October MEC Grievance Newsletter

Grievance Committee Newsletter

Your MEC Grievance Committee, the MEC President Lisa Davis Warren, and our Senior Staff Attorney, Richard Wrede, met with management on September 9th and 10th in Seattle with the National Mediator, Connor Parker, to mediate 18 cases. Unfortunately, the National Mediation Board was unsuccessful in helping us resolve any of the cases. The National Mediation Board is the same government agency that oversees mediated contract negotiations. An additional service they provide is to conduct and oversee grievance mediation. Grievance Mediation is a process in which the NMB assists the parties in achieving mutually agreeable negotiated resolutions to grievances, which the Union has filed. The sessions are conducted with the assistance of a Federal NMB Mediator. The key point of Grievance Mediation is that any settlement achieved must be mutually agreeable to both parties. No resolution may be forced upon either party. This implies that both parties wish to achieve a settlement. Absent that mutual desire, no agreement will be reached.

Six of these cases will be taken to the next step, which is arbitration. Two cases were withdrawn without prejudice (meaning we retain the right to bring the same claim again at a later time). The remaining cases will be held aside at this time.

Our four mediation sessions for 2026 have yet to be scheduled.

We have, by far, an unprecedented number of cases for arbitration due to the failure of our current management to work with AFA to resolve the cases. Historically, we have approximately one arbitration case every two years. Arbitration is time-consuming and quite expensive, so we are perplexed as to why Inflight management prefers to arbitrate these cases when the cost to settle them is minuscule in comparison. We are confident that we will prevail in these cases.

Upcoming Arbitration Cases

Case #6-16-2-77-23 - Airport Standby Compensation Violation - To be heard on October 29th, 2025, with Arbitrator Klein. This case is specific to Reserve Flight Attendants who are sitting Airport Standby and are assigned a trip during their airport standby shift. The company is shortchanging flight attendants on their airport standby compensation. The Union is requesting that all Flight Attendants impacted be made whole.

Case #6-16-2-72-23 - Trip Trading Blackout (December 10th, 2025). Arbitrator Symonette will hear this case. This case is specific to the end of the blackout period for the current bid, when final bids for the next month are published. The company is refusing to honor our contractual language and instead is following the language in the pilot contract for when the blackout period ends.

Case #6-99-2-14-24 - Unilateral Change to Boarding Time (January 16th, 2026). Arbitrator Meyers will hear this case. The case is specific to the contract requirement that the company meet and confer with the Union on any proposed changes to boarding times. Management's position is that they can unilaterally change boarding times without regard to the contract.

Arbitration Cases to be Scheduled

Case # 6-99-2-5-24 - Incorrect Denial Codes Split/Drop- This case is specific to a trip in progress. We became aware in the Spring of 2024 that Flight Attendants were no longer able to split/drop in eCrew once their trip had started. This violated the Flight Attendant's contractual right to submit the request, as well as the long-standing practice of being able to do so for many years.

Case #6-99-2-5-25 - MEC Discipline Process- Management has issued discipline to Flight Attendants without abiding by the contractual obligation to have a meeting to discuss discipline. The only time a meeting does not need to occur is for an Attendance Review and a Documented Verbal Warning for Attendance. Management also violated the rights of Flight Attendants by not allowing a Flight Attendant to have Union representation when issuing the discipline.

Case #6-17-2-27-25 and Case # 6-17-2-32-25- The company violated the CBA by refusing to pay Flight Attendants premium pay for travel from Recurrent on their day off due to flight cancellations.

Case #6-17-2-29-25 - Red leg Violation- The company violated a settlement agreement when they refused to pay Flight Attendants two credits per the Red Leg Settlement Agreement.

Case #6-16-2-33-25 - The company is in violation of the CBA for holding derogatory information in Flight Attendants; files for more than one year, as well as retaining such information without their knowledge.

There were four cases of Premium Pay Violations in July 2024- Flight Attendants picked up trips in Open Time on days that were later offered for premium pay. Management is refusing to pay Flight Attendants premium pay for the trips they picked up.

And finally, one termination case. A Flight Attendant was terminated without just cause established to warrant termination. We are requesting that the Flight Attendant be made whole and returned to work.

So far for 2025, we have filed 47 grievances. We appreciate all the work the Grievance Representatives have done on behalf of our flight attendants: Catherine Johnson, based in MFR; Jordan Gibson, based in ANC; Joshua Haimes, based in PAE; Jamie Moore, Local 16 Chair, based in SEA; and Marcella Oswald, Local 17 Chair, based in PDX. Rep Kirk Hansen is based in PDX. You can find information for each of our reps as well as file a grievance ticket on our website at https://afahorizon.org/

Kirk Hansen & Marcella Oswald, Horizon Air MEC Grievance Co-Chairs