AFA Alaska

Representing the Flight Attendants of Alaska + Hawaiian

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Get Involved: AFA Committees Forming Soon

AFA Council 35, which has represented pre-merger Virgin America Flight Attendants based at SFO and LAX, will soon be realigned as part of the merger process. The election process is currently underway in both SFO and LAX for Local Executive Council (LEC) Officers who will represent the Flight Attendants of their respective domiciles.  Once the election results are certified on July 31, pre-merger Virgin America Flight Attendants based at LAX will become part of Council 18 (which currently represents pre-merger Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants also based at LAX) and Council 35 will solely represent Flight Attendants based at SFO going forward.

About AFA Committees

AFA has established a series of committees in order to represent Flight Attendant interests in different areas that are important to our profession and the quality of our working conditions. The volunteer Flight Attendants who serve on these committees provide an important level of representation to their flying partners and help to support the LEC Officers within the Local Council.

Each Local Committee is led by a Local Committee Chairperson and may also have Local Committee Members based on the workload and need of the committee.  All of these positions are appointed by the LEC Officers.  The Local Committee Chairperson works with the Master Executive Council (MEC) Chairperson of the committee, who is responsible for coordinating the activities of the committee across the entire airline.

Local AFA committee positions include:

In addition, Local Committee Chairpersons have additional duties and responsibilities that can be viewed by clicking here.

Interested in Getting Involved?

Further AFA email communications about how to express interest and get involved as a Local Committee volunteer will be coming out over the next month.  In the meantime, you can review the volunteers page of the AFA Alaska website for additional information.

If you are interested in serving as an Employee Assistance Program (EAP)/Professional Standards Committee Member, this particular position involves an application process.  You may review the informational page on the AFA International website for more information and complete the online EAP representative application if interested.

[L-AS] Open Time Grievance

This message is for pre-merger Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants

On May 17, AFA filed grievance #36-99-2-130-18, requesting that Alaska Airlines management investigate the circumstances regarding the Company’s alleged violation of Section 12.C.3 “Trading Procedures”.  The grievance contends that the Company’s Jeppesen Crew Access (JCA) Open Time Trading System failed to synchronize time across the system, resulting in some users being able to complete their tasks while others are temporarily blocked from trades, pick-ups and/or drops.

After investigating the concern, management provided the following email response:

Jeppesen found two issues that need to be resolved.  The first issue has to do with the worker processes that handle the request and what it thinks is the current time, which is stored in a variable Jeppesen refers to as “NOW”.  Each worker process has its own NOW variable and if a worker process has been idle, its NOW variable gets out of date and when the first request comes in, for example when Open Time trading begins, it still believes the Trade window is still closed because NOW lags behind the system time.    The second issue is the Transaction Report timestamp is the time it logs the transaction is logged and not the NOW time.

Jeppesen has proposed the following solutions to address these two issues. The first is the worker processes will ensure the NOW variable is updated with the latest system time, rounded down to the minute (Note:  The NOW time granularity is at the minute level), so if a worker process has been idle, it will have the current system time.   The second change is to add the system time used in the processing of the request to the message so the FA and the transaction log knows what the system time is.  For example “Trip window has not yet opened for 24198” will be changed to something like “Time HH:MM, trip window has not yet opened for 24198”.  Jeppesen and AS believes these changes will resolve the issue.

Jeppesen will be providing an update in the next week concerning the interim solution.  We are expecting Alaska Airlines management to sustain the grievance and work with us on improving your Open Time processing.

In Solidarity,

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

The Dues Pie Chart—Where Do My Dues Go?

Note from your Master Executive Council (MEC): This information was prepared by AFA International as a resource for Flight Attendants.

Click to enlarge

The Dues Pie Chart depicts where all funds at AFA are budgeted. About 80% of dues dollars are directly allocated to fund the work at each airline, i.e. Local Councils, Master Executive Councils, Negotiations, and System Board.  The remaining budgets at the International Office support Government Affairs, Air Safety, EAP, and Communications Departments, each of which provides expert services that are Flight Attendant focused and provide resources for the local leaders and committees of Flight Attendants at each airline. 100% of our dues dollars are allocated to priorities that provide Flight Attendant representation.

