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        You are here: Home / Archives for 2018

        [pmAS] Follow Up to April Bid Re-Award

        March 15, 2018 18:00

        This message is for pre-merger Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants

        On Tuesday, March 13, AFA released information about the April bid re-award that recently took place.  The initial need for a re-award came about after several bid protests were filed based on the original April line awards.  After further investigation, the protests were found to be valid and the error occurred due to programming in the new web app user interface of Navblue PBS.  The programming error affected the bids of 22 Flight Attendants which required that action be taken to properly honor those bids. Resolving the bid protests was bound to have an impact on the previously awarded lines of Flight Attendants beyond those who initially filed bid protests.

        After Navblue corrected the necessary programming but prior to running the bid re-awards, Crew Planning and the PBS Committee had the need to perform some administrative work in PBS to ensure that Flight Attendant bids properly reflected those that were originally entered prior to bids closing on March 10th.  Performing this work required that PBS be switched back into the normal bid entry mode so that the necessary work could be done.  The system does not contain the ability to be switched into a “maintenance” or “offline” mode where administrators can work in the system while preventing Flight Attendants from also making entries.  As a result of this, it was also possible for Flight Attendants to log in to the system and make bid entries during the period of time that the administrators were in the system verifying the integrity of original bids.

        Section 10.J.4 of the Flight Attendant collective bargaining agreement states that a Flight Attendant must submit her/his bid by 9 AM Pacific time on the 10th of the month prior to the bid period.  Management’s failure to have PBS properly programmed to prevent additional bid entries while the administrators were working in the system has resulted in a clear contractual violation.  At no time did AFA agree to an exception or waiver to this contractual provision.

        The MEC had substantial discussion regarding what transpired, including the possibility of requesting that a full re-bid be conducted for the month of April.  The option of a full re-bid was determined to be unfeasible as it would have had a greater negative impact on Flight Attendants, especially those who would be unable to participate in the re-bid (on vacation, etc.) as well as those who had planned their schedules around the F/A-to-F/A and Open Time trading timeline.

        AFA will be pursuing resolution to the contractual violation through the grievance process and every other avenue at our disposal.  The MEC Grievance Committee has already filed grievance number 36-99-2-116-18 addressing management’s failure to comply with the contractual bidding timeline.  We will also be calling for a meeting with inflight management to have additional conversation about the new Navblue PBS user interface, the associated programming errors, and the necessary steps that need to be taken to prevent reoccurrence of a similar situation.

        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: Grievance Committee, Latest News, Preferential Bidding System (PBS) Tagged With: 2018, bid awards, grievance, PBS, Preferential Bidding System

        April Bid Re-Award and Trading Timeline

        March 13, 2018 17:30

        This message is for pre-merger Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants

        On Monday, March 12, management advised AFA that a programming error was discovered with the new user interface of NavBlue PBS.  The error, related to the programming of the “Duty On” preference in the new user interface, resulted in trips being awarded incorrectly to Flight Attendants despite bid preferences that were submitted properly.  As a result of the programming error, NavBlue was immediately contacted by management and the necessary programming was corrected.

        NavBlue made necessary corrections to the PBS programming which were completed earlier today.  Management subsequently worked to re-award bids with the NavBlue programming having been corrected.   Bid awards will be posted at 5 PM Pacific time today and F/A-to-F/A and Open Time trading will begin as originally scheduled.

        Bidding and Trading Timeline

        All times based on Pacific time

        Bid Re-Awards Posted Tuesday, March 13 @ 17:00
        Bid Protest Begins Tuesday, March 13 @ 17:00
        Bid Protest Final Wednesday, March 14 @ 17:00
        F/A-to-F/A Trading Begins Thursday, March 15*
        Open Time Trading Begins Friday, March 16*

        *Please note that there is no change to the F/A-to-F/A and Open Time trading timeline.

        It is AFA’s positon that management has an obligation to ensure Flight Attendant bidding and scheduling systems are fully functional and free of programming errors.  AFA will be meeting with management to review the programming error with NavBlue PBS and discuss the future plans for roll out of the system.

        If you have any questions about the bid re-award or trading timeline, please contact your LEC Officers.

        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, Preferential Bidding System (PBS), Scheduling Committee Tagged With: 2018, bid awards, bid protest, Open Time, PBS, Preferential Bidding System, trading

        [pmAS] Trading Recurrent Training To Early Or Grace Months

        March 13, 2018 12:00

        This message is for pre-merger Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants

        Recently, AFA worked with management to clarify the ability of Flight Attendants to trade Recurrent Training (RT) into the month before or after your RT base month.   The result of this agreement is the Trading Recurrent Training to Early or Grace Months letter of agreement (LOA).  You can view the LOA by clicking here.

        This LOA solidifies the ability of a Flight Attendant to trade RT with another Flight Attendant or with RT classes in OT into the month before your base month (Early month), base month, or month after your base month (Grace month).  JCTE will eventually be programmed to process these trades but until the programming is done, Flight Attendants should contact Crew Scheduling to process trades into Early or Grace months.

        Please note that if you trade into your Grace month and are subsequently unable to attend RT during your Grace month and become no longer current, you will receive no pay protection or credit for any trips or scheduling obligations that have to be dropped because you are no longer current.

        If you have received attendance points as a result of recurrent training trades since this LOA was agreed to and signed (02/08/2018), please contact your LEC Officers for assistance in contacting your performance supervisor.  If you have any other questions about this LOA, your LEC Officers are also available to assist you.

