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Council 35 News December 2020

Important Dates

December 31 (tomorrow!):  Q4 CBT & Convert Guest Passes

Dues Info

With many Flight Attendants on leave, Council 35 has received many requests for dues owed.  To inquire about your dues account, please visit the new dues page on AFA-CWA for more information.

Latest info on PSP

Progress on PSP and Flight Attendant benefits can be found on the AFA-CWA website.  To get the most updated information please visit the Latest News page. 

Keep Guest Passes for Next Year

Remember to convert unused companion travel passes before the end of day December 31. Once converted the passes live in your FLY account. The passes may be ticketed for 3 months after the conversion date. To find your account:

Alaskasworld > FLY > Guest Passes > Manage Guest Passes

Record Improvement 

Year-end record improvement will be applied by mid-January.  Flight Attendants with 4 or fewer attendance points at the end of 2020 and who did not accrue any points in November and December, will have points removed.  Please allow two to three weeks for the performance supervisors to manually apply the Nov/Dec record improvement to attendance records.  Reference: JCBA§32.G.4

December PPP 

December is an Individual PPP month. To qualify,  FAs must meet or exceed awarded TFP for the month of December by a minimum of five (5.0) TFP.  The $350 payout will be issued Jan 20th separately from normal pay.  Reference: JCBA§21.R

SFO Base Leadership Update

Congratulations to Cierra Lewis who has been promoted to base manager of SFO.

Holiday Offer

“In These Times,” the leading progressive magazine that covers workers rights, access to healthcare, climate change, systemic racism, and more is offering Union members a free subscription.  To take advantage of this free subscription, CLICK HERE to sign up. The offer is only valid until December 31, 2020.

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).  

Happy New Year!

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

End of Year Update

Goodbye, 2020!

As 2020 comes to an end, your local AFA Officers want to express our gratitude to each and every member of AFA Alaska Council 15- SAN.  Starting with the Recurrent Training fiasco to the COVID pandemic, our members have handled everything thrown at us with grace and professionalism. We have stayed unified and supported each other.  We are proud to represent such an amazing group of Flight Attendants!

4th Quarter CBTs

All 2020 CBTs must be completed by Dec. 31st if you are not on a leave. Failure to complete by the deadline will result in progressive steps of discipline. If you are currently on a leave you have 60 days once you return from leave to complete your CBT.

CBT’s may be completed on your company issued IMD or on your personal device or computer.

On your IMD, launch the Cornerstone Learn App
portal:  aagtraining

Using your personal device or computer?
Alaskas World > Inflight Page> Training> Cornerstone

*Please verify that all modules have been completed by reviewing your Cornerstone Learn transcript OR ensure that you have a received an email stating your training has been completed.

If you are having any significant problems with the Cornerstone app, please open a support ticket by going to the following link: http://support.afaalaska.org/ provide screenshots if possible.

Be Prepared

We are seeing a rise in Covid 19 exposures and test positives as well as entering into the Flu season. It is a really good idea to pack a thermometer, ibuprofen and your favorite cold medicines in your overnight bag.

Professional Standards vs. Management

Conflicts or issues with Coworkers 

Please keep in mind that many personal conflicts should be taken to your AFA Professional Standards (PS) team and not taken immediately to management.  Often EAP/ PS can resolve the problems or issues without Management becoming involved. Once management is aware of the situation, it could lead to all parties being called in for meetings. There is the potential of 1 or all parties involved receiving discipline and or possibly even termination depending on the issue and once all parties involved are heard in meetings with Management.

Our AFA EAP and Professional Standards Committee is an invaluable resource to assist you in dealing with conflicts between Flight Attendants (as well as Pilots) without creating job jeopardy or threat of discipline. 

The PS/EAP team works with both sides of the disagreement to find the best possible resolution and is completely confidential. Our Professional Standards team can reach out to other AS workgroups that have Professional Standards. 

The Professional Standards team has had a high success rate in working with the Flight Attendants involved to achieve a positive outcome. 

Your EAP/ Professional Standards Committee Representatives are:

Melanie Buker – chair 

melanie.buker@afaalaska.org

208-890-1849

Ava McWilliams – co-chair

ava.eap@yahoo.com

951-662-3486

Norma Dorman  

eap.norma@icloud.com

619-417-4617

Rex Hampton 

rexonthebeach@yahoo.com

760-218-7567

Holly Mozzone  

hollymozzoneeap@msn.com

253-334-2848

Contacted by Management?

If you receive a call or email from any Supervisor, it is best first to clarify if the conversation could lead to disciplinary action. If the answer is “Yes,” at this point you can request that the Union be involved in any further discussions. However, even if the supervisor states that the conversation won’t lead to any discipline if at any time you feel the questions to be uncomfortable you can end the conversation by saying you will only continue with an AFA Union rep present. 

Including a Union rep, there is insurance. They are an advocate and a second set of ears to ensure that your point is understood clearly by the company and not misinterpreted.

Reach out to your local officers at SAN@afaalaska.org

Membership Dues

Thank you to those of you that have made an effort to remain current with your Membership Dues while out on leave of absence and/or Voluntary Furlough!

If you are calling the AFA Membership office 800-424-2401 EXT 707, please leave a message.  Due to the COVID pandemic office staff are working remotely.  Messages are checked and calls will be returned within a timely manner.   

“How much do I owe?”

While on leave of absence (Medical, COVID, Staffing Adjustment, etc.  LOA) and/or enhanced voluntary furlough (EVF) you are responsible for the first three months of membership dues ($50/mo.) 

If you took a combination of leaves/EVF and you were out continually for three months or longer it is unlikely that you will owe more than $150. you can pay online at https://unionly.io/o/afacwa/dues 

“Do I owe membership dues if I attend(ed) Recurrent Training (RT) while on Leave of Absence/EVF?”

