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Association of Flight Attendants-CWA Alaska Airlines Master Executive Council

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[L-AS] JCTE Contractual 48/7 and Out of Base Waivers

This message is for pre-merger Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants

AFA was advised that JCTE will be receiving an update on the evening of May 8, 2018, that will include the contractual 48/7 waiver (Section 8.L) and out of base warnings that previously existed in eMaestro.  It is important to remember when picking up or trading, you may be required to waive or accept provisions.  If you waive a provision when processing a direct trade, you will also be waiving the contractual protections for the Flight Attendant receiving the trip.   Prior to processing a trade, it is important that you discuss any contractual waivers with the Flight Attendant who will be receiving the trip and determine whether s/he agrees to any contractual waivers.  If you choose to accept the waivers when processing a trade, this acceptance will be noted in the system and pay protection and/or rest requirements may not apply.  Refer to Section 8.N of the CBA for waiver of contractual rest.

If you have any questions about JCTE contractual waivers, please contact your Local Scheduling Committee.

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Linda Christou, Lisa Pinkston, Terry Taylor, Mario de’Medici, Melissa Osborne, Tim Green, Brice McGee; and MEC Scheduling Committee Chairperson Jake Jones

[pmAS] MEC Grievance Committee Payroll Representative Interviews

This message is for pre-merger Alaska Flight Attendants

Background

The MEC Grievance Committee Payroll Representative is responsible for working with management to resolve Flight Attendant payroll discrepancies.  The Representative works closely with the MEC Grievance Committee Chairperson, Scheduling Committee, and Reserve Committee to gather Flight Attendant payroll concerns and represents the position of the MEC in interactions with management.

Additional Information from the MEC Policy Manual

The following language is contained in Article VII.F.3 (Grievance Committee, Payroll Subcommittee) of the AFA Policy & Procedure Manual

A.  Scope

(i)  The Payroll Subcommittee will work with the company and the Inflight Payroll Department to resolve Flight Attendant pay concerns with management.

(ii)  The Subcommittee will represent and advocate for the MEC position in matters pertaining to Flight Attendant pay

B.  Policy/Responsibilities

(i)  The Payroll Subcommittee shall consist of the MEC Grievance Committee Payroll Representative

(ii)  The Subcommittee shall:

(A)  Review activity claim forms and other Flight Attendant pay claims as needed.

(B)  When pay is correct, provide Flight Attendants with an explanation and applicable contractual citations explaining how the pay is correct.

(C)  Meet with management on a regular basis to discuss, review, and resolve Flight Attendant pay discrepancies.

(D)  Attend and participate in the Scheduling Review Board.

(E)  Meet regularly, but no less than weekly, with the MEC Grievance Committee Chairperson to discuss the needs, interests, and challenges of the subcommittee.

(F)  Meet regularly, but no less than bi-weekly, with the MEC Scheduling Committee Chairperson and MEC Reserve Committee Chairperson to review and provide updates on work of interest to the committee(s) and subcommittee.

Qualifications

  • Robust working knowledge of scheduling, reserve, hours of service, and compensation provisions of the Flight Attendant collective bargaining agreement.
  • Ability to maintain office hours in Seattle during the business week and attend meetings as required.
  • Strong computer skills. Excellent working knowledge of Jeppesen Crew Access (JCA), Google email, osTicket, and Microsoft Office.
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills. Ability to write communications, respond professionally to internal and external e-mail, track issues, prepare reports, and plan meeting agendas and take minutes.
  • Ability to meet deadlines and follow up on assigned tasks.

Duties

  • Provide assistance and guidance to Local Benefits, Grievance, Scheduling, and Reserve Committees in handling Flight Attendant pay concerns and issues. Assist in resolution of issues as needed.
  • Attend meetings with management and represent the AFA position on Flight Attendant pay-related matters.
  • Participate in the Scheduling Review Board process. Participate in Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) meetings when requested.
  • Schedule, plan, and conduct monthly meetings of the committee and other meetings and conference calls as needed.
  • Coordinate with the MEC Scheduling and Reserve Committee Chairpersons to address and resolve open issues.
  • Correspond with the Local Benefits, Grievance, Scheduling, and Reserve Committee Chairpersons and MEC regularly to provide status updates. Prepare and send a monthly activity report to the MEC Grievance Committee Chairperson for inclusion in the monthly committee report to the MEC.

Time Commitment and Flight Pay Loss Reimbursement

  • This position will receive 75 TFP of Flight Pay Loss (FPL) per month in accordance with a letter of agreement with the company, paid with a 5% override at “A” pay.
  • Time commitment is approximately three days per week in Seattle with additional work completed remotely or in the office as necessary. No relocation or accommodation expense is provided for this position.
  • The MEC Grievance Committee Payroll Representative does not bid a line.