        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: Grievance Committee, Inflight Training Committee, Latest News Tagged With: 2018, early month, grace month, recurrent training, RT, trading

        [pmAS] Definition of Family Member for Sick Leave Purposes

        March 9, 2018 09:00

        This message is for pre-merger Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants

        Siblings are now included under the definition of family members for sick leave purposes.

        Under the Washington Paid Sick Leave Law (RCW 49.46.210) enacted in January 1, 2018, one of the many changes is adding an employee’s sibling under the definition of family members for whom a Flight Attendant may call in sick.  Even though this is a Washington State Law, this change in definition will apply to all Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants pursuant to Letter of Agreement 5 (Sick Family/Sick Child) in our current CBA.

        If you have any questions about this change, please contact your Local Benefits 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

        Filed Under: Benefits Committee, Latest News Tagged With: 2018, Benefits, Benefits Committee, sick family, sick leave, Washington Paid Sick Leave Law

        Corrected Tentative Merger Agreement Documents

        March 4, 2018 19:00

        The Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) has revised and reposted the following documents to the Merger Tentative Agreements and Information page. In most cases, revisions were required in order to correct minor errors within the documents. In a few instances, the changes were made in order to clarify or highlight an item. After the link to each revised document, you will find additional information detailing the changes and the reasons for such changes.

        Corrected TAs

        JCBA 2018-2021 TA >

        • Addendum to §15 [Leaves of Absence] #5 (“Do I accrue seniority while on a leave of absence?”)

        The citation incorrectly indicated that a Flight Attendant accrues seniority only while on an approved medical leave when in fact seniority accrual occurs while on any approved leave of absence. The citation was updated to match the correct language in the JCBA LOA Changes to the 2014-2019 CBA TA.

        • Section 35 [Duration]

        The section was incorrectly reflecting the 2014-2019 CBA duration and amendable date and was updated with the 2018-2021 JCBA duration and amendable date.

        JCBA LOA Changes to the 2014-2019 CBA TA >

        • Section 6.B.2 [Seniority: Calculation for Determining Seniority] “Hired as a Flight Attendant on or after Date of Ratification”

        [Note: This provision affects only Flight Attendant trainees hired after ratification and has no effect on current Flight Attendants or trainees already in Initial Training.]

        Flight Attendants hired on or after Date of Ratification will no longer have seniority assigned according to birth order. This is due to recommendations from the AFA Legal Department in response to recent changes in various state and local laws with respect to age discrimination. After reaching the TA, AFA and management discovered that assignment of the Peoplesoft number is not entirely random. Because the parties intend for seniority to be determined as randomly as possible, we have agreed to an alternative method using a combination of the last four digits of the (mostly random) Peoplesoft number and the last four digits of the Social Security number (which are in fact random). The resulting number is sufficiently random for the purpose of establishing seniority and maintains the security of personal information.

        L-VX FA Transition Agreement TA >

        • Section 21: Compensation –> 21.T Sit Pay

        Sit Pay was incorrectly referenced as one block hour. The negotiated Sit Pay was based on the block-hour equivalent of 1.0 TFP, which is actually fifty-three block minutes (0:53).

        • Ability to Trade Trips Below Seventy (70) Block Hours

        The reference to Virgin America InFlight Teammate Work Rules v5 Chapter 7.B.2.d.iii was updated to correctly indicate that the monthly cap on trading above 135 hours was previously eliminated; AFA and management agree the ability to trade above 135 hours will continue.

        • Show/No Go

        The Show/No Go credit was incorrectly referenced as 3.39 block hours. The negotiated Show/No Go credit was based on the block-hour equivalent of 3.0 TFP, which is actually two hours and thirty-nine minutes (2:39).

        Corrected TA Summaries

        Summary of AS Transition Agreement >

        • Compensation

        “Downline” increases of 1.5% on 12/17/2018, 1.5% on 12/17/2019 and 2.5% on 12/17/2020 added to the compensation summary for clarity.

        Summary of VX Transition Agreement >

        • Compensation: Pay Scale in Block Hours

        The pay scale in block-hours is based on the TFP equivalent of the L-AS pay scale, which is converted at 1.13 TFP per block-hour. Some pay rates were off by a penny ($0.01) due to rounding errors in the worksheet used to produce the table. The rates have been corrected with the appropriate rounding convention.

        • Compensation: Show No Go

        The Show/No Go credit was incorrectly referenced as 3.39 block hours. The negotiated Show/No Go credit was based on the block-hour equivalent of 3.0 TFP, which is actually two hours and thirty-nine minutes (2:39).

        • Compensation: Sit Pay

        Sit Pay was incorrectly referenced as one block hour. The negotiated Sit Pay was based on the block-hour equivalent of 1.0 TFP, which is actually fifty-three block minutes (0:53).

        The JNC thanks our eagle-eyed members for bringing the errors to our attention, and we apologize for any resulting confusion. You may contact the JNC at jnc@afaalaska.org if you have any concerns or questions. We hope to see you at the roadshows starting this coming week!

        In Solidarity,

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

         

        The roadshow schedule may be found on the Merger TAs & Info page along with other TA-related resources. Any pre-merger Alaska Airlines (pmAS) or pre-merger Virgin America (pmVX) FAs are welcome to attend any and all sessions. Please be aware that only AFA members in good standing may vote on the TA, so it is extremely important that pmAS FAs are current on their dues and pmVX FAs have completed an AFA membership application prior to the vote.

        Filed Under: AS/VX Merger, Latest News, Negotiations Tagged With: 2018, AS/VX Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC), merger agreement, TA

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