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Representing the Flight Attendants of Alaska + Hawaiian

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2016 Performance Based Pay

Performance Based Pay is 8.73% of 2016 eligible earnings

Pursuant to CBA §29.A [Profit Sharing and Retirement: Performance Based Pay], all Flight Attendants will receive a Performance Based Pay (PBP) payout today on all eligible earnings described in the Alaska Airlines, Inc. Profit Sharing Plan. This year, line employees are receiving about a month’s pay or 8.73% of their 2016 eligible earnings. This is the eighth consecutive year Alaska has exceeded the 5% payout target, and PBP has averaged 9.14% over 5 years. Prior to 2009 Flight attendants participated in the Variable Pay Plan (VPP), which had a maximum payout of 7.0% of eligible earnings.

PBP eligible earnings

What are PBP eligible earnings? In general, it should be everything except for the prior year’s PBP payout, the Quarterly Productivity Premium (QPP), Operational Performance Rewards (OPR), per diem, expense reimbursements and imputed income.

Some of you have been doing your own calculations and questioning why your PBP payout is not consistent with eligible earnings. Well, the most probable reason is that the Company has likely been calculating PBP incorrectly for Flight Attendants since at least date of signing for this contract in December 2014. At a minimum, we believe that Sit Pay and Longevity Premium have not been included in the calculation for PBP 2014-2016.

PBP grievance

Consequently, AFA has filed Grievance 36-99-2-8-17 Violation §29.A Failure of Company to Include All Eligible Earnings in Calculation of Performance Based Pay (PBP). AFA believes the remedy would be a “make whole” recalculation and payout for the excluded eligible earnings. Management is currently in the early stages of research, which may take awhile due to the complexities of the issue. In the meantime, enjoy your 2016 PBP payout, and congratulations to all!

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Linda Christou, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Tim Green, Brice McGee; and MEC Grievance Committee Chairperson Stephanie Adams

2017.02.10 Grievance 36-99-2-8-17 Violation §29.A Failure of Company to Include All Eligible Earnings in Calculation of Performance Based Pay (PBP)

AFA and Alaska Airlines Management Settle Grievance No. 36-99-2-24-16 Suspension of Flight Attendant Trades and Denial of Related Contractual Provisions

[Note: This membership release is being re-issued in order to clarify the pay component of the Jeppesen Crew Access (JCA) Reserve. You only receive triple pay if used; if you are not called, there is no pay. However, there is also no obligation to answer the phone if you are on the JCA Reserve list and you are called for an assignment. AFA apologizes for any confusion.]

The Master Executive Council (MEC) and Alaska Airlines management reached an acceptable settlement agreement with regard to Grievance No. 36-99-2-24-16 Suspension of Flight Attendant Trades and Denial of Related Contractual Provisions.

The parties have agreed to the following provisions in recognition of the challenges associated with having trip trading suspended for a prolonged period of time due to the Jeppesen Crew Access (JCA) cutover and the impact to a Flight Attendant’s quality of life:

All Flight Attendants will receive a two (2) point credit to their Attendance Points balance.

These credits will be added to Flight Attendants’ Attendance Point balances effective January 31, 2017, for use on January 31, 2017. However the parties recognize there may an administrative lag in the points being reflected on a Flight Attendant’s Attendance Point balance. The two (2) point credit will be applied before any discipline is administered on or after January 31, 2017. Updated Attendance Point balances will be reflected as soon as administratively possible, but no later than March 1, 2017.

Examples:

Attendance Point balance of 2 points is reduced to 0

Attendance Point balance of 1 point is reduced to 0 with 1 bank point added

Attendance Point balance of 0 with 6 bank points will increase to 8 bank points

The parties also agreed to the following provisions to resolve attendance-related concerns during the JCA cutover:

Management Drops

Management drops will be granted without points for verified events if either of the following are true:

The event is found to be an unavoidable emergency.

The Flight Attendant made a reasonable attempt to trade away trip off of her/his line in advance if the event was anticipated.

Points Review Process

AFA and Management will review each situation on a case by case basis where points were assessed for a Management Drop between January 31 and February 3, 2017, and determine if the event(s) leading to the Management Drop met the parameters above.

Finally, the MEC and management agreed to the following provisions to improve operational reliability during the upcoming Jeppesen Crew Access (JCA) cutover:

What: JCA Reserve

Compensation: 

JCA Reserves will be compensated at:

A minimum of 8 TFP per day if used, or actual flying, whichever is greater, paid at 3X the trip rate.

