November 10, 2023 Update
Dear Crew,
Today we will address :
1. ACMI Award Process and Results.
2. Letter of Agreement: Compensation for Security Searches on ACMI and BKK flights
3. SCCMs’ responsibility on ACMI and BKK flights to secure proper payment for crew
4. Mass Leave of Absence vs Personal Leave of Absence
5. Grievances Update and Zoom Meeting
1. ACMI Award Process and Results
As we communicated yesterday, ACMI awards were delayed until today for two main reasons. One of them was our insistence that they be awarded in a seniority order. Second, we insisted that the the Company award the ACMI in the most inclusive and fair manner possible.
We met with DFO, Kjetil Risan, crew planning Alejandro Peláez Molina, Ana Nekrasova, People Manager Beate Jacobsen, and CCC Joseph Gabriel several times this week to have planning "run" multiple scenarios to include as many crew as possible. The first scenarios including awarding everyone who bid for the ACMI in strict seniority order regardless of Base, AOC, or Special Qualification. The Company quickly told us that we had to exclude the MIA UK AOC group due to "great need" this winter. The following day, they said the MIA base would also need to be excluded. The day after, they determined that the JFK UK AOC would need to be excluded as well. We argued that all JFK crew should be included because we don't see an increase in flights for the JFK UK AOC and the Company stated that all of the crew in the JFK UK AOC are needed this winter. At this point, only the JFK NO AOC remained and we asked the Company to award the flights in strict seniority order regardless of special qualification. In the end, they "did their best" by awarding the ACMI in seniority order with the exception of two JFK NO AOC pursers (16 pursers will be awarded the ACMI v. the 8 the Company originally wanted).
Some additional info:
Even though we have accepted the Company's explanation of only awarding the assignment to NO JFK based crew, it doesn't mean we completely agree with it. Even after explaining the reasons why, we still made them go back a third and fourth time to see if there's any way they can "make it work". We don't have access to all of the information the company does and have to rely on what they're telling us. They tell us that all other crew (JFK UK AOC and MIA) will be "busy" this winter and we truly hope that is the case. If not, all remaining trust in Management will be lost.
We started with: The Company awarding trips based on "interest" via a survey. We started with no guarantees of who would go and who wouldn't go--leaving everyone to wonder "who got the ACMI" and "why" they got it.
We ended up with: Getting the Company to agree to a transparent seniority based bidding process for the ACMI. It doesn't state anywhere in our CBA that ACMI flights, trips, or schedules have to be awarded in seniority order and to get the company to follow this process is a big win for us.
We were told by the company that charter flights for TUI will be assigned to UK AOC. Also, in January, there is the possibility of a long-term charter assignment based in Sri Lanka (a couple of months in duration) that will only be available to UK AOC crew.
We will be having a Zoom call to discuss the ACMI Bid awards Tomorrow, November 11, 2023 at 5pm ET to talk ACMI flights and answer your questions. Please find the link to join the meeting here: You can find the link to join this meeting here: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/79045058187?pwd=wmiaTdACec6x0MGCuUzCe3gHOU50iS.1
You can also find the event page on the AFA website using this lin: https://norseafa.org/event-calendar/norse-afa-zoom-acmi-bid-awards
Finally, here is the link to Neos ACMI Bid Awards: Neos ACMI Bids and Awards.xlsx
Looking at the ACMI awards, please note that:
a) 2 SCCMS were excluded because they had to utilize for scheduled flights under the JFK NO AOC.
b) We awarded the ACMI to 33 cabin crew (instead of 32) because one of our US-based cabin crew is an italian speaker and will be counted towards one of the four (4) additional crew needed as language speakers.
c) Everyone who bid for the ACMI who was awarded the assignment must sign a supplemental agreement that the Company will send to all crew working the ACMI. Failure to sign the agreement will result in removal from the assignment.
d) Everyone who bid for the ACMI and was not awarded the assignment is automatically "wait listed".
2. Letter of Agreement: Compensation for Security Searches on ACMI and BKK flights
AFA was able to sign a 6 month Agreement with Norse management addressing the compensation for US based cabin crew performing Security Searches on ACMI charter flights and in BKK.
