Participants for AMFA:
Earl Clark - Region I Director
Nino DiMaggio - Local 11 Airline Representative
Bob Cramer - Local 18 Airline Representative
Mike Young - Local 32 Airline Representative
Steve Day - Maintenance Controller Representative
Rob Cush - Maintenance Controller Representative
Participants for Southwest Airlines:
Mike Ryan - VP, Labor Relationation
Jim Sokol – VP, Maintenance
Gerry Anderson- Sr Director Labor Relations
George Tompkins – Director, Labor Relations
Mark Lyons – Sr. Manager, Labor Relations
Sam Moser - Planning Manager, Finance
Shawn Jensen - Director Maintenance Operations
The Negotiating Committee is providing this update to the AMFA Membership at Southwest Airlines. This is the only official authorized source of negotiating communications by the Committee.
On January 9th and 10th we met with the Company in the Texas Stadium Conference Room at the hangar in Dallas. Our Committee was anticipating the finalization of language for the Technical Training Instructors’ classification of work which is to be added to Article 4. At the end of our last session on December 4, we believed that both committees were in agreement on language to accomplish this, but the day before this session we were informed by the Company that they could not agree on the language due to organizational changes that moved Maintenance Training over to the Corporate Training Department headed by Managing Director Elizabeth Bryant. We now believe the language our committees agreed to will have to be approved by Ms. Bryant before we move forward with the Technical Training Instructor language for Article 4.
This session began with a short discussion on the Technical Training Instructor issue described above. We then broke off to work on the description of work language for our accreted Maintenance Controllers group. Our Committee brought in Maintenance Controllers Steve Day and Rob Cush as subject matter experts. We then got back with the Company and exchanged description of work language for the Maintenance Controllers to be inserted in Article 4 - Classification of Work. Each side explained their proposal and then both committees went back to their breakout rooms and worked to combine each others’ ideas into one proposal. Our Committee also worked on a counter for Article 12 - Leaves of Absence and Article 28 - Apprentice Aircraft Mechanic Program. The day ended with no other discussions with the Company.
Both groups got back together the next day and we presented the Company with our counters for Article 12 - Leaves of Absence and Article 28 - Apprentice Aircraft Mechanic Program. The Company reviewed our changes to both articles and agreed with our changes. The changes to Article 12 include: identified approving official for leaves of absences, allowing an employee to request an initial personal leave of absence for longer than thirty days on a case-by-case basis, and changes to language in the last paragraph to clarify temporary union leave. The main changes for Article 28 are as follows: the title which will change to Apprentice AMT Program, responsibility of the program which moves from Maintenance Training to Maintenance Operations, and giving AMFA members first rights to the program along with other minor changes. For the remainder of the day, both committees resumed crafting the description of work for the Maintenance Controller classification with back and forth proposals. At the end of the day we recessed negotiations with no agreement on the Maintenance Controller classification language.
Our side continues to be committed and is making a concerted effort to reach an agreement that addresses the concerns of our members and the Company. Our Committee would like to thank the observer that took the time to attend.
Sincerely,
Your Negotiating Committee
Upcoming Negotiation Date - Dallas
January: 24-25
February: 12-13 and 27-28
March: 7-8 and 26-27