No.  Attending RT during a month in which you were on LOA/EVF does not trigger an additional membership dues payment.  This also applies to Requal Training (RQ).

More information can be found here: Payment Options

Guest Passes

Remember to convert your unused companion travel passes before the end of day December 31st. Once converted the live in your FLY account under guest passes, manage guest passes. They can be ticketed for 3 months after the conversion date.
 
FLY> Guest Passes> Manage Guest Passes

End of Year Record Improvement

Record Improvement S32.G.4– should be applied by mid-January, If you had 4 or fewer points at the end of 2020, and you did not accrue any points in NOV, DEC your points will be removed and you will be starting 2021 with zero points. Please allow about two to three weeks for the attendance Supervisors to apply your Nov/Dec record improvement. Once this has been done, let your Officers know if there are any discrepancies. 

December PPP

JCBA§21.R. 
December is an Individual PPP month ($350).

To qualify,  you must meet or exceed your awarded TFP for the month of December by at least five (5.0) TFP.

The payout will be on Jan 20th in a separate check from your normal pay.

Happy holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and looking forward to 2021!

In Solidarity,

Brice, Melanie, JR

Council 35 News – November 2020

Important Dates

December 1: PING on IMD (Don’t get locked out!) 
December 2-16: Travel Open Enrollment
December 31: Q4 CBT

Due Soon!  PING required for IMD

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. 

Committee Update

Reserve:

Council 35 would like to offer a special thanks to Rachel Sebastian for her commitment to SFO the last few years as Reserve Chair.  As a resident of the Portland area, Rachel is now lucky to be based at home and has transferred to PDX.  With the new opening, Reserve Committee member Kyle Ogiela, has now volunteered for the chair position.  Welcome Kyle!
Get to know Kyle in his own words:

Kyle started his aviation career in April 2018.  He was born and raised in Las Vegas where he then went on to serve a mission and lived in Paraguay for 2 years. He then attended BYU and obtained his Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in painting while taking advantage of several remote study programs that took him throughout Europe, Tonga, and New Zealand. Following school he went to Atlanta where he went into operations management with Pest Control companies which finally culminated with him moving to Seattle in 2007. In 2018 he turned his work experience toward aviation.  When he started as an agent he quickly moved to become a coach and then a lead. He jumped on the opportunity to transition to inflight and was the 1st graduating class of 2019.  He has loved the decision to come to inflight and even more excited having the opportunity to serve.  At the end of last year he joined the reserve committee.  He jumped right in to being a reserve buddy for the newer classes. He loves the ability to dive in and find answers.  He looks forward to learn more and of course assist in any way every day.

Human Rights:

Back in June we introduced Sejal Patel as a new HR Committee member.  We are happy to report she has accepted the chair position for Council 35.  Thank you Sejal!

End-of-Year Reminders

Record Improvement:

JCBA§32.G.4 defines the year-end record improvement process for Flight Attendants. If a Flight Attendant has no more than 4 attendance points at the end of the year, s/he achieves 480 annual TFP, and the FA does not accumulate any points for the months of November and December, then her/his point balance will be brought to zero.  The manual adjustment occurs mid-January which will be reflected on FAs attendance point records.

Guest Passes

Convert your unused companion travel passes before the end of day December 31st. Passes can be ticketed for 3 months after the conversion date.  Once converted the passes can be found in FLY:
FLY>> Guest Passes>>Manage Guest Passes

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

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

SAN November Updates

SAN LAX SFO Membership Meeting Nov 16

The next membership meeting for Council 15 members will be Monday, November 16, 2020 at 1100 on Zoom. The purpose will be to discuss the AFA Board of Director’s Meeting scheduled for November 18, 2020. This meeting will be a combined council meeting and open to all Council 15, 18 and 35 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 SAN@afaalaska.org by November 9, 2020.

Increases to High-Deductible Health Insurance Plan

Your Council 15 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 

Multi-Factor Authentication coming soon 

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. 

FMLA Qualifications 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.

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 15 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.

Contacting AFA Officers

Please, Do Not call from a blocked phone number.  Blocked Calls/Voicemail are filtered out and may not be delivered.
Please, Do Not send messages via Facebook Messenger (or any 3rd party message App).

Please, Do Not email over Company servers  (@alaskaair.com).  

The company has access to all communications on company servers.   Assume every email sent or received via Co Email will be seen by management.   

Member run Facebook Pages are NOT actively monitored by AFA.  Therefore, there should be no expectation that any AFA officer will see or address any issues or complaints posted on those pages.

If you need assistance, please reach out to your AFA Reps via appropriate channels and provide details for us to assist you.  

Please contact us using the following approved platforms:

Email: SAN@afaalaska.org

Phone: (206) 457-2010 X5
OS Ticket:   https://support.afaalaska.org/
Committee Roster:  https://afaalaska.org/san/committees

Registered Commuter Status

Key reminders for F/As who are registered commuters D8Y Status:•

  •  Commuting using the D8Y boarding priority is only permitted when traveling to/from work.
  •  F/As are not eligible to use when traveling for personal reasons.

F/As must submit an update request or removal request via the Commuter Form on the Inflight Website if any of the following events have changed since originally enrolling in the Commuter program.

  • Registered commuter city, primary residential address, permanent domicile, temporary base swap

Commuting using the D8Y boarding priority is not permitted when: 

  • Beginning or completing an out of base pick up
  • When choosing to be released from a deadhead originally scheduled to return F/A to domicile,
  • F/A travels to a city that is not their registered commuter city and then flies to their domicile(exception: making a legal connection en route from the F/A’s registered commuter city to the F/A’s domicile or vice versa).

.

Council 35 News – October 2020

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!)

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

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

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