October 9, 2026
Participants for AMFA:
Bret Oestreich – National President
Earl Clark – Region I Director
Wilber "Will" Abbott – Region II Director
Louis Upchurch – Local 4 Airline Representative
Frank Suentzenich – Local 11 Airline Representative
Wayne Lampley – Local 18 Airline Representative
Ken Patrick – Local 32 Airline Representative
Lucas Middlebrook – Legal Counsel
Peter Manikowski – Economist
Participants for Southwest Airlines:
Rob Jones – Senior Lead Counsel/Chief Negotiator
Tamara Harrison – Sr. Labor Ops Consultant
Joe Marcella – VP, Planning, Performance, Tech. Ops
Michael Quinones – Director, Aircraft Appearance
Patrick Breit – Sr. Advisor, Financial Planning/Analysis
Leah Woody Steed – Sr. Labor Relations Manager
Erin McCann – Sr. Labor Communications Consultant
Carolyn White – Assoc. Labor Ops Consultant
Corey Fuller – Sr. Labor Planning & Analytics
The AMFA-Southwest Negotiating Committee (the “Committee”) is providing this update to the Membership at Southwest Airlines (“Southwest”). This is the only official source of negotiating communications by the Committee.
The AMFA Aircraft Appearance Technician (AAT) Committee held a three-day collective bargaining session (Sept. 29 – Oct. 1) with Southwest in Austin, TX. The Parties began the process on Day 1 with AMFA delivering its Railway Labor Act (RLA) Section 6 openers, which is an article-by-article list of bargaining concepts AMFA intends to address during the negotiation process. The Company caucused to review AMFA’s openers internally, and thereafter the Parties reconvened to discuss conducting an off-the-record exploratory process to determine whether an extension to the current agreement was a workable path forward.
In support of this exercise, the Parties negotiated and entered into a Protocol Agreement setting parameters for these off-the-record exploratory discussions. Either party may, if such exploratory process is unsuccessful, terminate the Protocol Agreement by written notice. Once terminated, the Parties would move away from extension discussions and into a more comprehensive negotiation process. The Protocol Agreement also ensures that once either side terminates the agreement, everything discussed during the exploratory phase will be without prejudice and not affect any future negotiation position.
The Parties spent the remainder of the week exchanging and discussing off-the-record extension “supposals” or non-binding proposals. The Company presented the first supposal, which was followed by a counter-supposal from AMFA. The substance of these proposals was, pursuant to the Protocol Agreement, off-the record. However, the Parties made progress with their respective supposals and will continue the exploratory phase during the next session scheduled for November 19–20 in Orlando, FL.
We would like to thank all the observers that took time from their days to attend and experience the negotiation process. Please do not hesitate to reach out to your ALR if you have any questions.
Fraternally,
AMFA-SWA AAT Negotiating Committee
