leave of absence

Council 35 News – September 2020

October 1, 2020 16:23

Important Dates

September 30 (Today!): Q3 CBT
October 2: SFO Benefits Meeting
October 2-16: Vacation Bidding Round 2

Reminder: SFO Benefits Meeting October 2

The SFO International Benefits Center, in conjunction with United Council 11 and Alaska Council 35, is sponsoring an online and phone session for Flight Attendants that have been impacted by the effects of COVID-19. Topics to be discussed include unemployment benefits, health care, job placement services and community resources.

To sign up for the next session on Friday, October 2nd, this link will take you to the online form. If you have specific questions you would like addressed, please ensure you complete the last item on the form. Should you need to contact SFO’s Business Center directly, they can be reached at 650-821-5242, or via email.A comprehensive brochure published by the SFO Benefits and Career Center which will help answer questions about the variety of services available.

CWA Database Crash: A message from AFA International

During this past week, the database at the AFA Membership Services Department experienced a significant technical disruption. While we are able to extract some member data, the problem limits our ability to access detailed information regarding your account. For example, if you need to pay outstanding dues, we are able to tell you the outstanding balance, but not the applicable month it covers. You would then be able to make payment by check or credit card (afacwa.org/payment).

If you have questions, you will find much information online (afacwa.org/membership). If you need to contact us, please use the following link: https://www.afacwa.org/contact_membership_services.

In advance, we thank you for your patience as all responses will be delayed as we perform the necessary changes to our database. If your question requires research into your membership account, we anticipate the response may be no sooner than November 1.

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.

Farewell to EO Flight Attendants

Council 35 officers would like to wish SFO Early Out (EO) Flight Attendants a fond farewell. On behalf of the SFO membership we would like to thank you for your years of service and for making the decision to retire to alleviate furloughs due to COVID-19. Best wishes to you and your family and best of luck in your next life adventure.

COVID-19 Safety Concerns Onboard

As reported in our September 9 Updates, service continues to put Flight Attendants at risk. Please continue to report any safety hazards that you experience while performing the expanded onboard service. This could include instances of increased exposure to passengers (e.g. passenger removing their mask to speak to you, etc.) or other hazards related to service. You can report these hazards through ReportIt! by submitting either a FAIR and/or ASAP for each flight on which they occur. Include the terms “COVID-19″ and “service” in your narrative to ensure they are correctly categorized by management. This data will help our AFA representatives to advocate for safe levels of service.

#ReliefNow

Flight Attendants should continue to pressure Congress to put in place #ReliefNow. Make the calls to your state’s Representatives and Senators:

SENATE: 888-848-4824
HOUSE: 888-907-9365

Sample Script:
“Hello, I am a constituent calling to ask my Senator/Representative to save my job as an essential worker and airline employee. An overwhelming majority of Congress supports an extension to the Payroll Support Program for aviation workers to avoid massive job loss in October and also to ensure there’s no cancellation of service to small communities. We need a COVID-19 relief package with our payroll support passed TODAY. Our jobs are on the line right now and millions are hurting without this relief! Keep us connected to our jobs, paychecks, & healthcare. We are counting on you. Thank you.”

You can also find local office information by looking up your Representative and Senators at house.gov and senate.gov. Visit the #ReliefNow page to find a mobilization event near you.

Contacting SFO 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).

Stay healthy and safe!

In solidarity,

Melissa, Aladrian, James and Brad

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

Council 35 News – August 2020

August 31, 2020 11:37

Important Dates Coming Up

Hawaii Travel Declaration Forms (online only): September 1
2021 Vacation Bidding Opens: September 4

Payroll Support Program Extension

Although Congress has technically recessed for now, work to extend the Payroll Support Program (PSP) continues in earnest during the recess. If PSP were to be extended at any point and involuntary furloughs subsequently prohibited, AFA and management would meet and confer over any necessary changes to furlough mitigations and involuntary furloughs pursuant to the October 2020 Involuntary Furlough Mitigations Letter of Agreement. Realistically, that would likely lead to discussion regarding voluntary leave programs similar to those offered over the last five months. Want to help ensure PSP continues? Volunteers for the AFA phone bank are needed! Please contact your Council 35 officers for more information.

IVF in SFO

With 119 Flight Attendants involuntarily furloughed (IVF), SFO is second behind SEA in the number of FAs affected by the IVF. However SFO is the largest Alaska base to have been relocated to a new domicile. On behalf of your Council 35 officers, we are sad to see you go. Please reach out if you have any questions or need support while adjusting to the change and moving to a new base. To ensure you get all the AFA information you need for your new base, it is recommended that FAs update their newsletter preference online.

