Negotiations Session 6, April 2024

AFA and management met April 15-17, 2024, to continue negotiations for our new contract. The AFA Committee consists of Master Executive Council (MEC) President Lisa Davis Warren, Heather Coleman, Lexie Massey (all current HZN Flight Attendants), and our Staff Attorney and Negotiator, Kimberley Chaput. Management was represented by Shelly Parker, Vice President, Station Ops, and Inflight; William Casalins Altimar, Manager, of Inflight Labor, and Performance; Amber Hopkins, Director, Finance; Latrice Lee, Senior Corporate Counsel, Alaska Legal; and Molly Gabel, Partner, Labor, and Employment (outside legal counsel). Chéri Ruger, Managing Director People and Labor Relations attended several sessions on Benefits (Article X), and Jason Berry, Horizon Air President, stopped in to meet the members of the AFA Negotiations Committee and our Staff Attorney.

At the table this week, we pushed to close open sections including:

Article 4 (Duty-Time Expenses) and Sideletter 7 (Minimum Hotel Standards)

Most of our discussions centered around hotels and how to handle situations when the company wants to place Flight Attendants into hotels that have not been vetted. We are still exploring what should happen in these situations, but AFA is committed to ensuring that Flight Attendants are always lodged in safe, clean hotels with access to food. Management seems to be willing to do that as long as it’s not expensive or inconvenient. We believe that these are basic rights that we have as Flight Attendants and management needs to ensure our rights are respected.

In other areas, management withdrew its proposal to increase the minimum time required for a day room to six hours. We will continue to have a four-hour threshold. AFA had pushed for an increase in the parking allowance (payable to Flight Attendants who forego Company-paid parking). Management provided current parking rates and, the system-wide average is less than the current payment. We therefore agreed to keep the allowance at $36.

Article 19 (Benefits)

AFA asked for significant improvements in health care, disability, retirement, and travel benefits.  Management was completely opposed to any improvements, but they want to take away all the me-toos in the Article. Benefits are going to be a big fight. They don’t seem to understand that we cannot keep absorbing increases on a salary that does not even keep up with inflation.

Article 25 (General)

To no one’s surprise, management continues to insist on increasing our tidying duties on the ground at all stations, not just on through flights. We flat-out told them that Flight Attendants would not ratify a contract that contained such a provision. They do not seem to care, because they continue to make the same proposal. They need to realize that we are not being paid between flights and that this is often the only time we get to use the facilities or eat a quick meal. They just think it would be nice if we took some of the load off the station employees. While we are sure that they are understaffed and overworked as well, that’s management’s problem, not ours.

The other big issue in this Article is the Commuter Policy. This is always a tough one for us because commuters want improvements, but non-commuters don’t want money that could go to everyone for items that only benefit some of us. After a lot of thought and discussion, we withdrew our proposals for a monthly commuter allowance and for an increase in the number of Flight Attendants who could hold the W-5 boarding priority. We reasoned that a) we have open issues that will help all Flight Attendants (wage rates, benefits, flexibility improvements) and b) we wanted to focus on a ground commuter policy. The proposed ground commuting policy would apply no matter how you get to work (drive, train, public bus, etc.). It would apply to air commuters when they were getting to the airport in their commuter city. Management would only agree to such a provision if the ONLY road you could take to work was closed for at least three hours and you could not get there via other methods (such as walking). We will continue these discussions at our next session.

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If it feels to you like not much progress has been made, you’re not entirely wrong. It has been several sessions since we tentatively agreed to an entire article, and management has not agreed to much within the open articles. However, keep in mind that negotiations are a process. We are continuing to work through the individual articles of the contract and hope to be working on a comprehensive proposal—one that covers all remaining open issues—in the next few sessions. Before we get there, we first must go through everything at least once. Once we get to comprehensive proposals, we hope that things will move more quickly.

Next Session May 6-8

Our next meeting should be pivotal. Management owes us responses on several articles, including some that we did not discuss this week. We need to respond on Benefits and General. We are hoping to break some stalemates and see some progress.

In the meantime, if anyone from management asks you questions about negotiations or seeks your feedback on anything related to your pay or working conditions, do not engage. You are not required to have these conversations, and in some cases, they may be illegal. We ask that you politely but firmly respond that “MY NEGOTIATING COMMITTEE SPEAKS FOR ME.” Any feedback on negotiations should come to AFA, not to management.

We will update you again after our next session. Wear your AFA pin on every flight and remember that we are Stronger Together, Better Together!