AFA Horizon

Council Newsletter, June 2024

AFA Horizon – Council 16 Newsletter (BOI, PAE, SEA, GEG)

In case you missed it, check out the last newsletter.

Celebrating the LGBTQ+ community, remembering the past, and working toward an equitable future, June is Pride Month.  Every year, Pride Month is a time to recognize and appreciate the influential role of the LGBTQ+ community in history, society and cultures around the world. In many areas, Pride Month is celebrated annually in June to honor the Stonewall Riots that occurred in that same month in 1969. However, in some areas – especially in the Southern Hemisphere – pride events occur at other times of the year.

Since legislation that limits the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals has risen in the last few years, the legacy of the Stonewall Uprisings in New York City on June 28, 1969, continues on as the LGBTQ+ community struggles for their right to openly exist. To learn where Pride Month originated from, click here, and the Human Rights Campaign provides a guide to become an LGBTQ+ ally that can be found here. 

Join AFA to celebrate pride month by wearing your AFA pride pins, attending events & parades, and show solidarity BIGGER, better and bolder than ever! 

Pride events around our bases:

AFA Board of Directors meeting
The 51st AFA Board of Directors (BOD) Convention took place in Atlanta May 20-22. Your Local Officers joined all AFA Local Executive Council (LEC) Presidents from each of our 20 AFA represented airlines, Master Executive Council (MEC) Officers, International Officers, members and guests at this in-person meeting.

A total of 16 Advance Agenda Items were submitted for consideration at this convention. In advance of the convention, we conducted a membership meetings and solicited your feedback on the issues that were scheduled to be discussed and decided upon at the BOD for the running of our union. Here are the outcomes of each agenda item.

*amended during BOD meeting

FAA reauthorization act
Our Members are grateful to the work of Senator Maria Cantwell (WA) the Chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, Representative Rick Larsen (WA) the Ranking Member of the House Transportation Committee, and Sam Graves (MO) the Chair of the House T&I Committee.

Read more >

Flight Attendant survey
Columbia University needs your help! Columbia University is studying and comparing FAs and Air Traffic Controllers health avoidance as they did with pilots. They are asking for 3,000 Flight Attendants to complete the survey so this information can help the profession understand Flight Attendant health care challenges and preferences.  It’s an important study.  Aviation personnel face unique challenges related to their health. The current study aims to understand the health behavior and preferences of Air Traffic Controllers and Flight Attendants to better meet their unique health needs.

Please participate in this one-time, <5-minute, confidential online survey. Your opinions and experience matter and need to be heard! To start, click the below.

FAIF compliance
The grievance committee has seen an increase in disciplinary action being taken against probationary and non-probationary Flight Attendants for failure to comply with FAIFs. As a reminder the manual reads:

3.10.1 – Comply365 – “All Flight Attendants shall sync Comply365® before reading and complying with all unread FAIFs and revision packages each time they check in. Not reading or complying with available compliance publications could lead to removal from flight status.”.
5.2.1 – Reporting for duty – “Read and comply with FAIRs and revision packages.”

Scheduling update, May 2024
Your Council 16 Scheduling Committee meets monthly with the MEC Scheduling Chair & Crew Planning Liaison to discuss the ongoing work representing your interests in line holder schedules and raise your concerns about how the pairings were built that month. The Committee also meets with management quarterly to receive updates and discuss issues and problems Flight Attendants face with scheduling, pairings, and bidding. Representing you at these meetings are Miria Davis (BOI), Heather Coleman (PAE), Vacant (SEA), Aaron Lucich & Shannon Powell (GEG), and Joshua Haimes (Chair).

The committee has long heard from you that pairings are not being built to your satisfaction. In general, you want high credit pairings (5+ credits a day avg.), limited/no sits over 2 hours, overnights of 12 hours or greater, limited overnights in another base, and better distribution of pairing lengths (base specific). Continue to let your bases scheduling rep(s) know how satisfied you are with the pairings, and any issues faced with scheduling, pairings, and bidding.

July 2024 pairing build

Pairing stats: Green = Base is satisfied. Red = Base wants fewer pairings matching that filter
Pairing distribution: Green = Base is satisfied. Red = Base wants more pairings of this length

Council Chat, June 18

Council Officers want to hear from YOU! Unfortunately this month’s chat will not be held due to scheduling conflicts. This council chat is held on the 3rd Tuesday of the month, time is subject to change.

Please join us on Google Meet.
Join by phone – 1 (401) 375-9299‬ PIN: ‪380 261 809‬#.

