Monday, November 11, 2024

Dear fellow Flight Attendants,

This update addresses two crew rest issues that were recently brought to my attention. Thank you for sharing your concerns with me. The update also includes information about the new text notification procedure for voluntary recall that was used on October 30, and some of the reasons behind the staffing shortage. As we are now just heading into the holidays, your AFA leadership will be meeting with management to review what happened in October and ways to possibly avoid a similar situation at the end of November.

In Solidarity,

Martin Gusman

Honolulu Council 43 LECP

Please be advised that crew rest breaks on flights that operate outside of the Hawaiian Islands, including flights under eight (8) hours, are a contractual provision. Section 7.D.2.f.(4) states “Flight Attendants shall have a rest break during flights and shall be permitted to sleep during their rest breaks.” The November 6-19 In-Flight Briefing Sheet incorrectly states that crew rest breaks on flights under eight (8) hours are not allowed. The error has been brought to management’s attention.

On October 30, Crew Scheduling began using the electronic notification procedure for voluntary recall outlined in Section 7.I.1.a. of the contract. If multiple trips are available to be covered by voluntary recall, a text notification will be sent out via Remind.

If you’ve opted out of Remind you can opt back in by texting the following message to 81010: @dd32f4 (for HNL notifications). It should be noted that the staffing shortage was mostly caused by higher reserve utilization during the month due to the up-gauging of aircraft due to the DC-9 inspections. Sick leave was not higher than normal.

Please be advised that if the crew rest seats on your RAR flight are blocked due to weight and balance restrictions, you may still use the seats during the flight for crew rest. Weight and balance restrictions are very important since they ensure safe aircraft performance during takeoff and landing; however, once the aircraft is airborne and we are able to move about the cabin, weight and balance restrictions for blocked seats are no longer a concern. As a reminder, the contract provides that crew rest seats be “last sold/assigned” (Z blocked). If they are not, please submit an Intellex report and let us know about it.

Honolulu Local Council 43 | www.hawaiianafa.org