There are four distinct areas where dues money is spent:

Local and Airline-Specific

Each base has a Local Executive Council (LEC) with elected Officers who provide direct representation and deal with local grievances and other issues. These Local Officers will answer your phone calls and make sure member interests are represented in front of management. For example, in the event of discipline or a contract violation, Local Officers will address the issue where it happened and work to get swift resolution. Additionally, elected Master Executive Council (MEC) Officers provide representation at the corporate level. At both the LEC and MEC, there are committees that solve problems in areas such as safety, schedules, hotels, grievances, etc. These committees also enforce the contract specific to their area of expertise, produce newsletters, and participate in union meetings. The role of your LEC and MEC Officers and committee representatives at each airline is to ensure you are represented by Flight Attendants who know your job because they share it with you at your airline. AFA promotes this autonomy at each airline where your representatives, assisted by experts, negotiate with management and develop and maintain the relationship between airline management and the Union.

Negotiations

Bargaining for pay and working conditions is one of the core representation activities performed by the Union. We start with a membership survey, schedule meetings with management, conduct caucuses with the committee, develop contractual language, support membership engagement and information programs, and we work with AFA-CWA professional negotiators throughout the process including all direct negotiations/mediation with management. The end result is improved contractual language with higher pay, better working conditions, and improved benefits.

System Board (Grievances)

The first step in any grievance is to try to resolve the matter locally. Some airlines have negotiated an alternative dispute process for a faster, collaborative resolution. If that fails, then the final stage for resolution, whether disciplinary or contractual, is an appeal to a neutral arbitrator. An AFA-CWA attorney will work with our Grievance Committee to present our case to the neutral arbitrator. We defend the contracts we negotiate.

International Office Support

While your LEC is the face of the Union to local management and the MEC to corporate management, the International Office is the public persona and brand of the Union. Our presence and name recognition can legislate or improve federal regulations, remove obstacles from the bargaining table, better our position in negotiations and improve our experience on the job across the profession. The International Office maintains the professional staff of attorneys, negotiators, and other personnel that provide administration, accounting and membership services to members and elected leaders. We all work together to support the programs that encompasses our profession.

Questions?

If you have questions about AFA dues, please contact your LEC 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

[L-AS] Introducing Your MEC Grievance Committee Payroll Representative

This message is for pre-merger Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants

Your Master Executive Council (MEC) conducted interviews earlier this month for the new MEC Grievance Committee Payroll Representative position. The MEC would like to thank the candidates who demonstrated willingness to represent our Flight Attendants. After thorough deliberation, the MEC has appointed Kiara Jenkins to the position.

About Kiara

Kiara Jenkins spent her childhood on the island of Guam and, in 2008, graduated from Olympia High School in Olympia, WA.  Before pursuing a career as a Flight Attendant, she worked at Starbucks as a supervisor and coached club and high school volleyball for 3 years. She has been ANC, SEA, and LAX-based since joining the Alaska family in 2011. Previously, she served as the Government Affairs Committee Chairperson for Council 18 in LAX. On any given day, Kiara can be found hosting homemade dinners for friends, barbecuing outdoors, or spending quality time with her family.

About The Position

The Payroll Representative works under the umbrella of the MEC Grievance Committee and is  responsible for working with management to advocate for Flight Attendant interests in all matters pertaining to Flight Attendant pay.  In addition, the Payroll Representative also works closely with the Benefits, Scheduling, and Reserve Committees to handle and assist in the resolution of Flight Attendant pay concerns and issues.  Additional information about the position can be found by clicking here.

In Solidarity,

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

AFA Issue Reporting and Resolution

Last year, your AFA Alaska Master Executive Council (MEC) introduced the AFA Alaska online support center.  The system is designed for you to document and report scheduling and reserve concerns, situations where you might be facing discipline, potential contractual grievances, and any other issue where you might need AFA support.  The system also allows AFA representatives to better track issues that are occurring, identify trends, and address and resolve issues with management.

You can access the system using the following link:

Click here to access the AFA Alaska Online Support Center

Reporting New Issues

You can report a new issue in the system by opening a ticket, just follow these steps:

  1. Visit http://support.afaalaska.org/
  2. Click the blue “Open a New Ticket” button
  3. Fill in your personal information (including a non-company email address)
  4. Select the help topic that relates to the issue
  5. Fill in the issue-specific information and provide details

From this screen, you’ll also be able to attach pictures, PDF files, screenshots, and other information that will help your AFA representatives to have more information available about the issue.

