THE GRAPEVINE


THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF AMFA-APRIL 2016
 

IN THIS ISSUE
 
Milestones in Labor History--April
April 4, 1968--Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinated while helping striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee.

April 15, 1889--Birth date of A. Philip Randolph, an African-American union organizer and civil rights leader. Founder and first president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1925, he took on the powerful Pullman Company forcing them to bargain with hi union. In the 1940s, he showed the same determination in pressuring two presidents to integrate the defense industries and armed forces. A decade later, he led civil rights demonstrations culminating in the 1963 March of Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

April 16, 1970--Post Office and leaders of seven exclusively recognized postal unions announce agreement on a plan for Postal Reorganization, leading to the creation of the U.S. Postal Service.

April 20, 1914--Company gunmen attacked a tent colony of striking mine workers and their families in Colorado, setting it ablaze and killing 19 men, women and children in what is remembered as the Ludlow Massacre.

April 25, 1917--Charter granted by the American Federation of Labor to "National Federation of Postal Employees," a product of the merger of the National Federation of Post Office Clerks and the Brotherhood of Railway Postal Clerks.

April 27, 1825--Carpenters strike for 10-hour day.

April 28, 1989--Workers' Memorial Day established to remember all workers killed or injured on the job.

April 29, 1979--APWU POWER (Post Office Women for Equal Rights) founded in Saint Louis, Missouri.
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About AMFA

The Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association is a craft oriented, independent aviation union. It is not an industrial union and represents only airline technicians and related employees in the craft or class in accordance with the National Mediation Board Rules and their dictates. AMFA is committed to elevating the professional standing of technicians and to achieving progressive improvements in the wages, benefits, and working conditions of the skilled craftsmen and women it represents. (see our brochure)

"Deja  vu all over again" Yogi Berra
By Louie Key, National Director

This month when Alaska Airlines announced it is acquiring Virgin America Airlines it started all the familiar conversations surrounding the issues of mergers and acquisitions.  Of course the conversations soon turn to the topic of seniority integration and how will we go about integrating the two seniority lists.  Fortunately, this is a process that we are very well acquainted with due to the recent Southwest Airlines purchase of AirTran and the merging of those two employee groups into one seniority list and a single collective bargaining agreement -- "Deja vu all over again."  

Keep Reading >
2016 Aerospace Maintenance Competition
By Aaron Hansen, Assistant National Director
 
The first week of April 2016 Justin Madden, Earl Clark, David Brooks, and I attended the Aerospace Maintenance Competition (AMC) in Dallas, TX. The setting was a competition of Aircraft Maintenance Technicians (AMTs) and students, including the armed forces. This is an opportunity for AMTs to test their combined abilities and compete in 15 different events over a grueling two day period against other AMTs from all around the world.
AMFA Accident Investigation Team
By David Brooks, National Safety & Standards Director
 
Since the inception of the Accident Investigation Team (AIT), there has been a lot of confusion about the purpose and the structure of the AMFA Teams at Alaska and Southwest. I would like to explain the concept and how both Teams have progressed in the past and what the future holds. In keeping with the philosophies of AMFA, whose motto is "Safety in the Air Begins with Quality Maintenance on the Ground," we must be ready to cope with a major aircraft accident or incident and uphold our ethical responsibility to our professional membership as well as the flying public. Article VI Section 9-A-5 of the AMFA Constitution states that the National Safety and Standards Director will be responsible for the development and administration of a National Accident/Incident Investigation Program. This concept is a core value of AMFA's philosophy on safety.

Keep Reading > 
Bargaining with the "New" Southwest Airlines
By Michael P. Nelson, Region II Director
 
It has been a busy three and a half years with the ongoing Southwest Airlines (SWA) Aircraft Maintenance Technician (AMT) and related Section 6 contract negotiations. Concurrently, we have been working to construct an initial Facility Maintenance Technician (FMT) Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) since June of 2013. In addition to the two ongoing negotiations, we will also be initiating the Appearance Technician Section 6 negotiation process in the near future. History has proven that the general rule of thumb regarding negotiations has been that in a slow economy, where a company is struggling financially, the company looks to labor for concessions to help it battle through hard times. Though perplexingly, at times of record company profits and prosperity at the new SWA, their consistent expectation is for the labor groups to cede concessions and "self-fund" their own raises.

Keep Reading >
 
Legislative Success Regarding Foreign Repair Stations In The FAA Reauthorization
By Justin Madden, Editor, National Secretary/Treasurer
 
In the last 25 years we have witnessed a transition from American carriers accomplishing most of their aircraft maintenance in-house to a complex system of farming out the majority of heavy work to repair stations, some on foreign soil.  Foreign repair station growth has been prolific and unfortunate as well.  Not only has this meant a loss of high paying jobs at the various carriers, but it has also brought about serious concerns regarding safety, security, and quality of maintenance performed at foreign repair stations.
Why is ASAP Important to AMFA and the Membership?
By John "Pepper" Atkinson, AMFA-SWA Alternate ASAP Representative
 
In our profession we all make mistakes. If you have not made a mistake by now, I can guarantee you that day will come -- it is the nature of the beast. The majority of these mistakes are not apparent to us until after the aircraft is in service and the failure is traced back to us at a later date. There are other times when we think over that day's work and the light bulb goes off that we may have made a mistake. We then make a phone call and have someone check it out and find that our light bulb was correct, that we had forgotten something or made a mistake. These are some of the reasons we have the Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP).
AIRCRAFT MECHANICS FRATERNAL ASSOCIATION (AMFA)
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