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    You are here: Home / Archives for 2017

    More About ASAP

    December 26, 2017 12:00

    As previously mentioned in a communication from the AFA Alaska Master Executive Council (MEC), pre-merger Virgin America Flight Attendants will soon be participating in the Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP).  ASAP is an FAA program that allows Flight Attendants to self-disclose unintentional violations of CFRs or company safety policy without fear of disciplinary action from management or enforcement action from the FAA.  The intent of the program is to improve procedure, processes, and training through increased reporting of safety-related incidents that might otherwise go unreported.

    Management will soon be putting out more information about ASAP, including a required computer based training (CBT) and information about the start date of the program for pre-merger VX Flight Attendants

    Your AFA ASAP Representative

    As part of the program, all ASAP reports received are de-identified (names and identifying information removed) and then reviewed by an Event Review Committee (ERC) made up of one representative each from AFA, the Company, and the FAA. Brad Young has been appointed as the AFA ASAP ERC Representative for pre-merger Virgin America Flight Attendants.

    About Brad

    Brad has been a San Francisco-based Flight Attendant with Virgin America for 8 years.

    In 2012 and again in July of 2013, Brad assisted with a handful of fellow Flight Attendants in approaching, educating, signing and achieving enough cards for a successful vote to help bring representation to the Virgin America Flight Attendants.

    “The Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP) is a critical component in the success of the Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants and there is no better time to be involved in this unique and successful program to involve the Virgin America Flight Attendants.   With the assistance of AFA, my role in the ASAP will take us all to the next level of airline safety and security out on the line for our workgroup,” says Brad.

    Brad graduated from Sierra College with a degree in Criminal Justice: Law Enforcement and Psychology.  Prior to joining Virgin America, Brad worked for the State outside Sacramento, California.  Brad is currently studying several degree courses at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Aviation Security and Safety Management.

    Brad currently resides in San Jose, California where he enjoys being outdoors, being an aviation history nerd, landscape photography, cooking and studying to get his Private Pilots License (PPL) for recreation.

    Learn More About ASAP

    In addition to the company’s CBT that will be released soon, you can find more information about the program on the ASAP page of the AFA Alaska website.  ASAP resources are also available on the FAA website.

    Questions?

    ASAP-related questions can be directed to pmVX ASAP ERC Representative Brad Young at bradley.young@afaalaska.org

    In Solidarity,

    Melissa, Jamie, and Brad

    Filed Under: Council 35 SFO Tagged With: 2017, ASAP, Council 35, Virgin America, VX

    Merger Negotiations Session #7 Update – December 2017

    December 14, 2017 18:00

    The AFA Alaska-Virgin America Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) just wrapped up this week’s session of merger negotiations, our seventh so far. We met with management from Tuesday, December 12th through Thursday, December 14th in Seattle, WA. Representing management: Vice President of Labor Relations Greg Mays, Vice President of Alaska Airlines and Virgin America Inflight & Call Center/Guest Services Jeff Butler, Managing Director of Labor Relations-Air Elizabeth Ryan, Virgin America Manager of Labor Emily Kimmel and Alaska Airlines Financial Planning & Analysis Manager Brittany Schaub. Alaska Airlines Director of Retirement Services Chrystie Dickens and Retirement Benefits Analyst Jaime Smalley also joined to discuss 401(k).

    The parties are down to the point in negotiations where we are exchanging comprehensive proposals and discussing primarily economic issues. AFA and management exchanged several proposals this session. However, management’s last pass to the JNC did not go far enough to address important concerns for our members, and it is not a deal that we believe our members would ratify.

    The JNC’s message to management is that reaching a ratifiable merger agreement is our chance to unify the Flight Attendant groups and move forward together. We hope management takes our message to heart. Our next merger negotiations session is scheduled for January 9-11, 2018.

    In Solidarity,

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

    Keep in mind that merger negotiations are a different process than regular negotiations. Discussions are focusing on a limited list of Flight Attendant priorities. All the provisions in the AFA Alaska contract (scheduled pay raises, etc.) will continue in force for pre-merger Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants; all the provisions in the Virgin America work rules will remain in effect for pre-merger Virgin America Flight Attendants unless modified and/or superseded by the AFA Virgin America letters of agreement.

    Filed Under: AS/VX Merger, Latest News, Negotiations Tagged With: 2017, JNC, merger negotiations

    [AS] Open Time Negotiations Update – December 2017

    December 4, 2017 12:00

    This message is for pre-merger Alaska Flight Attendants

    [Note: This update is a long one, so you might want to save reading this until you have some down time. We apologize for the length, but it’s been awhile since the last Open Time update, so there is a lot to report.]