Working Relationships

With The MEC Grievance Committee

This position works directly on a day-to-day basis with the MEC Grievance Committee Chairperson and Representative. Frequent interaction with Local Grievance Committee Members.

With Other MEC Committee

Constant interaction with the MEC Committee Chairperson and Local Committee Chairpersons of the Benefits, Scheduling, and Reserve Committees. Frequent interaction with Local Committee Members of each committee.

With The Master Executive Council

This position reports to the Master Executive Council through the MEC Grievance Committee Chairperson. The MEC executive sponsor for the committee is the MEC President.

With Alaska Airlines Management

Constant interaction with inflight management, particularly the Manager of Crew Pay (Debbie Bakke), Supervisor of Crew Pay (Michele Carcalean), Director of Inflight Crew Scheduling (Denia Pisia), Crew Pay Analysts, and Inflight Crew Scheduling Duty Managers.

Expressing Interest and Interview Scheduling

  • The MEC will hold interviews during the May MEC meeting on Wednesday, May 16. No trip drops or scheduling adjustments are available to attend the interviews.
  • Interviews will be at the AFA Alaska MEC office in Seattle.
  • Submit a declaration of interest and resume to MEC Secretary-Treasurer Linda Christou at linda.christou@afaalaska.org no later than 5 PM Pacific Time on Friday, May 4, 2018. Linda will be able to provide additional information regarding transportation and booking of flights if necessary.

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Linda Christou, Lisa Pinkston, Terry Taylor, Mario de’Medici, Melissa Osborne, Tim Green, Brice McGee and MEC Grievance Committee Chairperson Stephanie Adams

[AS] Maternity Leave Grievances

This message is for pre-merger Alaska Flight Attendants

Last month, management granted our grievance #36-99-2-24-17 (Violation of Section 15.M.1.a & 2.a, Failure to Allow Minimum Coordination While on Maternity Leave).  Information about the grievance was published on August 7.  The grievance applies to the time period of 6/8 weeks post-birth to the 120th day post-birth.  It mandates that management follow our contractual provision to allow a Flight Attendant to use minimum coordination with sick leave and/or vacation from 6/8 weeks’ post-birth to 120 days’ post-birth.  Previously management required maximum coordination with at least 70 TFP of sick leave monthly.  That was a huge win for all Alaska Flight Attendants.

Recently, management sustained another grievance #36-99-2-25-17 (Failure to Allow Minimum and/or Maximum Coordination While on Maternity Leave) which encompasses 121st day post-birth up to one to eight months leave post-120th day.  Again, this mandates that management follow our contractual provision to allow a Flight Attendant to coordinate minimum or maximum sick leave and/or vacation from one month up to eight months following the 120th day post-birth.  This was even a bigger win for all Alaska Flight Attendants.

These sustained grievances mean that a Flight Attendant on maternity leave, may use minimum or maximum sick leave/vacation per section 15.M of the contract.  They will get paid when they are on a longer maternity leave and will be eligible for active employee rates for insurance for as long as 8 months following the 120th day post-birth (up to a year post-birth).  This will allow Flight Attendants to stay off work much longer with their newborns while receiving pay from their sick leave and/or vacation banks and maintaining active rate insurance.  This will also allow the look back calendar to be applied in calculating flight attendants TFP toward the yearly 480 requirements for vacation, insurance and uniform benefits.

If you have any questions about maternity leave, please contact your Local Benefits Committee Chairperson (or Local Benefits Committee Member who specializes in maternity-related issues).  You can find contact information on your Local Council’s Committee page of the AFA Alaska website.

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Linda Christou, Lisa Pinkston, Terry Taylor, Mario de’Medici, Melissa Osborne, Tim Green, Brice McGee and MEC Grievance Committee Chairperson Stephanie Adams

[AS] PBS Update – May 2017

A message from your AFA PBS Committee

There have been a few recent changes with PBS with more to come!  We’ll talk more about that in a moment but first we’ll cover the basics.  Please read along and hopefully you’ll have a better understanding of our bidding program.

First, a reminder that the PBS Committee is here to help you specifically with your bids.  We aren’t trained to assist you with questions unrelated to bidding such as IMD help, Crew Access/trading questions, vacation trading, payroll, etc.  Those types of questions are best addressed to the Alaska IT desk, your payroll analyst or your Local AFA Scheduling Committee.  Their names and email addresses are always on the PBS Info Page as part of the monthly pairing information for your base.

