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National President Letter to JetBlue MX Controllers
Feb 23, 2022

February 23, 2022

Dear JetBlue Maintenance Controllers:

The three members of the National Mediation Board (NMB) rendered their decision yesterday, on February 22, 2022, not to grant a separate craft or class of Maintenance Controllers at JetBlue and therefore not to hold an election to determine AMFA as your workgroup’s requested representative. We are deeply disappointed by the NMB’s decision following the nearly seven months wait since AMFA filed on your behalf with the NMB on August 13, 2021, in Case # CR-7230.

Unfortunately, the decision in JetBlue Airways Corporation, 49 NMB 47 (2022) found Maintenance Controllers at JetBlue to be part of the Mechanics and Related craft or class and that Maintenance Controllers do not constitute a separate, distinct craft or class. Furthermore, the Board determined that AMFA’s submission of authorization cards for the Maintenance Controllers was not an adequate showing of interest, because an adequate showing requires authorization cards from a majority of the Mechanics and Related Employees craft and class at JetBlue to which the Maintenance Controllers belong, and therefore dismissed the case under the NMB’s rules.

Among other things, AMFA argued to the NMB that because the Mechanics and Related Employees at JetBlue are not yet represented that attaching the Maintenance Controllers to the craft or class of Mechanics and Related Employees was premature and results in the carrier’s sole purpose to "deny any representation by attempting to attach the unrepresented Maintenance Controllers to a much larger group that is also unrepresented in order to deny any representation to unrepresented Maintenance Controllers."

Let’s not forget that as stated in the Railway Labor Act (RLA) 45 U.S.C. §152, Fourth, employees have “the right to organize and bargain collectively through the representatives of their own choosing” and that “[t]he majority of any craft or class of employees shall have the right to determine who shall be the representative of the craft or class . . .”

Your grassroots efforts have not been wasted and have not gone unnoticed by many of the other professional Maintenance Controllers and Aviation Maintenance Technicians (AMTs) at other carriers in the industry. There is a movement across the industry to be represented by a craft-specific, independent union, who recognizes your responsibility, relevance, and professional skillsets in our craft while protecting and preserving your best interests.

Hopefully, this serves as motivation in furthering this grassroots movement towards collecting enough cards for an NMB election for the craft or class of Mechanics and Related Employees at JetBlue Airways, which includes the Maintenance Controllers.

We look forward to further discussions on how we can help you in the future,

Sincerely,

Bret Oestreich
National President


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AMFA
7853 E. Arapahoe Court, Suite 1100
Centennial, CO 80112
  303-752-2632

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