November 19, 2022

Participants for AMFA
Bret Oestreich – National President
Earl Clark – Region I Director
Will Abbott – Region II Director
Tony Christner – Interim Airline Representative
Lucas Middlebrook – Legal Counsel

Participants for Sun Country Airlines
Eric Levenhagen – Chief Human Resources Officer
Bobby Purzitza – Director of Maintenance
Jacki Thompson – Legal Counsel
Laurie Lofgren – Labor Consultant

The AMFA-SCA Negotiating Committee is providing this update to the Membership at Sun Country Airlines (SCA). This is the only official authorized source of negotiating communications by the Committee.

The Parties held a two-day bargaining session, November 14-15 in Minneapolis to continue Section 6 bargaining toward a first collective bargaining agreement (CBA) for the SCA group. Day 1 began with the Company passing a counterproposal on Article 21 – Grievance Procedure, which the Parties initially discussed during the October session. AMFA caucused internally and developed a counterproposal to Article 21 – Grievance Procedure and passed proposals on Article 3 – Status and Article 19, Transportation and Moving Expenses. Article 3 – Status is focused primarily on the process to be followed in the event of a merger or related transaction, and Article 19 – Transportation and Moving Expenses addresses, among other items, jumpseat access, Union officer travel onboard Company aircraft, and in what instances the Company would be responsible to pay for an employee’s relocation. The Company caucused following receipt of AMFA’s proposals and returned later in the afternoon with counterproposals on Article 21 – Grievance Procedure and Article 19 – Transportation and Moving Expenses. The proposals on Grievance Procedure continued to close the gap between the Parties. But, the Company struck most of the Union’s proposal on Article 19 advising that it may need to be tabled for discussion until the Parties begin discussion on economics. The Company requested more time to respond to a few articles AMFA had passed during the October session, including Article 26 – Union Security.

AMFA, at the outset of Day 2, passed another counterproposal on Article 21 – Grievance Procedure and passed proposals on Article 17 – Safety and Health and Article 25 – Union Representation. The Company caucused following receipt of AMFA’s proposals and returned in the afternoon with a counterproposal on Article 21 – Grievance Procedure. The Parties then engaged in an open discussion regarding hours of service, which was intended to help streamline the negotiation of Article 5 – Hours of Service, when that article is formally passed by AMFA in upcoming negotiations. The Parties were able to tentatively agree to Article 21 – Grievance Procedure, which contains a just cause provision stating that no employee will be disciplined or discharged without just cause.

AMFA will continue to prepare additional articles in advance of the next session, which is scheduled for December 13-14 in Minneapolis. The Company now has multiple articles proposed by AMFA for which it owes counterproposals, and we expect a number of those counterproposals to be passed by Sun Country at the next bargaining session.

If you would like to be an observer in future negotiation sessions, please communicate with your ALR. Stay engaged, remain informed, and continue to support the Negotiating Committee as that support increases the Committee’s ability to bargain a CBA your hard work deserves.

Fraternally,