 70 and 120 TFP.
Beginning no later than May 1, 2015
Minimum Pay Rules, 4k Pairings and 15 minute debrief.
We know that there are many more questions that may arise and we hope that you come to your LEC Officers for the answers. Emailing is the best option because we are able to paste contract language into our responses. Our emails are listed below.
On behalf of your entire Seattle LEC Officer staff and all the Committee members we wish you a very Happy Holiday/Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!
Heather says
An earlier communication stated that scheduled sit times over 2 hrs will automatically be paid and we must submit an activity claim form for an unscheduled sit. Can you please clarify?
Also, are we able to submit an activity claim form for the other minimum pay rules before the 1may15 start date?
Thank you for your reply.
Lisa Pinkston (ANC LEC Vice President/Negotiating Committee Member) says
The scheduled sit time is suppose to be paid automatically without submitting an activity claim and the unscheduled (example: scheduled at 1:45, but actual was 2:01 because you arrived early) would require an activity claim be submitted in order to receive the pay for that sit time. I personally will submit an activity claim in the beginning for all sit times scheduled or unscheduled until I know and verify on my pay check that they are being processed correctly. As for the other minimum pay rules, we are not allowed to submit an activity claim form for those as they are not in effect until they are automated, no later than May 1st. Hope that clarifies for you. If you have any additional questions, feel free to email the negotiating committee or ask on the blog.