Tropical Storm Ian could reach Florida by Wednesday. It’s still uncertain if the storm will make landfall in Florida or stay at sea, but it is expected to become a hurricane by this time. The media is sensationalizing the event, but it’s still a good idea to be prepared for worst case scenarios. The best place to visit for updates is the National Hurricane Center website at https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ which provides up-do-date factual updates. The company said it will put out more information soon.
2. Flight Cancellations due to weather
In anticipation of the storm, Norse has decided to cancel all flights to/from Florida from Monday to Wednesday and continue flights on Thursday. We don’t know why the flights were cancelled so soon since the storm isn’t expected to reach Florida for several days. Regardless, if your flight is cancelled, please keep an eye on your roster. Even though Norse flights are cancelled, it may be possible that Crew Control may need to position you somewhere else.
3. October Rosters
Management finally responded that they would adjust the rosters of those who only have 1-day of in between trips. If your roster contains multiple occurrences of only 1-day off in between pairings and you want an adjustment, please email [email protected] and copy in the union [email protected] to request an adjustment. Keep in mind that the adjustment may result in fewer trips on your roster.
4. Updated TA
The AFA and the company have agreed to make clarifications and additions to the Tentative Agreement. This includes: adding additional job protections to ensure we will not do the work of other airline employees (e.g. catering, aircraft cleaners, etc.), ensures that no CCM will suffer a loss of pay if management flies as a cabin crew member, requires CCMs to utilize additional sick/personal days if they need additional days off, and provides additional protections for ground instructors. Now that the updates are finalized, a vote will be scheduled later this week. You can view the updated Tentative Agreement here:
5. Taking items off the aircraft and bag searches
Several crew are reporting that they are seeing fellow crew members taking items off the aircraft. As discussed on the Zoom call, if taking items off the aircraft becomes a normal occurrence, we will not survive as an airline. I discussed with Management that crew should not be disciplined for taking off items that were going to be disposed of anyway (i.e., fresh food) and Management said that they’re currently working on a policy regarding crew consumption of fresh food items. In the meantime, please don’t take anything off the aircraft that is meant for sale. Management has hinted that bag searches may occur soon. Bag searches are legal and can happen anywhere. Please familiarize yourself with the bag check language in the CBA (page 37) to know what your rights are in regard to bag searches.