Inaugural Flight Was A Success! - June 14, 2022

Dear Norse Cabin Crew,

Yesterday was our inaugural flight from OSL to JFK. Yesterday’s event has been a long time in the making and it wouldn’t be possible without your support, the support of our Union AFA-CWA (Sara Nelson), the support from the US government and politicians like Peter DeFazio, and the support from our CEO Bjorn Tore Larsen, who strongly believes in the US-based cabin crew.

There are going to be many challenges ahead as our airline slowly starts to grow and expand. Many of you have already experienced problems with lack of clear information, not receiving your uniforms and luggage, not having your backgrounds checks cleared, and several other things. Some of these problems are out of Norse’s control, but others could have been avoided with better communication and coordination within the organization.

Lately there hasn’t been many Union updates as we have been working with constant change and uncertainty—even hours before we are about to launch our inaugural flight. We promise that there will be more Union updates to follow as we work with Norse Management to address issues that affect us and our customers, whom we depend on for job security. Some of the issues we are working on include:

Standby Notification times: We got Planning/OCC to agree to a 3-hour (3:00) notification time instead of 90 minutes. To give us the extra time, a crew member must call out sick a minimum of 4 hours (4:00) prior to check-in. Calling out sick with less than 4 hours before check in will be considered a no-show.

There will be no airport standby. Hotel standby will be an option if crew reliability becomes an issue, but there is currently no hotel standby for the time being.

Seniority based bidding for days off (tentatively available next month).

A better process for recruiting and promoting Senior Cabin Crew (and other special qualification positions). The process has NOT been clear nor fair to many and we have communicated our strong dissatisfaction to Management.

Industry leading uniform guidelines: The Union is proud to work with the company on our Uniform Policy. Our uniform policy is more inclusive and generous than most other airline uniform policies. Even though our uniform policy is very progressive, some of you have asked why certain things can’t be allowed and the simple answer is safety will always be #1. Hoop earrings, long facial hair, bulky hair, etc. are some of the items not allowed simply due to safety reasons. We should already know what these are—oxygen masks, smoke hoods (PBEs) are some examples of why there is a restriction on certain things. Despite this, if you see or become aware of something that we missed, please let us know and we will address it.

Until further notice the company has agreed to reimburse public transportation to/from the airport. Please use Zoho for reimbursement.
 

Until Employee parking is available, please use cost-effective parking that is still safe and convenient. You can find good parking rates at the airport (and other places) using parking websites and apps like “ParkWhiz” to pre-book parking at discounted rates. After you have paid for parking, you can submit an expense reimbursement using the Zoho link that has already been emailed to you. Please do not use parking that costs $30+/day as the company will not likely reimburse it.
 

Finally, we are waiting until the final classes have begun training to to turn in our signed Union cards to the National Mediation Board. We want to give all training classes the opportunity to sign cards and after we get the July classes to sign, we will send the cards to the government. As a reminder, Union dues do not start until you have voted on our Tentative Agreement and it has been signed by Management and the Union (Date of Signing). Also, our pay (as specified in the CBA) in the doesn't move to the right column until a year after our contract has been signed (DOS+1).
 

Again, we will update you with more information in the coming weeks. Please email or call us with any concerns that need requires the union’s immediate attention—we are always here for you!

For now, safe flying, and thank you for joining me at Norse. I’m so excited you are here!

Valentin