Negotiations Update – January 2020
Negotiations Update – January 2020
Thank you, Ed Hawes!
Before we begin, we would like to thank Ed Hawes for his many years of service as a member, and then chair, of the Negotiating Committee. Ed was first appointed to the Committee in 2007 and has worked on every AFA contract since then! He retired from AFA work on December 31, 2019. You’ll still see him flying the line, so take a moment to thank him.
January Update
Lisa Davis-Warren has been elected MEC President and as such is the new Chair of the Negotiating Committee. Lisa has attended the last several sessions and is more than prepared to fill Ed’s (giant) shoes.
AFA and Management met in Puyallup, WA, from January 7th, 8th and 10th. AFA’s committee members are MEC Lisa Davis-Warren; Flight Attendants Joelle Jaeger and Tanya Phillips; and our professional negotiator and attorney, Kimberley Chaput. LEC Council 17 President Kirk Hansen also attended the session. Management’s team consists of Michelle Abidoye, Managing Director, People and Labor Relations; Rachael Mattioli, MD Inflight Services; DeeDee Caldwell, Director, Inflight Operations & Labor Relations; Jeremy Ellison, Sr. Labor Relations BP; Amber Hopkins, Director Finance; BJ Colby, MD Finance also joined on one morning of this session.
This was another difficult session. As we get closer to an agreement—and we are very close—we have to make tough choices. We know that no contract is perfect, but we also know there are some items we absolutely must have in our contract. Any tentative agreement must be approved by the President’s of each Local Council before it can go out for a membership vote. If that step is met, then you, the members, will decide whether the tentative agreement becomes the new contract.
That being said, we did make some major headway. We agreed to adopt the SkyWest provision on ground holding pay–$15 per hour, pro rated, for holding with passengers for more than 30 minutes. We will become only the second regional carrier to have ground pay!
We also fixed something that we’ve complained about for years. Trades with Open Time are based on calendar days, so if, for example, a day trip releases at 12:05 AM, it is considered a two-day trip, even though it’s a single duty period. We’ve agreed that trading will be based on the number of duty periods, not calendar days. This should definitely improve our trading flexibility.
We are still working on compensation, per diem, commuter boarding priority, and several other issues. Management keeps telling us that their ability to pay us is constrained by the CPA (capacity-purchase agreement) with Alaska, and that they want our contract to stay in line with other regional carriers. There’s some validity to these arguments, but we still want to get the best contract we can—so keep wearing your AFA pins and letting us—not management—know what you think!
We’re meeting again on January 27-28 in PDX. Management wants to finish up the contract at that session. We do, too—but only if we believe we have achieved the best contract we can. We’ll keep you posted!
As always, we appreciate your help and support. It’s go time!
Our updates will also be posted on our website, https://afahorizon.org/ and on our official Facebook page, HZN AFA. “Like” our page to see posts in your newsfeed.