On flights where security searches are conducted, US based cabin crew will be compensated for duty time from check in to check out. This calculation will be counted towards the guarantee up to 60 hours and will show as excess of hours above 60 hours.
Example: Your block time for one flight might be 10 hrs. On a flight with security searches, you will have to show up 2 hrs before departure and your duty will end 30 minutes after Block in. That means you will be credited for this flight 12.5 flight hours.
You can find a copy of this agreement here: 2nd LOA re Security Checks.pdf
It's also available on our website here: https://norseafa.org/our-contract
3. SCCMs’ responsibility on ACMI and BKK flights to secure proper payment for crew.
There is currently no automated system to calculate these "duty hours" for the purpose of compensation. The union agreed with the Payroll manager, Gine Silveira, that every time crew is performing Security Searches, the SCCM on the flight will email Gine the GenDec requesting credit of 2.5 hrs (90 minutes), be added to each crew account.
If you are a SCCMs working one of these flights that requires security searches, please email only one GenDec to Gine for each flight where security searches were done and inform her it is to credit crew hrs.
4. Mass Leave of Absence vs Personal Leave of Absence
It became clear last night in discussions in the Norse AFA Facebook chat that there is some confusion as it relates to Leave of Absence.
When there is not enough work to go around for all employees, companies offer unpaid leave of absences for those who are interested or able to afford free time to preserve employment for those who cannot afford it. When this is decided, management sends a mass email to offer such options on a voluntary basis. That process would involve a substantial number of crew.
Independently, during the course of the year, situations might present themselves for individual crew members that would require such a person to request a leave. This could be due to illness, bereavement, divorce, education etc, etc…Every crew member has the right to request leave, and the company has the right to decide whether to grant it or not. Some of our colleagues request LOAs for JANUARY long before the ban on vacation from December 15 - January 15th was announced.
There were a few of our colleagues who were scheduled for LOA, who also bid for the ACMI opportunity. These crew members are on active duty today, and there is nothing that prevents them from bidding process.
The Company agreed with AFA that before announcing the bid results, the Company would call each person on leave who placed a bid for the ACMI and asked if they wanted to remain on leave or not.
These responses were then factored into the bid award process.
5. Grievances Update and Zoom Meeting
There are several outstanding grievances as well as new grievances that were recently filed. The most important outstanding grievance open right now is SCHEDULING, which stems from the lack of a bidding system for crew. Every month, the crew hope and pray that their rosters are going to be suitable as we have no way of choosing our trips and how much (or how little) we want to fly. The Company is doing whatever they can to get us to drop this grievance and we refuse. We will talk about it in more detail on the upcoming "Grievance Update" Zoom call.
The AFA filed two new grievances this week: One grievance filed involves changing the JFK crew hotel. Even though most US crew do not stay at the JFK crew hotel, the Company agreed to change this hotel back in June. They made an agreement with the AFA and other unions that we would change hotels and we're now in November and no change has been made.
The second grievance filed has to do with lack of implementation of myIDtravel website. myIDtravel is the MOST IMPORTANT website airlines use for reciprocal travel agreements. Norse cannot obtain good agreements with other airlines unless they're on the myIDtravel platform. Instead of getting myIDtravel up and running last year, Norse Management decided to get us on ID90travel, which only 5 US airlines are on, and we have only just recently got agreements with just two of these airlines: Spirit and Frontier. *MOST IMPORTANTLY* The AFA (on behalf of Norse) negotiated a reciprocal CABIN SEAT agreement with jetBlue which would allow any Norse FA to ride for free on any jetBlue flight and vice versa. The agreement was signed in July of LAST YEAR and none of our crew can use it because we are not on the myIDtravel platform.
You can find a copy of both new grievances here:
We will be discussing the status of our outstanding grievances as well as talking about the new grievances in further detail on our upcoming Grievance Zoom meeting on Sunday, November 12, 2023 at 5pm ET. You can find the link to join this meeting here: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/75465106328?pwd=0gDz3WGtpe7Hdy28kz8vactAdRGMW9.1
You can also find the event page on the AFA website using this link: https://norseafa.org/event-calendar/norse-afa-grievances-arbitration-update
Reminder:
You can find all our recent newsletters and information about the union and what we are working on at the Norse AFA website.
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In Unity,
Katarzyna, Ted, Ish
[email protected]