A minimum of 8 TFP per day reserve premium if used, or actual flying, whichever is greater.

Timeframe: During the period from January 31, 2017, through February 3, 2017, Flight Attendants will have the ability to put themselves on JCA reserve.

Process to sign up:

Flight Attendants may sign up by sending an Outlook email to CrewSked.ReserveDesk@alaskaair.com no later than 11:59 PM PST on January 29th. This email address will be functional by 2 PM PST Thursday, January 26th.

The email must include the following:

Name

Arctic Number

Base

Seniority

The date(s) the Flight Attendant would like to be on JCA reserve. The date(s) may be from January 31, 2017 through February 3, 2017. For each of the day(s) the JCA Reserve will be on call from midnight to midnight (domicile time).

Co-terminal preference(s) (LAX only)

Preferences will be limited to:

No “A” position

No All-nighters

No Long Stage Length Duty Period (“4K”) sequences

Flight Attendants may remove themselves from the list up until assignment.

Process to award trips by Crew Scheduling:

Crew Scheduling will award in seniority order among the JCA Reserves. JCA Reserves may be utilized before or after AM, PM, ER Reserves at Crew Scheduling’s discretion.

Crew Scheduling can start contacting JCA Reserves at 8PM PST the day prior to the JCA Reserve going on call.

JCA Reserve will not receive a No Show if she/he does not answer.

If the JCA Reserve does not answer during the on-call period, she/he will be removed from the list and an email sent stating the removal from the list. No attendance points will be assessed.

The JCA Reserve may call back to be returned to the list.

As a result of reaching the preceding agreements, AFA has agreed to withdraw Grievance No. 36-99-2-24-16 Suspension of Flight Attendant Trades and Denial of Related Contractual Provisions.

AFA will continue to monitor the cutover to JCA, and your respective Local Executive Council (LEC) president will send out base-specific information to help address concerns during implementation of JCA.

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Linda Christou, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Tim Green, Brice McGee; MEC Grievance Committee Chairperson Stephanie Adams and MEC Scheduling Committee Chairperson Jake Jones

Trip Trading Freeze Part 2

On July 14th in our Trip Trading Freeze communication, the Master Executive Council (MEC) wrote about our frustrations that starting on the evening of September 30th Alaska Airlines management plans to “temporarily” suspend trip trading for up to 78 hours (although management says they plan to open up trading as soon as they believe it is safe to do so). The reason for the trip trading freeze is in order to transition from Jeppesen Maestro/eMaestro to Jeppesen Crew Tracking Enterprise (JCTE)/Crew Exchange.

A trip-trading freeze of this type would be a contractual violation of CBA §12.C.1. [Exchange of Sequences: Trading Procedures]: “The Company will provide and maintain a real-time electronic system for processing sequence trades, pick-ups, drops and give-aways.” That is just one violated provision of many.

The MEC has spent months attempting to negotiate provisions that would help take the sting out of such a major contractual violation and benefit the operation. The MEC has been trying to achieve an eleventh hour agreement that would be acceptable to our members over the past few weeks. At this point we are completely fed up with management and AFA is filing a grievance on the issue.

Trip-trading freeze negotiations

The MEC would like our members to know exactly how this all went down. When we first learned about the trip-trading freeze, the MEC fairly quickly realized this would cause disruption. However, we could not accept up to 78 hours of contractual violations. Of course the MEC started negotiating provisions on behalf of our members that would recognize how impactful this contractual violation would be as well as to minimize operational exposure. It could have been a “win-win” for all parties.

Paid drop coupons or the equivalent

The MEC’s opening position was one day of paid drop coupons or the equivalent in straight compensation for every Flight Attendant on the payroll for every partial day impacted by the trip-trading freeze (approximately three). Management was absolutely shocked we would open on a position that costs approximately $1 million per day. We told them the proposal was to get their attention and to give us a counter proposal. Negotiations continued.

“Super Reserves”

On the operations side, the parties fairly swiftly honed in on a “Super Reserve” concept that allowed Flight Attendants to be on voluntary call with no requirement to call back. This would help supplement the regular complement of Reserves during the cutover. If flown, a “Super Reserve” would receive the greater of 8.0 TFP or actual flying per day—all at premium pay. The only outstanding issue to be resolved was whether premium was double time (2.0x) or triple time (3.0x)—or somewhere in between. The parties also agreed to a liberalized process for resolving attendance points if Flight Attendants were granted Management Drops pursuant to Section 32 Attendance Policy during the cutover.

