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Important Dates

NOW: Seasonal Boots (AFA asked and management said yes!)
October 28-November 18: Benefits Open Enrollment
October 31: Halloween (stay safe!)
November 1: Fall Back-Daylight Savings Ends 
November 16: CA Membership Meeting
December 1: AS Multi-Factor Authentication Enrollment Ends (Don’t get locked out!)

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California Membership Meeting Nov 16th

The next membership meeting for Council 35 members will be Monday, November 16, 2020 at 1100 on Zoom. The purpose will be to discuss the AFA Board of Directors Meeting scheduled for November 18, 2020. This meeting will be a combined council meeting and open to all Council 35, 18 and 15 members in good standing (up-to-date on dues).  You must register to attend.  If you have any agenda items to discuss or specific questions please submit to sfo@afaalaska.org by November 9, 2020.

Trending Performance Investigations and Disciplines

CBT

Discipline for failing to complete quarterly CBTs are continue to trend.  Flight Attendants returning from leave are given 60 days to complete CBTs.  The Council 35 Grievance Committee has been successful in assisting FAs dispute discipline when evidence of technical difficulties exist.  Being busy and forgetting to complete the CBT has not been accepted as extenuating circumstances to miss a CBT deadline and the discipline will remain.  If more than one CBT deadline is missed, discipline will progress to higher steps on the discipline scale (ie 2 missed CBTs in 18 month period will escalate to a Written Warning).

Reserve Violations

Reserves that spend their reserve days out-of-base or not remaining within airport during airport standby continue to be investigated.  Violations of the reserve proximity requirements will result in termination on the first offense.  Please see JCBA§11 for rules regarding reserve availability periods.

Qualifying for FMLA after Staffing and Furlough Mitigations Leaves

To qualify for FMLA, FAs need to work 504 hours within a rolling 12 month period.  With so many FAs taking leaves this year, qualifying for FMLA is a struggle for many.  AFA approached management to request a waiver or exemption to qualifying hours.  Management declined to change required hours to remain consistent with other work groups in the company.  This means that if an FA doesn’t qualify for FMLA, the intermittent leave option will not be available.   Continuous leaves will be offered through Matrix as a (non-FMLA) medical leave.

MFA for AS Accounts

Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) is a security process for authenticating users by requiring two methods to sign in – generally a password and another form of identification. Many already using this process to access sites such as online banking, and Alaska is now rolling it out to all employees for PeopleSoft and Office365 products.  The deadline to enroll in MFA is December 1, and employees that do not enroll by the deadline will be locked out of AS accounts.  Enrollment information will be sent to all employees via company email.

IT support staff will be in the SFO Village to offer assistance during the following dates and times:

• November 3: 0630-1500
• November 4: 0630-1500

Increases to High-Deductible Health Insurance Plan

Your Council 35 Officers have fielded many questions regarding increases in the consumer choice health insurance plan.  The JCBA §23.A.3 defines the option: “The Company will offer a high-deductible group-insurance plan. Flight Attendants will pay no more than any other work group to participate in the plan.” The regular PPO is limited to a 15% increase over current rates in §23.A.1 and did not increase for 2021. The PPO rates are frozen at the 2019 rates per JCBA§23.A.2 

Committee Update:  Benefits and Retirement

Council 35 is happy to welcome a new volunteer for our members.  Caleb Leo is our new SFO Benefits and Retirement Chair!  As we welcome Caleb we would also like to extend a special thank you to Majo Tanco, LAX Benefits Committee member, for filling in during the last few months and helping SFO members during the COVID-19 crisis. Get to know Caleb, in his own words:

Caleb started his airline career with Virgin America in 2011. He soon learned that many Federal and State employee protection laws that he had always taken for granted no longer applied to him, because airline crew are governed by the Railway Labor Act (RLA) of 1926. The RLA only affords airline workers one federally guaranteed right, the right to band together and bargain collectively with the air carrier.  After suffering scheduling and pay abuses that previous employers, like Verizon Wireless and Apple, could never have gotten away with, Caleb joined other like-minded Flight Attendants and became a union activist and organizer. Together, after a contentious battle, they successfully voted in a union. Now at Alaska Airlines, Caleb is still passionate about fair treatment and workers’ rights. Workers’ rights are human rights.

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, Aladrian, James and Brad

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Melissa Osborne, LEC President •  Melissa.osborne@afaalaska.org • 415-275-1322
Aladrian Hillmon, LEC Vice President • Aladrian.hillmon@afaalaska.org •  415-991-3791
James Ikehara, LEC Secretary •  James.ikehara@afaalaska.org  • 415-289-9011
Bradley Young, Council Representative • Bradley.young@afaalaska.org • 916-508-3503