Just a few quick updates: Regarding the prescription portion of the grievance we filed on the change in insurance administrators, Premera has provided Alaska with the information they gathered regarding those people that would not otherwise have paid some or all of their 2008 PPO medical deductible but for having it applied to name brand prescriptions at network pharmacies. Alaska will be cutting paper checks and those will be mailed this week to the address you have listed in Peoplesoft. If you believe you were affected and do not receive a check by the end of next week or receive a check and disagree with the amount please email Julie Roebuck, Manager Health Benefits and copy in Elizabeth Ryan, Managing Director Labor Relations – Air and Bonita Latozke Labor Relations Specialist.

These reimbursements were calculated taking your family/dependant deductibles into account. You will only be reimbursed for what you (or your dependant/s) would not otherwise have had to pay towards your annual medical deductible. In settling this portion of the insurance grievance we negotiated an additional 10% premium on the reimbursement for 2008 as well.

The application of the deductible should have been stopped on June 1^st of this year. There will be a reimbursement for 2009 as well. While we will need to wait until all 2009 claims are submitted (3/31/2010), it will not take as long to get the totals as they can identify those potentially impacted now and then do a year-end follow-up on those people in April 2010.

As you might have read in the Bi-weekly Meeting Minutes we have been looking at establishing a Health Benefits Review Board with members and, when applicable, an arbitrator specifically selected for their benefits background. Many of the outstanding issues from the broader grievance may be referred to that process. ALPA has had a similar board in place for several years and is pleased with the results. We’ll keep you posted.

On another note, we have resolved any outstanding questions regarding what we will be paid for the on-line Diversity Training. Having had the grievance we filed on Security & Privacy Training upheld earlier this year that will of course be 4 tfp. However, many of us have still not been sent the link from the outside vendor. AFA is following up on this. Management will be having a conference call with the training vendor tomorrow and we should have more information later this week.

Fly Safely,