Frontier Flight Attendants
BREAKING: AFA Frontier Flight Attendants filed for federal mediation with the National Mediation Board to resolve the dispute created by the company’s business model change and the immediate and drastic impact on Flight Attendants.

“Frontier Management is uprooting the lives of Frontier Flight Attendants. It is unsustainable and fundamentally wrong to ignore the impact on Flight Attendants. We won’t stand for it,” said Jennifer Sala, AFA Frontier President. “We are pushing ahead with our rights under the Railway Labor Act and we will not stop until management ensures workers are not bearing the brunt of this change.”

Read more >

Council status report

If you have an unresolved outstanding balance pay online.  Flight Attendants who have taken any unpaid leaves, including CLOA, union dues must be paid manually. If you happen to find yourself in an arrears situation and do not know the amount owing or have any questions regarding what months you owe, please contact Council leadership.  We are here to help!

Negotiations Sessions 7
Your AFA Negotiations Committee met with management for Negotiation Session 7 on May 6-8. Representing you at the table were Committee Members- Heather Coleman & Lexie Massey, MEC President- Lisa Davis Warren, AFA Staff Attorney & Negotiator- Kimberley Chaput.

The Committee met with Vice President Station Ops & Inflight- Shelly Parker, Manager Inflight Labor & Performance- William Casalins Altamar, Director Finance- Amber Hopkins, Senior Corporate Counsel, Alaska Legal- Latrice Lee, and Seyfarth Shaw LLP Partner, Labor & Employment- Molly Gabel.

In this session, the parties discussed four different Articles, with mixed results:

Article 4 (Duty-Time Expenses) and Sideletter 7 (Hotel Minimum Standards) – As you may know, the pilots recently reached an agreement that allowed them to choose between compensation and a day room. AFA proposed identical language for Flight Attendants, and management accepted it, subject to an overall agreement on economic issues. Assuming this proposal holds, Flight Attendants would receive $60 if they declined a scheduled day room and $90 if they request a day room and the Company cannot obtain one. “Scheduled” day room means scheduled in the bid packet or, in the case of a rolling delay, the point at which it is determined that the layover will exceed four hours (using the same methodology as today).

Parties also discussed situations in which a given hotel did not have adequate food options. The idea would be to compensate the Flight Attendant for the cost of having food delivered (the delivery fees, not the food itself). We are still trying to determine where and under what circumstances this would occur.

Article 9 (Sick Leave) – While the committee, of course, proposed greater sick accruals, the primary issue at the table this week was the implementation of state paid sick leave (PSL) laws. We began discussing this topic last summer and continued until these Section 6 negotiations started in November. At the time those talks broke off, we were close to an overall agreement, and AFA believed that we would pick up where we left off when we returned to this topic. Management did not agree. Their response to our proposal from January was to renege on previous agreements and substitute language much less favorable to Flight Attendants. The committee, to put it mildly, expressed our outrage and disappointment. We then responded with a proposal that included continuing our current system—any absence covered by sick leave would not have any disciplinary consequence. We shared our research, which showed that sick leave use over the past year is at historic lows, and there has been no impact on the operation.

Although the Company did not respond in writing to our proposal, they indicated that they would give it serious consideration. We will see what happens next time.

Article 11 (Vacation) – Management did not make a written response to the committees proposal from March. They shared some ideas to make more vacation weeks available to bid but at the price of losing our ability to carry over vacation. This was presented at the tail end of the last day, so we did not have the opportunity to explore this in depth. Please share your thoughts on this with your Negotiating Committee before our next session.

Article 19 (Benefits) – The committee continued to propose improvements to our benefits, including health insurance, pass travel, and 401(k) match. So far, management has no interest in changing anything in any way that would help Flight Attendants. We do not expect to see significant movement prior to a comprehensive proposal (if then).

Next Session June 12-14
Next month, we will pick up where we left off. Currently, the only article we have not discussed in the table is Compensation (Article 3).

As always, please wear your AFA pins as a symbol of solidarity. We are in the slog part of negotiations, but we hope things will pick up as we dive into comprehensive proposals in the coming months. When that happens, you’ll know—and more importantly, management will know.

Know your contract

  • Article 5.B.3
    • “A Flight Attendant will not be rescheduled without mutual consent to perform any duty for more than six (6) consecutive days without a Day Off. However, for operational reasons, duty may be rescheduled to end at Domicile no later than 0200 of a day without the duty being considered duty on that calendar day.”
  • Article 5.A.4.f.
    • “Within any 7-day period there shall be scheduled at least on calendar Day Off in domicile, free of any duty. Flight Attendants may waive down to the FAR minimum.”

Until the next check-in, fly safe!

“Stronger Together, Better Together”