Once you’ve opened a ticket, you’ll receive a confirmation email and with a ticket number.  Behind the scenes, your ticket will be assigned to an AFA representative who will assist you with the issue.

What Happens Next

The AFA representative assigned to your case will work with management to determine a resolution.  If management agrees, then the representative will contact you and advise you of the resolution.  If AFA and management do not agree, the AFA representative might escalate the issue.

What are SRB and ADR?

When the AFA representative assigned to your case and management are unable to come to a mutually acceptable resolution, the AFA representative might escalate the issue to Scheduling Review Board (SRB) if the issue is related to scheduling or Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) for all other issues.

SRB and ADR meetings are typically held every other week. Issues can sometimes take a few months to resolve based on the work and discussion involved between management and AFA. If an issue gets resolved in SRB/ADR, the AFA representative assigned to your case will contact  you and advise you of the outcome.

Grievances

If there is no resolution in SRB or ADR and there is a contractual violation, AFA will file a grievance.  Contractual grievances must go through the grievance procedures as outlined in section 19 of the Flight Attendant Contract.  If the grievance is not resolved there, it may be escalated to the System Board of Adjustment, where the case would be heard before a neutral arbitrator.  Information about the System Board of Adjustment can be found in section 20 of the Flight Attendant Contract.

Checking on Open Issues 

With your ticket number, you can track the status of the ticket online, add additional information and attachments for your AFA representative to have available.  To check on your ticket:

  1. Visit http://support.afaalaska.org
  2. Click the green “Check Ticket Status” button
  3. Enter your email address and ticket number
  4. Click the “View Ticket” button

As always, the more information and evidence you attach to the ticket (i.e., screenshots, emails, etc.), the better your AFA representatives can assist you.

Questions?

If you have questions about reporting issues to AFA or how issues get resolved, please contact your Local Grievance Committee.

In Solidarity,

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

SEA Domicile Negotiations – October 2025

The recent meetings of the SEA Domicile Negotiating Committee in Seattle and Honolulu highlighted both progress and persistent challenges in negotiations with management. While there has been advancement on some issues, significant concerns remain. Key topics under discussion include the transfer processes, return options to HNL or LAX, staffing, moving expenses, and safeguarding existing bases. Our committee prepares for the next round of negotiations in Seattle during the week of October 20.

Protecting Yourself From Drug-Facilitated Sexual Assault

Understanding Drug-Facilitated Sexual Assault (DFSA) Drug-facilitated sexual assault (DFSA) involves the use of substances to incapacitate someone, making them vulnerable to sexual assault. These substances are often undetectable, having no color, taste, or smell, and can be easily added to drinks. Common Drugs Used in DFSA Important Note: Alcohol significantly enhances the effects of these drugs, […]

Government Affairs Committee Update – 4th Quarter 2025

An update on what our Government Affairs Committee has been working on this quarter. Thank you to all our Members who remain engaged and to all our volunteers and Committee Members for dedicating their time representing our Members, advocating for the safety and advancement of our careers while strengthening our labor movement every single day […]

Air Safety, Health, & Security Committee Meeting Recap – 4th Quarter 2025

This message is for pre-merger Alaska Flight Attendants On Thursday, October 2, our AFA Local Air Safety, Health, & Security Committee (ASHSC) Chairpersons met to discuss their ongoing work to represent our Flight Attendants and push for improvements in our workplace. Representing you at the meeting were Deb Wallstrom (ANC), David Lake (SEA), Kalin Lackey […]

Joint Contract Negotiations Session 7 – September 2025

Our JNC made significant progress in shaping our JCBA, successfully reaching a Tentative Agreement on Section 13 – Uniforms. Key provisions include enhancements to uniform standards, ensuring protective measures such as no surnames on name tags from the Hawaiian CBA. While we continue discussions on various sections, including Air Safety Health and Security, Training, and Commuter Policy. We appreciate feedback from the 2207 Flight Attendants who participated in our recent Vacation Survey.

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