    AFA Negotiating Committee and management started another round of negotiations to achieve a new Open Time system

    The AFA Negotiating Committee and Alaska Airlines management met the week before Thanksgiving to once again negotiate a new Open Time (OT) system. Representing management: Vice President of Inflight & Call Center Services Jeff Butler, Vice President of Labor Relations Greg Mays, Managing Director of Labor Relations Elizabeth Ryan, Director of Inflight Crew Scheduling Denia Pisia, Inflight Operations Performance Manager Mike Link, Manager of Flight Crew Systems Support Sue Rawlings, and Financial Planning and Analysis Manager Brittany Schaub.

    As you may recall, our current Open Time trading system was negotiated on a trial basis. AFA terminated the trial in summer 2016 based on overwhelming membership feedback. Under our collective bargaining agreement, this meant that the parties had to return to the OT system used in the previous contract (referred to as “Back to Book”) while negotiating a new system. Reverting Back to Book was understood to be dictated by IT limitations pursuant to CBA §12.F.9.a [Exchange of Sequences]. The Negotiating Committee (NC) and management negotiated several times in the fall of 2016 and the spring of 2017 and reached an agreement in concept for a new Open Time system; however, the Master Executive Council (MEC) ultimately decided to not send it out for membership ratification primarily because management would not agree to implementation guarantees for programming the new system.

    More about Back to Book

    All parties agreed back in 2014 that if the Open Time Trial were ended, programming Back to Book would take time because we knew that the entire Company was being transitioned to a new crew management system, which included a new crew tracking (scheduling) system. That is why AFA agreed to the language in CBA §12.F.9.a: “If reverting, the timeline for rolling back will be dictated by IT limitations.” Once the OT Trial was actually ended in summer 2016, the crew management system vendor Jeppesen was insistent that there were not sufficient resources available to program Back to Book until transition to the new system was complete in autumn 2016. Alaska Airlines management concurred with that assessment. Unfortunately, the transition to the new system was subsequently delayed until the end of January 2017.

    Then Alaska Air Group announced the acquisition of Virgin America in spring 2016 and its intent to eventually merge Virgin America into the Alaska Airlines operation. The merger further complicated what management and Jeppesen is attributing to “IT limitations.” AFA filed a contractual grievance, and management subsequently sustained that grievance, which means management agrees it has a contractual responsibility to direct Jeppesen to program Back to Book. However, the estimated projection for actually achieving Back to Book keeps getting pushed farther and farther out into the future.

    Yes, AFA could attempt to achieve a faster programming of Back to Book through the grievance process, but any outcome through mediation or arbitration is far from certain and can take much longer than is desirable here.

    Negotiating changes to the current Open Time system

    Recently, management asked the MEC if we would consider having the Negotiating Committee negotiate changes to the current Open Time system instead of simply going Back to Book and hashing it out from there. The MEC agreed to give it a try for at least a couple negotiating sessions, and that is where we are now. Why did the MEC agree to that?

    The old (Back to Book) Open Time system was not universally liked. In fact, there was fairly widespread dissatisfaction with it, which is why AFA sought to negotiate something else during the 2011-2014 negotiations in the first place. If the OT Trial were ended, reverting Back to Book was intended only as a safety net (“the devil you know versus the devil you don’t know”) while the Negotiating Committee negotiated a new system. Back to Book was never intended as a permanent solution, and the MEC believes going Back to Book will not make everyone—or perhaps not even most—happy.

    To make matters worse, Alaska Airlines management and Jeppesen are currently estimating the “go live” date for Back to Book as sometime in mid-2019 or potentially even later. Why? According to Jeppesen, this is because of the complexities of recreating the old Back to Book system (formerly in eMaestro) in the new Jeppesen Crew Access. Alaska Airlines management is saying the process is further complicated by IT limitations resulting from the merger. AFA is not agreeing to this crazy estimate or to the underlying reasoning, but rather the MEC and the Negotiating Committee are simply passing this information along to you in full transparency.

    AFA and management believe that by tweaking the current Open Time system it is possible we may deliver a new OT system to you that would result in higher overall satisfaction for the membership and sooner than going Back to Book. The Negotiating Committee made it clear from the outset that certain features of the current system had to remain intact, such as our ability to straight drop. (The Back to Book system would not allow straight drops.) We also intend to allow up-trading, a much-improved ability for day-for-day trading and the elimination of trading codes. At the same time, the Negotiating Committee recognizes management has an operation to run and that too many uncovered trips in OT make it very difficult to do so. It is definitely a balancing act to ensure all flights are covered while affording flight attendants meaningful schedule flexibility.