California Wildfires

Our hearts go out to SFO Flight Attendants that have been impacted by the California Wildfires. For support and more information please refer to the August 22 communication. SFO EAP is available to support those affected by the Wildfires: eap.sfo@afaalaska.org. If you wish to donate to those affected or would like to apply for financial assistance, please visit:

No OAL Travel on Leave

As reported in the July 2020 Newsletter, AFA has been advocating for employee use of OAL travel benefits during one of the many staffing leaves. Unfortunately your Council 35 officers are sorry to report that AFA was not successful in persuading the company to reconsider their position on OAL travel.

Stay Informed

Although Flight Attendants are not required to read company emails and bulletins while on leave, it is recommended that FAs keep current with all the latest information while on leave during this time of constant change. Additionally it’s important to ensure the personal email address on file with AFA is up-to-date. To change your contact information, please visit the AFA website to update email and/or mailing address.

Membership Dues While on Leave

As a reminder, Article II.C.1.b of the AFA Constitution & Bylaws require that AFA dues continue to be paid during any leave of absence less than 90 days. If you currently pay your dues through payroll deduction, dues payments will continue to be deducted as long as you continue to receive a paycheck with sufficient funds for all other payroll deductions plus your AFA dues. If you are no longer receiving a paycheck or your paycheck does not cover all of your payroll deductions, AFA dues will not be deducted and you will instead receive an invoice from AFA International Membership Services. Members can pay dues online or submit invoice payment via mail. Please contact membership services for specific account information.

EAP is Here to Help

These are extremely difficult and stressful times. Please remember that the SFO Employee Assistance Program (EAP) Committee is always available as a support resource. For help, please contact sfo.eap@afaalaska.org.

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).

Stay healthy and safe!

In solidarity,

Melissa, Aladrian, James and Brad

Council 35 News – July 2020

July 30, 2020 14:13

Service Survey: Participation Needed!

AFA recently published a survey for Flight Attendants to give feedback on the current service. Many members have expressed their concern with the safety of the increased service levels amidst the COVID19 outbreak. Please take a moment to complete the survey! Additionally your Council 35 officers strongly recommend FAs file a report (FAIR) regarding passenger mask removal onboard.

OAL Travel on Leave

Council 35 officers have received many messages from concerned members about the loss of other airline (OAL) ZED travel while on leave coming up in October. Policy surrounding OAL travel is determined by the participating airline. ZED agreements require that to be eligible for travel, employees must be active. For an employee to be active, they need to be on payroll, or have a pay event in order to remain active for a given month. The leaves offered as furlough mitigation leaves are unpaid and FAs that are on these leaves are not considered active employees. AFA has discussed this concern with management, and have requested that options be considered to allow employees to remain eligible for OAL. Please stay tuned for progress on this request.

Rumor Control: Avoiding IV

There is a rumor that suggests that applying for a leave will alleviate any risk of involuntary furlough (IVF). Unfortunately this is not true. If an FA’s seniority number is in the furlough “zone” there is no action an FA can take that would prevent furlough from happening. The MEC has published multiple communications on what FAs can do to avoid furloughs at Alaska, which encourages FAs to reach out to Congress to vote in favor of additional support for airline employees.

Staffing Leaves and Coordination

Another misconception about leaves is that cashing out vacation or sick bank hours will allow an FA to “coordinate” to keep the FA on payroll and active while on a staffing leave. The furlough mitigation leaves are unpaid, and FAs will not be able to cash out any days when on one of the upcoming staffing leaves.

Stay Informed

Membership Dues While on Leave

EAP is Here to Help

With Warn Notices and leave bid awards coming soon, these are extremely difficult and stressful times. Please remember that the SFO Employee Assistance Program (EAP) Committee is always available as a support resource. For help, please contact sfo.eap@afaalaska.org.

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).

Stay healthy and safe!

In solidarity,

Melissa, Aladrian, James and Brad

Council 35 News – June 2020

June 30, 2020 12:24

Reminder: Deadline to complete Q2 CBT today June 30!

Trending Discipline

Layovers and the Alcohol Policy

Previously AFA provided a list of “What the company knows about me.” For layovers and hotels, this includes key swipes, hotel video images, and bar receipts that show times orders were placed and when paid. When a violation of the alcohol policy is suspected, the company can collect all of this information to provide evidence in support of the suspicion. Additionally, any “disruption” to a hotel property by an FA puts the company crew hotel contract at risk, and normally discharge to the offending FA is the result of these incidents.

RAP Violations

Management has been monitoring reserves and their location during the reserve availability period (RAP). FAs that are not within the base area during the entire RAP or reserves that leave base during airport standby have been discovered and this violation normally results in discharge. This includes commuting delays. If your commute flight arrives after your RAP begins, this would be considered a violation. Your Council 35 officers recommend that those FAs new to reserve, be sure to familiarize yourself with §11 of the JCBA to understand the rules regarding availability and contactability.