Helpful Hints 

The program reads your bids from the top down

This is one of the most important things people need to remember when bidding. If you want to ‘Prefer Off’ certain days or want to ‘Avoid’ something for the entire month then you need to say so at the top of your bid, at minimum prior to your first ‘Award’ line.  Whatever is most important to you (days off, avoiding redeyes, etc.) should come first. Certain lines such as Waive rules or Set Conditions will automatically be at the beginning and can’t be moved.  Prefer Off and Avoid lines entered after Award lines do not apply to the previous Award lines…since the program reads the bid from the top down those lines will not yet apply.  If you’re bidding for a pairing that would violate any of your Prefer Off or Avoid lines, then the pairing would have to be requested higher in the bid than those lines.

If you enter anything in your ‘Current’ bid, even one line, then your ‘Current’ bid is used to build your schedule

The program doesn’t skip from Current bid to Default bid…it’s one or the other.  If you are intending for the program to read your Default bid, check to make sure you haven’t accidentally entered any line in your ‘Current’ bid.  Making this mistake is not considered a valid bid protest.

A line preceded by a number was a line entered by you…lines without a preceding number are supposed to be there and are auto-generated by the program.  See the PBS Info Page for an example.

Do you prefer to be on Reserve?

If so, you must begin your bid with ‘Start Reserve Bid’.  Then enter ‘Start Reserve’ and follow that with your reserve preferences.  With so much growth lately, you may be surprised that you held a line of pairings and didn’t want one.  The program tries to build everyone a line of pairings if mathematically possible.  If you prefer Reserve, you must start your bid with ‘Start Reserve Bid’.

On the cusp of Lineholder and Reserve?  You may want to ‘Waive’!

Many of you that are on the cusp of lineholder and reserve may not realize you might need to ‘waive’ certain contractual rules in order to hold a line of pairings.

Waiving down to ‘Allow 24 Hours Off in 7 Days’ and waiving the ‘No Same-Day Pairings’ rule could be the only way for you to hold a line.  If you see others junior to you holding a line and you didn’t, it’s quite possible it was only because they ‘waived’ those rules.

Check your bidding number on the seniority list on the Inflight webpage at the beginning of each month.  Then check the PBS Info Page for the number of reserve lines in your base for the next month.  This will help you to determine how close you are to still being on reserve.  If you’re close to the bottom lineholders then you need to strongly consider entering those ‘waive’ lines if you hope to be awarded a line of pairings instead of reserve.

Layover rest is not the same as ‘legal rest’

For bidding purposes, your ’48 Hours Off in 7 Days’ rest (or 24 Hours Off in 7 Days if ‘waiving’) must be at your domicile, not on a layover.  A layover does not count as contractual rest during line construction. You are able to waive this rule during trading on Crew Access, allowing layover rest to count towards CFR’s, but not during bidding.

Prefer Off ‘Day of Week’ bids are no longer ‘forgettable’

Maybe people don’t use ‘Forget’ and ‘Redo From’…if you don’t use these then you don’t need to worry about this.

If you still wish to forget a bid involving a day off, you’ll need to use ‘Prefer Off’ by using a specific date.  Instead of saying ‘Prefer Off Fridays’ with the plan to later forget that line, you’d need to ask for individual Fridays off by date.  You will now be able to later ‘forget’ that line.

Are you changing bases this month?

With so much hiring lately there is a lot of movement between bases. Your default bid will not carry over when you change bases. You’ll have to re-enter your default bid. Print it out before the move so you have something to help you re-enter your old default bid when next month’s bidding in your new base opens.

Our most frequent question during Bid Protest

Why didn’t I hold a line while others below me did?  Did those people below you have vacation TFP?  A carry-in trip?  This gives them TFP credit that you didn’t have when it tried to build them a line. Were you illegal for a trip on the 1st of the month due to your flying the end of the previous month?  Maybe that small reason prevented you from holding a line since you couldn’t take a pairing on the 1st or 2nd.  Did they ‘waive’ the ‘No Same Day Pairings’ rule and/or allow for ’24 Hours Off in 7 Days’ and you didn’t?  Did they enter the waive for the ‘Co-Term’ rule if in LAX?  Did they allow for ‘4k’ flying and you didn’t?

Trust us in that the program will always try and build you a line if mathematically possible when taking your legalities and bids into consideration.  It wants to build everyone a line in order to ‘cover’ the operation and staff every pairing if possible.

Line awards and Coverage Reports are now posted on the Inflight webpage 

For the line awards, visit the Inflight website > Schedule and Bidding > Line Bidding > PBS Awards.   The line awards are now showing ‘color coding’…different colors for normally awarded pairings, Coverage pairings, normally awarded Reserve days and Coverage Reserve days.

