Participants for AMFA:
Bret Oestreich – National Director
Earl Clark – Director, Region I
Will Abbott – Director, Region II
Bob Cramer – Airline Representative, Local 4
Craig Hamlet – Airline Representative, Local 11
Wayne Lampley – Airline Representative, Local 18
Mike Young – Airline Representative, Local 32
Lucas Middlebrook – AMFA Counsel
Peter Manikowski – AMFA Economist

Participants for Southwest Airlines:
Gerry Anderson – Sr. Director, Labor Relations
Alexa Kern – Labor Relations
Bill Venckus – Director, Labor Relations
Mark Lyon – Sr. Manager, Labor Relations
Scott Colling – Regional Director, Central Region
John Brutlag – Director of Aircraft Standards
John Donnelly – Manager, Financial Planning
Sam Moser – Director of Finance
Russell McCrady (Day 3 Only) – Labor Relations

The Negotiating Committee is providing this update to the AMFA Membership at Southwest Airlines. This report is the only official authorized source of negotiating communications by the Committee.

No good deed goes unpunished.  Your Committee attempted to focus on the positive aspects of this week’s negotiations with Southwest; however, Southwest decided instead to denigrate your Committee even at a time when the parties are closer to a deal than they have been since these negotiations began.  The fact the Company cannot seem to alter its path of negative propaganda speaks volumes as to its negotiation playbook.  Let us focus on the actual facts from this week.

On Tuesday, March 6, the Company presented a revised Scope proposal and their economics did not move one penny from the last offer from Washington, DC in January.  In response, your Committee specifically asked the Company if a deal with Scope at book was off the table.  The Company confirmed that it was.  Therefore, your Committee advised the Company that any deal wherein it demanded massive changes to Scope would drive the economics of the package upward.  The Company understood this, and your Committee began the intensive process of providing a counter-proposal to the Company’s Scope proposal.

On Wednesday, March 7, your Committee spent the majority of the day responding to the Company’s Scope proposal.  We delivered that proposal late in the afternoon, and as we explained to the Company, the price tag associated with the massive changes to Scope increased from our last offer, which was premised on Scope remaining at book.  The Company accepted our counter-proposal, broke for the day, and did not return to engage your Committee until 1:00 pm on Thursday, March 8.

The Company returned in the afternoon of March 8 and responded to our Scope proposal, but this time it had once again flip-flopped its position.  The Company, for the first time in these negotiations, passed a proposal that kept Article 2, Scope at current book – despite the fact that only one day before it had informed our Committee that concept was a non-starter.  The outline of the Company’s Scope-at-book counter was outlined as follows (Company left and Union counter right):

The Company responded to the Union’s counter-proposal and introduced an eleventh-hour demand that unraveled previous TA’s between the parties. The Company now wanted additional relief related to ETOPS, as seen below, which would allow it to perform ETOPS work within the contiguous 48 states with vendors at stations where Southwest has less than 75 flight departures.  This is in direct contravention of our previous agreement on ETOPS, and also undermines the TA reached years ago, which covered small station opening and closing:

In addition to the introduction of brand new ETOPS language that regressed from previous TA’s on both ETOPS work and small station issues, the Company countered with the following: