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October 2023 Newsletter

Dear Colleagues,

We will discuss following topics in this Newsletter:

  1. The Norse AFA Website
  2. How to Contact your Union Officers and Representatives
  3. Sick Calls vs No Shows
  4. Crew Control/Crew Planning Town Hall with the Management
  5. Winter Vacations + Possible Charter Flights
  6. Hotel Committee Update
  7. Staff Travel Update + Zoom Meeting
  8. Norse Cabin Crew Unions Summit in LGW

1. The Norse AFA Website

Our Website is up and running. It's easy to access on all devices, including cellphones. You can find it by typing norseafa.org into your browser. We will keep updating it for you to see current issues, past newsletters and other information for crew. If you have particular concerns to report or questions to ask, simply go to the "Contact Us" page and fill out the form there.

Here are a list of our most recent articles available on the website:

2. How to Contact your Union Officers and Representatives 

We want to make communication easy, efficient and effective. If you want to contact your Union MEC/LEC Officers the only way to do it effectively is to:

  1. Go to Norse AFA Website, select Contact Us, write your concerns and choose the subject so the message will be send to a appropriate representative. 
  2. Write an email from your personal email address to [email protected]. This email will be received by all 3 Officers to keep us all updated and for someone available to answer as soon as possible. We will answer all emails within 24-48 hrs. 
  3. Call the Union Phone at 754-216-3406 + say your full name + base + leave a message with your phone number to call back. This phone number is shared by all 3 members of your MEC and so either one could respond to you. If you call and say nothing or don't specify who you are, nothing will happen as we will not know who to contact.

Remember that we are full time Crew Members and we might be flying or unavailable at the time you are contacting us. Please DO NOT use Facebook, Whatsapp or call/texting to private phones if you want to reach Union Officers. 
This was also covered in a September 18, 2023 Communications Committee Update on our website. You can find it HERE.

3. Sick Calls vs No Shows

Allow us to explain when a crew member will be marked as sick (ILL) and when as a No Show.

For the crew to be marked as sick, we must call Crew Control BEFORE SBY and RSV duty starts, and at least 4 hrs before a rostered trip starts. When calling sick, you have to be clear that you are calling sick, and you must specify how many days sick you are calling for.

If you are on a rotation that lasts 4 days or longer, you can use 1 sick day at the time. If you are only rostered for a 3 day rotation and call in sick for 1 day, all 3 days will be marked as ILL because the company is unable to use you for another pattern during that time period.

If you call Crew Control during SBY or RSV, or less than 4 hrs before flight you will get a No Show. If you are on sick time and you are not feeling well ,you must call OCC again at the end of your sick leave and extend to avoid getting a No Show.

When calling sick for more than 3 days you will be required to provide a Doctor Note to Gine and Beate via email. You do NOT need to send a copy of your Doctor's Note to Crew Control, and you do not need to explain WHY you are sick OR find coverage for your flight.

If you receive pushback from Crew Control about calling out sick within the appropriate time period, please reach out to us at [email protected] and let us know. Please be sure to include the time you called, your rostered duty, and the name of the person was that you spoke to in Crew Control.

4. Crew Control/Crew Planning Town Hall with Management 

Those of you who attended the Crew Control/Crew Planning Town Hall witnessed a disaster. Despite planning this event for 2 months and sending in our questions ahead of time, Ops Management was not prepared for our questions and concerns.  This prompted our Chief Cabin Crew to continuously talk and make excuses for the failures of a department that refuses to take ownership.

Many of you weren’t surprised at how poorly this meeting was conducted because we’re now used to it. Ops Management’s lack of regard for the crew has been apparent since day 1 here at Norse. Today, we are still dealing with:

  1. No automated swapping system (App).
  2. No manual bidding system.
  3. No signed agreement with the Union on a Scheduling Policy
  4. Failure to utilize the Union’s Scheduling Committee to improve rosters for the crew.

The meeting was not a total failure, though, as Kjetil, the Director of Flight Operations, did make some promises:

  1. All crew would be dual qualified (on both AOCs) by next summer.
  2. The Company would work with the Union to develop rosters before they’re finalized.
  3. The upcoming charter assignments will be put out for a bid.

The Union will make sure that the Company follows through with all of these promises with written agreements, as we have learned that verbal agreements mean nothing here at Norse.