SFO Air Safety, Health & Security Committee (ASHSC) Update

By Brad Young, ASHSC Chair and Council Representative

ASAP: When can we use it? When should we not use it?

An ASAP is created specifically to provide a means for employees to report safety-related events or concerns. All individual ASAP reports are clearly labeled as such. Each ASAP report must contain sufficiently detailed information about a safety event so that it can be evaluated by the ASAP ERC (Event Review Committee).

Two types of reports are that are to be submitted under the ASAP:

Safety-related reports that appear to involve one or more violations of the regulations (e.g., deviating from routine flight duties (Policy and Procedure)-skipped part of the regulatory demo in announcement).
Reports that identify a general safety concern, but do not appear to involve a violation of the regulations (e.g., flight attendant concerns that the design of a galley cart configuration could lead to an on the job injury).

Flight Attendant reports that would be excluded for ASAP that involve:

Possible criminal activity
Substance abuse
Controlled substances
Intentional falsification or disregard for safety

Accidental ingestion of a possible controlled substance is not eligible for ASAP. If you find yourself accidentally ingesting something that could result in a positive drug test, please notify your Council 35 officers or EAP for guidance.

September Leaves

Crew planning recently offered Staffing Adjustment Leaves (SAL) of both 30 and 60 day durations. The MEC heard from many FAs disappointed with the offer and the inability to secure a leave for September if already on a SAL. Although the leaves offered were contractually compliant, the company recognized the challenge with how this would affect FAs already on a leave. As a result, an updated bulletin was posted indicating that SALs have been converted to 30-day only for August and bidding for September will be open in a few weeks to provide the fairest option to all FAs interested in remaining on a continuous leave.

Recurrent Checklists

A recent audit of recurrent training (RT) completion packets revealed that many didn’t have the appropriate check marks to indicate a completed drill. This caused many FAs to be recalled to attend RT a second time to prevent dequal status. As a result of the audit, the instructors have been extra fastidious with paperwork review, however it is recommended that FAs monitor their own completion packets to ensure the proper checks have been made after completing a drill.

Council 35 Committee Update: Welcome New Members!

Human Rights: Sejal Patel

In 2016, Sejal fulfilled a childhood dream when she earned her wings with Virgin America. Fueled by her love of travel and desire to switch industries and careers, she fell in love with flying and more importantly, the people she has worked with and met. She quickly learned that a good crew can turn even the most hideous pairing into one of your favorite trips and believes in that to this day. Sejal sought out to join the Human Rights Committee because she wanted to make a change at our airline and do the hard work to make Alaska Airlines a better, more inclusive, place for our flight attendants. This is not going to be an easy task and will require heavy lifting, difficult conversations and uncomfortable situations, but it’s the only way to create meaningful, lasting change and she is committed to the goal.

Interested in joining a committee? Please review the committee page and send your expression of interest to sfo@afaalaska.org.

Membership Dues

by James Ikehara

As a reminder, Article II.C.1.b of the AFA Constitution & Bylaws require that AFA dues continue to be paid during any leave of absence less than 90 days. If you currently pay your dues through payroll deduction, dues payments will continue to be deducted as long as you continue to receive a paycheck with sufficient funds for all other payroll deductions plus your AFA dues. If you are no longer receiving a paycheck or your paycheck does not cover all of your payroll deductions, AFA dues will not be deducted and you will instead receive an invoice from AFA International Membership Services. If you receive an invoice or statement indicating that you owe AFA dues, payment can be made in one of two ways:

By credit card-Online
By mailing a check directly to AFA International Membership Services

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

Council 35 News – May 2020

June 1, 2020 10:54

Upcoming Dates to Remember:

July 30/60-day SAL bidding closes: June 1
Request to cancel SAL for Life Insurance deadline: June 2 (more info below)
August PBS Bidding opens: June 5 (back to normal schedule)
Q1/Q2 CBT deadline: June 30

Trending Discipline

Sick Leave Abuse

Although many Flight Attendants are on some sort of leave, there still seems to be a trend with sick leave abuse investigations. When calling in sick, whether protected under FMLA or normal sick, the company’s expectation is that the Flight Attendant is taking the time to recover from an illness which is preventing them from being able to work. If evidence is discovered that shows a Flight Attendant using sick leave that doesn’t appear to be recovering, the company will investigate. Recent investigations have included travel audits, scheduling requests and social media posts that the company believes may contradict a Flight Attendant’s alleged sick status. From the company’s perspective, calling in sick for any other reason than sick, is considered time card fraud. In all cases, the investigations concluded in termination when proof of illness is not substantiated by evidence (i.e. hospital/doctor/medical receipts) and when conflicting evidence of apparent wellness is presented.

