AFA Debrief: February 23, 2023

Date: February 23, 2023

AFA Debrief – February 23, 2023

• Interruption of Reserve Legal Rest While at Home
• AFA Reporting System – Memberlink – Planned Downtime
• AFA Reporting System – Memberlink & Grievance Portal Update
• March Special COLA Awards
• April 2023 Special COLA

Interruption of Reserve Legal Rest While at Home

Reserve Legal Rest at your home domicile is provided for under Section 8.I.3.a. of our Contract. Reserve Flight Attendants shall have a minimum of twelve (12) hours free from duty at their home domicile. Following an International pairing, a Reserve will be provided with legal rest specific to the pairing completed, as set forth in Section 6.W.2. of our Contract.

Upon release to crew rest, crew scheduling will only contact a Reserve during the last hour of the crew rest period at the home base. The United Master Executive Council filed MEC Grievance 3-19 when the company failed to recognize the Contractual legal rest period for Reserves and it was sustained. The remedy provides that when a Flight Attendant’s legal rest period at home is interrupted by Crew Scheduling, the rest period shall be restarted as soon as the error is discovered or is brought to the company’s attention, within the same rest period in which the improper contact was made.

For all of the above reasons, Flight Attendants have a level of responsibility to know their legal rest legalities at home, based on the previous pairing worked. Flight Attendants should also feel empowered to self-advocate when their rest is interrupted by professionally informing Crew Scheduling of the error and request the rest be restarted. Said another way, the best way to protect your legal rest and ensure that you are taking advantage of every opportunity for rest at home, is to know your Contractual legalities.

If you have questions about the application of these provisions of the Contract, or experience difficulty enforcing this provision, contact your Local Council Office/Reserve Committee for assistance.

AFA Grievance Reporting System – Memberlink – Planned Downtime for Server Move

This Saturday, February 25, 2023, our AFA Grievance Reporting System will be affected by a planned system down time during the hours from 11A – 7 PM Central Time. During this period, it will not be possible for Members to submit Local Council Worksheets, nor will Local Council Grievance Committees be able to process any grievance filings. This downtime has been scheduled to facilitate the move of our server to another physical location. Once the server is moved and back online, it is anticipated that full access will be restored after 7 PM CT.

We appreciate your patience and understanding as we work through this move.

AFA Reporting System – Memberlink Grievance Portal Update

Last December, we launched our new AFA database & reporting system which can be accessed from our website at www.unitedafa.org. This new Memberlink Grievance Portal reporting page has been designed to provide you with a tool to update your personal information on file with AFA and to improve your experience when filling out Local Council Worksheets. 

Our efforts in this regard have been underway for several months as we collaborated in the development of a membership and grievance database system. This system improves your ability to communicate with your Union, using your preferred contact information, to file and follow-up on the status of any Local Council Worksheets you may have submitted. 

We understand there has been some confusion when signing up for a user account in this new reporting system. To clarify, given the development of the new Grievance Database, there are now two separate login screens; one for www.unitedafa.org website and the other the Memberlink database access:

1. To view member only information that is protected from public view within unitedafa.org, use the login tab found on the front landing page of the website in the top right corner. Alternatively, any attempt to access secure information prior to login will result in your being re-directed to login before you are provided access to that information.
2. When submitting a Local Council Worksheet, or to update personal contact information, access the Memberlink Grievance Portal graphic found on the front page of the unitedafa.org website. Alternatively, any effort to submit a Report or Form will also direct you to this page.

Creating a Sign-On for Memberlink

On your first visit to the Memberlink page, you will be asked to “Sign Up Now” which will require that you have your employee (file) number, leaving off the “U” and any leading zeros. The system is programmed to accept just the numbers. For example, if your Employee (file) number is u001234, enter only 1234 to start the validation process for setting up an account. The system requires you to set a unique password to access your account. Your account will always be identified by your employee (file) number. Be advised, the system is not designed to accept corporate e-mail (united.com addresses). Please provide a personal e-mail address. 

Once submitted, you will receive an authentication email that will be valid for one hour. If you do not receive the email within ten (10) minutes, we recommend that you check your spam folder. When you select the verification link contained in the email, you will be redirected to the new site.

Having established an account, you will have an opportunity to verify and provide the Union with your preferred contact information – address, telephone number(s) and e-mail addresses. It is particularly important to understand that this site is a dedicated Union website. Address, telephone & email address information provided is not exchanged with the company and cannot be used to report address changes to United management.

Any updates to your contact information will be verified via a manual process before being saved. For this reason, these changes will not appear immediately.

Please note – if you elect to use an International address or phone number, we ask that you use the “Additional Comments” field to input your data so that we are able to ensure it is entered into the system in the correct address and phone field format of your country of residence. 

On the home page there is a link to file a new Local Council Worksheet. You will be able to track the status of any current or past cases via the “My Profile” link located on the landing page.

For the present time, please continue to use the page https://www.unitedafa.org/reports to file the following reports: Hotel & Transportation, Call Wait Times, Professional Standards, General Incident, Marginal Service & Staffing, Safety and Uniforms.

If you continue to encounter any difficulty in establishing your Memberlink account, you can contact us at memberlink@unitedafa.org or call 800 624 3907 extension 522.

March Special COLA Awards

April 2023 Special COLA Availability

Inflight Scheduling has determined that there may be an opportunity to award one-month Special COLAs (Company Offered Leave of Absence) effective for the April 2023 bid month. The number of Special COLAs to be awarded at each domicile has not been determined and all active Flight Attendants are eligible to participate.

The deadline to submit your request in CCS for this Special COLA is Tuesday, March 14, 2023, at 0800 CT. If interested, please submit a bid through CCS > Leaves > Special COLA.

For more information regarding Special COLAs please visit: Flying Together > My Work > Crew Planning, Scheduling, and Administration > Crew Planning > COLAs, Job shares, and Partnership Awards.

Reminders:

FEB – Black History Month
FEB 28 – United’s Profit-Sharing Payouts
MAR 12 – U.S. Change to Daylight Saving Time
MAR 26 – Europe Change to Daylight Saving Time
APR 30 – The Joe Beirne Foundation CWA Scholarship Deadline

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