5. Winter Vacations + Possible Charter Flights 

The company stated at the meeting that there will be no vacations granted between December 15, 2023 -January 15, 2024. We understand that the crew are disheartened by this news, especially considering that due to a late finalization of the winter schedule, crew have been unable to bid for any vacation all winter long. Crew will have noticed that if they placed a request for vacation in Crew Connex for December or January, that those were cancelled. Norse stated that this was due to some Winter Charter Flights that they wanted the US crew to operate, and so they needed all crew to be available. 

Charter flights for Norse this winter are the ACMI contract with Neos, an Italian airline based in Milan. The Neos charter flights essentially require crew to be “temporarily based” in Milan from the middle of December to the middle of January. The company said that only crew on the Norwegian AOC will be eligible to work these flights. Destinations served by the charter will be: MBA, ZNZ, and LRM. While many crew are excited with the prospect of working these flights, the Union is going to ensure the following conditions are met:

  1. There must be a bidding process and the assignments will be awarded in seniority order.
  2. If the Company is going to require the crew to perform security checks, they must be adequately compensated.
  3. Crew will receive per diem from the moment they leave home base (JFK or MIA) until the moment they return.
  4. The safety and security of the crew shall be prioritized over all other factors.

6. Hotel Update

The hotel committee, made up of Union leaders from each base, has been operational for 5 months now. We have been successful at pushing back at most of the Company’s efforts to secure bottom-rate hotels for the crew, but because we are still dealing with a 3rd party (TA Connections) it is difficult to secure good hotels in good areas.

We understand that Norse is in survival mode and are putting up with substandard hotels right now. If Norse makes it through this winter as a profitable airline and lit ooks like we’re able to survive, we MUST insist on better hotels (quality and location) when we reevaluate hotels next year. The best way to ensure that we change hotels is that we write reports in Centrik. It only takes a few minutes to write a proper report.

7. Staff Travel Update + Zoom Meeting

Most of us have noticed that we have positive space passes on Norse that expire December 31st. If you are not able to use them by this date, we will get new positive space passes deposited into our accounts next year. You can make listings and view your pass balance at ID90travel.com. 

Also, on ID90travel.com, you are able to make an Interline Staff Travel Agreement (ISTA) listing on Spirit and Frontier by clicking on “Other Airlines.” 

As a reminder, an ISTA agreement is a traditional travel agreement whereby all employees of airline are allowed to travel on another airline at a reduced rate fare (standby, of course). Jumpseat agreements are different than ISTA agreements in that they are only for commuting crew and there is no fare charged to the commuting crew member. The only airline with whom we have both an ISTA and jumpseat agreement is Spirit. We are currently working on a jumpseat agreement with Frontier. For now, you can still make an ISTA listing on Frontier using ID90travel.com

It’s important to note that we are at risk of losing our jumpseat agreement with Spirit if Norse continues to deny Spirit Flight Attendants at the ticket counter because our counter staff are not properly trained. If you encounter any Spirit Crew Members, please go out of your way to be courteous to them and let them know how much we appreciate the agreement. When you are travelling on Spirit, please bring treats for the crew and ground staff if possible. That kindness can make a world of difference.

We are aware that the teamspirit listing tool for the Spirit Jumpseat is having some technical problems. Refreshing multiple times on a PC browser seems to work. If you need to travel ASAP, you can always make a standard reduced-fee listing on ID90travel.com

For more information on Staff Travel, the union will host a special 30 minute “Staff Travel” Zoom call on October 14, 2023 at 12pm EST. The content of this meeting will be limited to Staff Travel only. No other union or company topics will be discussed.

If you have any questions that you would like to send in advance to be discussed in the meeting, please send them to [email protected]. We will also be updating the Flight Benefits tab on the website with additional information on Staff Travel as more becomes available.

HERE is the link to join the Zoom Meeting: 

Topic: Flight Benefits
Time: Oct 14, 2023 12:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/77905065799?pwd=jn349xkel6pqEIRHIfL4GzEE6jiGZn.1

Meeting ID: 779 0506 5799
Passcode: PEmt2n

You can also find the event page on our Norse AFA Website HERE 

8. Norse Cabin Crew Unions Summit in LGW

We are attending a Norse Cabin Crew Unions Summit next week in LGW. Our goal is to come together on all issues we share across the bases and develop a plan for a United front to tackle many of the common challenges together as one. The dates for the summit are October 11 & 12, 2023, and so during that time, there may be delayed responses from us.

We will be sending an update after the summit with some things that were discussed, and are currently planning a Union Zoom meeting for the crew. We will let you know when those dates have been finalized.

 

Thank you for reading this Newsletter in its entirety. 

Kat, Ted, Ish

Norse AFA-CWA MEC