Reserve Issues

With new reserves on the roster, performance management is also focused on reserve compliance. Some of the trends include commuting into base after RAP begins, or leaving base early before RAP is completed. Reserve F/As not available in base for their reserve availability period (RAP) have received discipline, even on first offense. Just one occurrence can lead to discharge. Any Reserve F/A interested in extra support or guidance, please be sure to reach out to the SFO Reserve Committee. The committee has recently re-opened the Reserve Buddy program and is accepting requests to have an SFO Buddy assigned for help.

CBTs Due Soon

The Q1 and Q2 CBTs have been published to the Learn App (replaces Cornerstone) on the IMD. Both CBTs are due 6/30/20.

Q1 CBT: Uniforms and 9Max
Q2 CBT: Minimum Crew, CD-0 Cabin Management, CARES Restraint and Introduction to Threat and Error Management

Air Safety, Health & Security Committee Update

by Brad Young, ASHSC Chair and Council Representative

Masks

SFO continues to be stocked with surgical, light blue and dark blue (adjustable) facial masks. A third type of fabric mask will start testing next week and will be adjustable around the ears (the loop) for further comfort and better fit. Your ASHSC and Inflight Service Committee (ISC) members will be conducting wear and fit tests. Distribution of masks occurs in the SFO Village by supervisors from 0500-1500 daily and after hours by CSA supervisors. Flight Attendants will receive two (2) masks each and must sign for them. F/As may also email SFO supervisors to coordinate pick-up through the V-file system.

Onboard Sanitizing Supplies

All aircraft should have 16oz bottles of alcohol-based sanitizer onboard for use when soap and water aren’t readily accessible. Onboard Antiseptic Wipes (Clean-4-Sure) are provisioned on the A/C to wipe down IMDs, A/C surfaces, interphone, and demo kit contents. When using the IMD and interphone, avoid openings such as the earpiece and mouthpiece, as sanitizing liquid may enter and cause damage.

IMPORTANT: Please fill out an Irregularity/ASAP Report if the sanitizing supplies are not available or insufficient for flight. This will ensure the company provides the necessary tools to work in a safe and healthy workplace.

Social Distancing Inflight

AFA has worked closely with the company to help increase social distancing for F/As, which resulted in a temporary procedure change to allow F/As to sit in a guest seat during the cruise phase of flight. This policy is for F/As who are working a flight and on duty, however does not apply to F/As who are deadheading or on a crew rest break (HNL turn flight). While in a passenger seat, F/As must adhere to PED/IMD policy. As a reminder, this allowance is only applicable during the cruise phase of flight therefore F/As are expected to be in assigned jumpseat locations for taxi, takeoff, and landing.

First Virtual Membership Meeting a Success!

Thank you everyone for attending the first Council 35 Virtual Meeting on May 19! The agenda for this meeting was to discuss the AFA Proposed 2020 Budget. The following day on May 20, a Special Meeting of the AFA Board of Directors took place, at which an interim budget was approved for fiscal year 2020-2021. This was also a videoconference meeting and AFA’s first ever virtual BOD Meeting. The AFA International Office is currently updating the relevant documentation and will publish for review by members in the near future. The success of these meetings using new technology will provide councils with the opportunity to host more meetings in the future to reach members with valuable news and information happening in the Union.

Life Insurance While on SAL

Flight Attendants on Staffing Adjustment Leave (SAL) lose their company-sponsored life insurance after the first partial or full bid month on SAL. This is consistent with past practice, however the current insurance company is processing the cancellations faster than in the past, which is causing a burden to some Flight Attendants. In response, the company made the decision to offer a one-time opportunity for F/As to cancel their SAL beginning the month of July. To cancel and take advantage of this offer, F/As need to email Inflight Crew Planning no later than 1159pm (PST) Tuesday, June 2. Reference Bulletin Bundle #2020-0051 for additional information.

Recurrent 2020

It’s unfortunate, but even this late in the year we are still encountering challenges with Recurrent (RT) 2020. A recent training audit exposed administrative errors that have resulted in Flight Attendants de-qualing and returning for additional training. Your Council 35 officers understand how frustrating the RT program has been this year and empathize with F/As that are on the receiving-end of the disagreeable consequences. Be assured that AFA will continue to advocate for a fair resolution to these issues.

Membership Dues While on Leave

by James Ikehara, Secretary

Payment Options

If you receive an invoice or statement indicating that you owe AFA dues, payment can be made in one of two ways:

Online by credit card here.
By mailing a check directly to AFA International Membership Services

More information about payment options can be found on the payment options page of the membership services section of the AFA International website. This page also contains information about payment plan options if you have a past due account and are unable to pay your entire balance at once. Should you need further information about the status of your account, you can use this link and a representative from AFA International’s Membership Services department will be able to assist.

Updating Personal Information
You can update your contact information (street address, phone number, email address, last name) with this AFA link.

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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