September Negotiations Update!!

AFA and management met on September 17, 2024, to continue negotiations for our new contract. The AFA Committee consists of MECP Lisa Davis Warren (SEA), Heather Coleman (PAE), and Lexie Massey (SEA), who are all current 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, Inflight Labor and Performance; Mark Schuck from Finance; Latrice Lee, Senior Corporate Counsel, Alaska Legal; and Molly Gabel, outside legal counsel. 

Management provided responses to AFA’s proposals on Article 6, Crew Scheduling, and Article 9, Sick Leave. They made little to no movement in Article 6, but they definitely changed their proposal on Sick Leave.  Unfortunately, all their movement was in the wrong direction.

Since June of last year, the parties have been discussing how to incorporate paid sick leave laws (“PSL”) into our contract. We had almost reached an agreement just before negotiations for the contract began. The foundation of our agreement to negotiate PSL was that AFA understood that whatever agreements we reached would be the starting point for negotiations on Article 9. We would apply the most favorable parts of Washington and Oregon PSL to all Flight Attendants, regardless of base. However, when we first began discussing Article 9 several months ago, it became clear that management felt they could start from scratch.

This week’s proposal is the worst we’ve seen yet. They want Washington PSL to apply to Washington-based Flight Attendants (that is, those based in GEG, PAE, and SEA); Oregon PSL to apply to MFR and PDX Flight Attendants; and no PSL whatsoever would apply to our ANC and BOI Flight Attendants, because Alaska and Idaho do not have PSL. 

What does this mean? This would mean that Oregon Flight Attendants would accrue more PSL than Washington Flight Attendants and that ANC and BOI Flight Attendants would not accrue any. Your ability to use your PSL would also vary depending on whether you were based in Oregon or Washington. ANC and BOI Flight Attendants would not have protected absences unless they used contractual leave, FMLA, or other laws. In other words, Oregon Flight Attendants would have the most protection, followed by Washington, then ANC, and BOI. And this would be true even though we would all still work under the same attendance policy.

We told management that the MEC would never refer a contract containing these terms out for ratification and that even if they did, it would never pass. Their lack of reaction indicated they did not care if we ever reach an agreement.

The AFA committee spent the next two days in caucus working on a comprehensive proposal, which would cover all open issues in the contract. As we worked through these issues, we realized that management had essentially refused to consider any of our proposals that could, in any circumstance, cost them money. They told us that they would be putting all the money into wages and that they do not wish to be the catalyst that changes the regional industry. We discovered that we could not whittle down open issues into a meaningful, comprehensive proposal because we would be bidding against ourselves since we still would have no idea how much money they planned to offer.

After the session ended, we explained this to management. We said that we would bring our compensation proposal, Article 3, to the next session and that we would not be presenting a comprehensive until they responded to our compensation proposal.

In other news, our PDX mobilizing training last month was very successful, and we look forward to our SEA session on October 10th. You can still sign up for this training if you want to attend. Click here for the registration form. 

We will update you again after our next session, October 15-17. Until then, remember to wear your white AFA pin!

We are Stronger Together, Better Together!!