A recent program update made the following changes to PBS:

Navtech is now ‘NAVBLUE’.  They were purchased last year by Airbus and they’ve chosen to change the name of their new subsidiary.

Any mention of Arctic number has been replaced with Employee number.  This refers to your 7-digit PeopleSoft number.

Your ‘Calendar’ no longer shows pilot-related FAR 117 numbers.  Also, most pilot-related information has been removed from your personal information

New terminology for some ‘Set Condition’ bids makes them clearer.  For example: The previous ‘Minimum Days Off’ is now ‘Minimum Days Off In A Row’, ‘Maximum Days On’ is now ‘Maximum Days On In A Row’ and ‘Consecutive Days Off’ is now ‘Consecutive Days Off In A Row’.

Color coding of line awards on the posted line awards.  Different colors designate pairings (or on-call days) if they were assigned during the normal award process or were assigned as a ‘Coverage’ pairing or reserve day.

Welcome to Adam Clarey!

Adam was selected by the MEC as a new member of the Joint PBS Committee!  He is currently Seattle-based and has been a Flight Attendant for 13 years. Other AFA joint committee members include Rebecca Asbell (PDXFA) and Stephen Poynter (SEAFA).  Alaska Airlines joint committee members are Inflight Crew Planners Kelly Yeager and Sabrina Blevins.

Upcoming PBS Changes

There’s been some confusion between the changes to our crew tracking program (Crew Access/JCE) and upcoming changes to PBS.  These are of course two separate programs. Here’s what’s changing with Navblue’s PBS program:

We recently went to a new look to the Inflight webpage…that’s called a ‘user interface’. Navblue is transitioning all of their customers to a new ‘user interface’ by the end of 2017.  The new Navblue website will have the same internal programming but it’s how you interact with the program that will be changing.  It’s a whole new ‘look’ but after taking some time with it we believe everyone will grow accustomed to it and maybe even like it better than the current version.

Navblue’s new user interface was designed to be more tablet-friendly.  It also allows you to work on your bids when off-line, saving your work to submit later when you’re back on the Internet. It utilizes ‘filtering’ when searching for pairings and allows easy transferring of desired pairing numbers onto your bid.   Color-coding of bid lines will help you see more clearly the structure of your bids…and will hopefully make it more obvious when a bid is in the wrong place!

We anticipate introducing the new Navblue website to everyone in mid-July after bidding is finished.  You’ll be able to use both the current and the new websites for a three month period and then the ‘off switch’ will be flipped on the current version. By mid-October we plan on using only the new website going forward.

We’re not going to sugar-coat it…it is definitely different and you will need to allow some time to learn how to use the new PBS website.  Our best advice is that you don’t wait until the last minute!  During the three-month transition period use the new program as often as you can. Changes made to your bid on either the current or new version will be reflected on both websites. Whichever version you last submit your bids on will be the bid that is processed.  If you’re struggling, make sure your default bid will carry you until you feel more proficient in using the new website. There will be training support to help you through this transition…PowerPoint presentations, videos and live help at your base.

Thanks for reading!  For help with your bidding, email PBS.QA@alaskaair.com

Grievance Committee Update – 4th Quarter 2024

Grievance Committee Our Grievance Committee has been very hard at work ensuring disciplinary due process and contractual compliance on your behalf.  The contract requires a minimum of 13 arbitration dates yearly to dispute discipline/termination cases and contractual issues.  Termination cases are usually given first priority in order to return a Flight Attendant back to work […]

Introduction to the Minimum Pay Rules Flow Chart

Scheduling Committee We’re introducing a valuable new resource from our Scheduling Committee! We’ve developed a visually engaging flow chart that breaks down the Minimum Pay Rules (MPRs) outlined in Section 21.D of our Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). This chart is your go-to tool for understanding the essential elements of your pay provisions, ensuring that every […]

Notice of Election for Officers of Joint Alaska-Hawaiian MEC

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De-Stress Your Holidays

Employee Assistance Program (EAP)/Professional Standards Committee The holidays can be fun, but they also can be a source of great stress. Below are some common holiday stressors and suggestions for managing them.   How Can You Deal With Difficult Family Interactions During the Holidays? Being realistic is the first step. Family dynamics typically revert to historic […]

Upcoming Merger of Alaska and Hawaiian Master Executive Councils

Master Executive Council (MEC) As part of the merger between Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines, the Master Executive Councils (MECs) of both airlines will soon be combined into a single MEC. This new MEC will consist of the six Local Executive Council (LEC) Presidents from pre-merger Alaska Airlines, the two LEC Presidents from pre-merger Hawaiian […]

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