Dear fellow flight attendant,

Please allow me to introduce myself:  my name is Veda Shook.  I am an Alaska Airlines flight attendant and I am also our AFA-CWA International Vice President. 

First off, I want to congratulate you on your upcoming decision to join our Association and become a part of the world’s largest flight attendant community – we welcome you with open arms. 

Second, I have been reading with much interest some of your email dialogues that have been circulating.  You are obviously a close group and I commend the thought with which you are placing this important decision before you.

While this campaign is solely about, by and for you at Compass, I think that we all, as Flight Attendants, share a common bond.  And with that note, please allow me to share some email space and some of my personal background and why I became involved with our union.

Like some of you, I’m sure; I initially thought being a flight attendant was a short-hop job out of college before I began my “real career”.  Five years later it dawned on me that I wanted to stay – I loved my job and wanted to do what I could, in my small part, to ensure that my “job” really was maintained as a “profession” and that I could truly enjoy a career at Alaska for the long haul. 

When our Portland base opened, I was asked to become a part of our Safety & Health committee as well as our Government Affairs committee.  My eyes began to open as I became more involved not just with our union, but also with management.  A short time after that we, the Portland flight attendants, decided it made sense to have our own local (we were a part of the Seattle local at the time) and I became our first Local Council President.  We were a small base – only 165 at the time and were a very tight knit community – not just the crews, but also with our management.  You see, having a union isn’t about creating a barrier; it’s about enhancing your relationship with management.  Think about it – should we have 165 different sets of rules or one set of rules that we all abided under?  In my opinion, having a union is just a more sophisticated way of doing business.

Along the way, I fell in love (still reading? – yes, I know it’s long!) and was set to move to Dallas, TX so I did not seek election in PDX.  Instead, I was given the opportunity to be an AFA organizer on the original Delta Air Lines campaign.  I was so excited – my union at Alaska had provided ALL of us at Alaska with SO much and I was thrilled to give back and share my stories about what it means to be a part of AFA.  Well, I had a quick reality check with Delta.  At that point, I began to learn more about hard certain companies try to keep flight attendants from coming together to form their own association and to be able to make their own decisions about their future – as opposed to having someone else deciding their fate. You’ll be hearing a lot from others that “AFA” is an “outsider” or a “third party” when, in reality, the opposite is true.  AFA is a democratic union and we make the decisions – we vote on contracts, we vote for officers, we vote at meetings – well, you get the picture.  And when I say “we”, I mean the collective group of individuals at their respective carriers. 

Well, here’s the low-down on what happened at Delta – we filed for an election just before 9-11 and, needless to say, we lost pretty badly.  That being said, management made LOTS of promises to the flight attendants to keep them from voting for AFA and I can tell you first hand that those promises have been broken.  Since that last election they have seen drastic pay and work rule reductions, furloughs, shuttering of bases, etc.  To be sure, we have also seen concessionary contracts at some of our AFA carriers, but at least those flight attendants have had a say in the outcome – they were able to have legal experts and elected AFA members negotiate on their behalf with AFA resources and they were able to vote on their contracts.  The Delta flight attendants, in the meantime, have no contract and management can, has and does change their work rules frequently.

After my work with organizing at Delta, while I was devastated about the outcome, I can also tell you that the experience changed my life.  To have a contract is such protection and I will strive for the remainder of my career as a flight attendant to help ALL flight attendants enjoy the same respect, professionalism and guarantees that I do.

Shortly thereafter our contract was set to be negotiated at Alaska.  I decided that I wanted to have a direct say in our negotiations at Alaska and so I ran and was elected Master Executive Council President (MECP).  I chaired our negotiations and we subsequently ratified an agreement that had many enhancements, not the least of which were pay raises.  Along the way I fostered long lasting relationships with our management from the CEO to the Executive Vice Presidents in charge of Finance and Marketing to our Director of Inflight to local base management.  Working together works.  In fact, we even won a prestigious Alaska Airlines Teamwork Award that was given to Inflight management and our AFA Grievance Committee for how well we were able to work out disputes.  Our list of accomplishments that we made together is lengthy; if you are interested in more examples of working together, please let me know.  Put differently, regardless of any union positions I have ever held, I have never lost sight of who signed my paycheck – I am very proud to work for Alaska, don my uniform, and represent my Company.

With that same spirit, I was compelled to run for our International Vice President position and was elected to a four year term that began this year.  In my position I oversee organizing and I am personally dedicated to each and every one of you.  While I balance this position and parenting two young children, I am making myself personally available to each of you.  Please call or email me at anytime with any questions or concerns that you may have about joining our Association.  If I can’t answer your call, I promise to return a message.  I also plan on visiting Minneapolis and look forward to meeting as many of you in person as possible. 

In closing, thank you for your time for reading this lengthy email.  I hope I have highlighted for you some of the reasons why I am so enthusiastic about our Association and I encourage you to vote Yes when you receive your voting instructions.  Again, please call or email me any time. 

Respectfully,

Veda Shook

AFA-CWA International Vice President

vshook@afanet.org

202-434-578        office

202-341-2966  mobile