    Negotiating session report

    That said, we had a productive session. Jeff Butler seems motivated to get this done, and management brought an IT expert to the table for the first time. The Negotiating Committee made a proposal that we believe meets the needs and expectations of our members, and the NC was pleased to learn that management thought the proposal seemed like a good foundation. Management made a reasonable counter proposal, and the NC provided collaborative feedback to their counter. Management is taking time to cost the latest proposal and determine what it might mean for the operation.

    The parties have agreed to reconvene this week December 5-7, and the Negotiating Committee is cautiously optimistic that we may reach an agreement this session. We will update you again following the session. Remember that any agreement in concept will first go to the MEC to determine if the agreement will be released to the membership for ratification. The MEC has repeatedly pledged that if the MEC approves a tentative agreement (TA), the TA will go out membership ratification so that you will have the final say in the matter.

    In Solidarity,

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

    Your Negotiating Committee – MEC President Jeffrey Peterson, Kristy Stratton, Lisa Pinkston, Christina Frees, and AFA Senior Staff Attorney Kimberley Chaput

    Filed Under: Latest News, Negotiations Tagged With: 2017, History of Open Time, negotiations, Open Time

    [Clarified] AFA Statement Regarding Sexual Harassment Claim by Facebook Founder’s Sister While On Alaska Airlines Flight

    December 1, 2017 11:15

    Yesterday (November 30, 2017), the AFA Alaska Master Executive Council (MEC) published the following statement from Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA:

    For too long unacceptable sexual innuendo, harassment advances, and assault have been a silent epidemic in our society and certainly on our planes. We applaud any victim who comes forward to call out this behavior and in this case we also applaud Alaska Airlines for taking swift corrective action and working with the Flight Attendants who provided critical information on the incident in order to address it even with few tools to manage these incidents inflight.

    Alaska’s response is to be commended, but let’s be clear that this is not an Alaska problem. It is an issue at the forefront of national awareness and it is a critical time for the airline industry to examine the steps necessary to take this on and lift the veil on the issue before bad behavior or a crime ensues.

    Sexual harassment is far too common in the aircraft cabin and sexual assault on planes must be identified as a unique crime with specific response. AFA conducted a member survey last year and results showed the majority of Flight Attendants have no knowledge of written guidance and/or training on this specific issue available through their airline. The industry and regulators need to come together to develop policies and tools to respond to these incidents onboard. And industry leaders need to speak out clearly with a zero tolerance policy.

    Unfortunately, the following sentence from AFA’s statement has been misconstrued in some local and national media outlets as referring specifically to Alaska Airlines: “AFA conducted a member survey last year and results showed the majority of Flight Attendants have no knowledge of written guidance and/or training on this specific issue available through their airline.” The onboard sexual assault survey was in fact released to all AFA members at all represented carriers and is not specific to Alaska. You can read more about the survey results on page 30 of Sara’s International President’s Report for the 45th Annual AFA-CWA Board of Directors Meeting.

    The AFA Alaska Master Executive Council did not intend for any parties to infer that our union’s statement was a commentary about the adequacy of Flight Attendant training at Alaska Airlines. We are working with the AFA Communications department to correct the record in the media. AFA Alaska will partner with management in the coming weeks and months to review and improve our company’s response to reports of onboard sexual harassment and assault brought forward by passengers—and by our Flight Attendants.

    In Solidarity,

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

    Filed Under: Latest News Tagged With: 2017

    MEC Inflight Training Committee Interviews

    November 30, 2017 09:00

    Due to the recent growth within the inflight training department and the increase in other special projects assignments that are being offered by management, the MEC has elected to form an AFA Inflight Training Committee at the MEC level.  The purpose of the committee is to represent Flight Attendant interests related to initial, recurrent, and supplemental training and to represent the unique needs of the inflight instructors and those Flight Attendants on non-flying special projects assignments with management.

    The committee will be comprised of one chairperson and two committee members.  Current inflight instructors and members of the special projects pool who are active and regularly assigned to inflight training/special projects duties are eligible to serve on the committee (this includes inflight instructors and ATS Flight Attendants at Virgin America). Flight Attendants who are currently on training or special project assignments who would like more information about how the committee positions including how to express interested may access the full position posting by clicking here.

    For more information about the Inflight Training Committee, visit the committee page of the AFA Alaska website or refer to Article VII.I of the AFA Alaska Policy and Procedure Manual.  Additional questions may also be directed to your Local Council 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

    Filed Under: Inflight Training Committee, Latest News Tagged With: 2017, Alaska Airlines, inflight training committee, Virgin America

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