About our MEC Safety, Health, and Security Committee

Date: October 5, 2023

Your MEC SHS (Safety, Health, and Security Committee) operates under Section 19 of the current contract. We make recommendations to the company regarding all matters affecting the Safety, Health, and Security of United Flight Attendants.  The MEC Safety, Health and Security Committee consists of Sheryl Stroup, Chairperson, Hope Cervantes, Vice-Chairperson; and Craig Macinnes, Vice-Chairperson.

The outline below highlights the scope of our committee and represents what we have had activity in the past three months. This is not an all-encompassing list but is being provided to exemplify the workload and vast range of our workload and the expansiveness of those duties and knowledge required.

Included is a very important exchange of information with our locals. This is done through the committee briefing calls, monthly report process and Notification Process.

Committee Briefing Calls - These calls allow for a two-way exchange of information between Sheryl, Hope and Craig and those committee members and any LECP who wishes to join. Many times, it’s sharing of what the MECSHS and/or officers are currently evaluating or discussing with the company, and we also allow time for concerns that are escalating locally. We find this keeps committee members educated on current topics, engaged, and informed of current initiatives.

The Notification process is a system where for contractual items listed in the CBA there is advisement to MEC SHS of covered events. This is a 24/7/365 process. The MEC person on call will transcribe the provided information and forward it to local SHS and EAP representatives for crew member follow up and report advocacy. The second part to this is the reverse notification where local AFA receives information before MEC SHS and provides the initial advisement to MEC SHS for support and follow up as needed. MEC SHS will review all provided follow up information to address any systemic concerns, ensure the member outreach contact information is initiated, other committees’ have been advised as needed and information of reporting, safety concerns, and support have been received by the member(s) and local AFA.

Monthly Report Process is the process where all 13 local councils provide a report to the MEC SHS. This report should address the IOR’s tracking and trending received for the month and any emerging, active, and resolved local issues. Once received by the MEC SHS committee we match all reports for concerns for systemic issues, pull and review highlighted IOR reports for mitigation, and escalated or address the concerns as needed. These reports are expected to be received in the first week of every month and we attempt to have all responses returned by the 15th.  When we respond to each report, we provide suggestions and feedback to facilitate resolution at a local level. If the resolution is not achieved locally, we then contact our counterparts for resolution or write formal letters to the company on the issues as needed.

The most time commitment of the MEC SHS is the reporting programs. With the MSA app bringing ISAP, IOR and Fatigue right to the LINK device the reporting has grown 10-fold. United expects to continue hiring and increasing the Flight Attendant population thus we expect the reporting to continue to grow.

ISAP reports each month are averaging 900+. These reports require pulling of SOP, regulation, MEL, flight, or aircraft history and then has a weekly an 8-hour weekly review meeting.  The meeting then has outreach follow up for Flight Attendant coaching or SOP review that is completed by AFA MEC SHS which meets the FAA action portion of the program. 

Fatigue Reports average around 150+ per week and while we receive less, they take a considerably more amount of time to process. They can require schedule pulls, pairing pulls, assignment pulls, critical event history reviews, and at times a SAFTE-FAST review. This is followed by pulling a taxonomy list for each report and then placing a vote in ETQ for discussion in the Fatigue Review (FRC) Meeting. These reports usually have a pay component, and the discussion is very detailed in the meeting to ensure we have looked at all considerations. Each report takes up to 30-45 min. The meetings are also all day once a week; with MEC Scheduling completing outreaches for education as needed. 

IOR reporting is also received by MEC SHS from the local reports as indicated above. There were over 9,900 reports filed in September.

The three reporting programs all feed into the Data Analysis Group (DAG) Meetings and the Safety Action Team (SAT) meetings, held by United, which are process steps of the SMS process that MECSHS attends on a regular basis.