Positive Space Tickets, et cetera

Back to management’s “counter proposal.” Management refused to counter anything. The MEC attempted to be “more reasonable” (from management’s perspective) by suggesting every Flight Attendant receive an additional complement of positive space tickets (PST) to supplement our current allotment. We even gave them additional options by signaling that we were open to considering a bump to our Employee Choice travel credits. Nada. Management was concerned about setting a precedent for other employee groups asking for pass-related benefits due to contractual violations.

Attendance points credit

Earlier this week the MEC made a last-ditch proposal in which every Flight Attendant receives a credit of two attendance points (including up to two additional bank points if applicable) effective on or around the cutover date. This proposal was completely no cost and fully discretionary within Inflight (as in there would be no need to seek outside approval from executive management). Inflight management rejected the proposal as “too rich” but that they would consider perhaps one point.

What management thinks you are worth…

Inflight management has stated all along they believe the other provisions (the “Super Reserves” and a liberalized points forgiveness policy for Management Drops issued during the cutover) were good enough to make up for the contractual violation. This is what management thinks you are worth in relation to this unprecedented impact to your flexibility: Alaska Air Group will spend several billion dollars to purchase another carrier, but Inflight management can’t give us something that doesn’t cost a penny!

Grievance filed

So…that is why the MEC is done with management for now, and we’re filing a grievance.

>>> Click here to read Grievance No. 36-99-2-24-16: Suspension of Flight Attendants Trades and Denial of Related Contractual Provisions <<<

Considering how Inflight management is behaving these days, the MEC anticipates more grievances coming in the future.

If you have any questions or concerns, contact your LEC president.

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Satterlee, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Tim Green and Brice McGee

AFA Grievance No. 36-99-2-24-16 Suspension of Flight Attendant Trades and Denial of Related Contractual Provisions

Order of Reserve Assignment Grievance Granted

Management granted Grievance No. 36-99-2-4-16: Violation of CBA §11.E.9 Order of Reserve Assignment. AFA filed this grievance earlier this year because Crew Scheduling called a Reserve and didn’t wait 15 minutes for the Reserve to return the call. Crew Scheduling then proceeded to assign the next Reserve on the Low Time First Assigned (LTFA) list to the trip that the first Reserve should have received, but management was disputing whether additional pay was due for the second Reserve.

CBA §11.E.9. [Reserve: Order of Assignment]:

Crew Scheduling will assign Reserves in LTFA order as modified by LTFA preferences or reverse seniority order for Lineholder opt-out; if a Reserve is otherwise assigned out of order for any other reason, s/he will receive one and one-half times (1.5x) the trip rate for all TFP flown or credited, or for APSB of which one-half times (0.5x) will be paid above guarantee.

Since the grievance was granted, Crew Scheduling is required to wait a full 15 minutes for a Reserve to call back for an assignment. If Crew Scheduling moves to the next Reserve prior to the 15 minutes expiring, and if the first Reserve calls back during that time, then the second Reserve called and assigned is entitled to 1.5x pay for all TFP flown or credited in that pairing; 0.5x pay will be paid above guarantee.

If you think you have been assigned a trip out of order under these circumstances, take screen shots of the LTFA list, then contact your local Reserve Committee chairperson if you have any challenges with receiving the additional contractual compensation.

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Satterlee, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Tim Green and Brice McGee; MEC Grievance Committee Chairperson Jennifer Wise MacColl, MEC Grievance Committee Representative Stephanie Adams; and MEC Reserve Committee Chairperson Jarod McNeill

Performance Based Pay Correction

AFA Alaska recently became aware that an error occurred with respect to how Performance Based Pay (PBP) was calculated for some Flight Attendants. Flight Attendants who were coordinating sick leave with Short Term Disability (STD) and/or Long Term Disability (LTD) did not have their sick leave pay counted toward their PBP.

 

AFA Alaska brought these facts forward through the Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) process, and management has since corrected the error. Affected Flight Attendants received email notification of the correction, which was paid on their May 20, 2016 paycheck.

 

If you have any questions regarding the correction or if it applies to you, contact one of your Local Executive Council (LEC) officers.

 

In Solidarity,

 

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Satterlee, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Sandra Morrow, Stephen Couckuyt; LEC Presidents-elect Tim Green and Brice McGee; MEC Grievance Committee Chairperson Jennifer Wise MacColl and MEC Grievance Committee Representative Stephanie Adams

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