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Important Dates

January 31:  Union Plus Scholarships
February 1:  Black History Month begins

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Union Plus Scholarship Opportunity

Union Plus provides comprehensive information for the college-bound individual as well as a suite of scholarships.  The deadline to submit an application is January 31.  Union Plus Scholarships are open to current and retired members, spouses, and dependent children.  Information about each scholarship is available on the website.  This offer can save members thousands of dollars!

Black History Month Pins

Your Council 35 Officers have ordered 400 pins for SFO!  Base leadership has offered to assist with distribution of the pins.  Please stop by the supervisor’s office in the SFO Village to get your pin.

Can I Get the COVID-19 Vaccine?

by Brad Young, ASHSC Chair and Council Representative
Maybe.  Several Bay Area and Southern California Flight Attendants have reported that they have successfully received their first dose of the vaccination.  You may or may not be asked to show your Alaska letter and Crew ID so please be prepared–you may or may not be approved.  Please go to your Health Care provider app or website and try to book an appointment under the current criteria eligibility. To print a copy of the Alaska Vaccination Letter:  

Alaska’s World>> Inflight Page>> Safety>> COVID-19 Resources>> Vaccine Prioritization Letter

SFO Pairings Update

by Virginia Fritz, Council 35 Scheduling Chair and MEC PBS Committee Member
Flight Attendants will continue to see the pairings in SFO shift from month to month as Network Planning moves routes around, does aircraft rotation, and changes timing of certain flights we are accustomed to seeing in our SFO pairing selection. AFA Pairing Analyst Karen Ferrell and Local Scheduling chairs continue to advocate based on the feedback received from members. The most recent months of pairing selections have been the company’s solution rather than the AFA solution. While there is no guarantee that the company will always apply our desired changes, they continue to attempt to find the right balance of pairing trip length distributions that SFO prefers based on feedback. Trip Layovers, while in normal times is easy to advocate for by requesting soft locks, have been harder to apply as our route structure continues to vary. Most recently the committee has been advocating for more 4K’s, Hawaii layovers, more 2 days, less 4 days and as always, commutable productive trips as a whole. Please continue to send both positive and negative feedback each month so that we can continue to advocate for SFO and thank you for your patience while we navigate these changes.  For more information, please reach out to Virginia Fritz, Scheduling Chair.

Hotel Committee News and Info

by James Bozanich, Council 35 Hotel Chair

As we round the corner from 2020 to 2021, the Hotel Committee wanted to share some information that may be helpful.  Here are some hot topics:

Crew Transportation

Crew vans are for assigned crew only. All of our transportation is provided to us clean and sanitized to keep us safe and healthy. Unfortunately, no family or friends are permitted to join us at this time.

Van Drivers not Wearing a Mask

Let someone know via REPORT IT app.  Each state and county have different rules and regulations which can cause confusion on this topic.  As a reminder, it is Alaska’s policy that all of our transportation drivers wear a mask for Flight Attendant’s safety. If this is not happening, write it up in the Report It app as a safety concern. It will then be addressed by management and shared with the AFA Air Safety, Health, & Security Committee to drive corrections. If this issue requires urgent attention, FAs should contact the Crew Scheduling Duty Manager and request new transportation.  

Resources

As a reminder, the current hotel and transportation list can be found in our Flight Attendant webpage under hotels and on the IMD:  Good-Reader>>ASFA Supplemental>>Hotel Hotline.  Questions can be directed to James Bozanich, Hotel Chair. 

ASHSC Committee Member Needed

The SFO Air Safety Health and Security Committee (ASHSC) is looking for one additional committee member.  Please review the ASHSC webpage and review the requirements for more information.  Please email Brad Young with your expression of interest and for any additional information.

COVID Vaccine for Flight Attendants

Message from AFA International
Despite their role to maintain critical industry, Flight Attendants are not in a priority tier for the COVID vaccine in most of the country.  To help bring awareness and to advocate for priority status in all states, AFA is asking that FA’s write a letter to their governor and ask that Flight Attendants be included in Tier 1B. To read the full article and for more information on how to help with his advocacy please visit AFA Interactive.

How do I contact Council 35 Officers?

Using a personal email address, the preferred methods of contact are:

• Open an Online Support Request ticket
• Officer group email sfo@afaalaska.org (if one officer is flying /unavailable other officers can respond)
• Individual officer emails (if information is for a specific officer)
• Calls/text (if situation requires more urgent attention)

When contacting Council 35 officers please avoid the following methods:

• Sending to/from alaskaair email (subject to company audits and therefore not private)
• Officer personal Facebook/social media accounts (not actively monitored for AFA concerns)
• Excessively lengthy texts (please use email for important information as it’s easier to respond and forward to appropriate resource-texts should be reserved for alerts to an issue that requires a timely response)

Please allow at least one business day for a response to any method of contact (email, phone, text).  

In solidarity,

Melissa, James and Brad

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Melissa Osborne, LEC President •  Melissa.osborne@afaalaska.org • 415-275-1322
James Ikehara, LEC Secretary •  James.ikehara@afaalaska.org  • 415-289-9011
Bradley Young, Council Representative • Bradley.young@afaalaska.org • 916-508-3503