October 18, 2017
Participants for AMFA:
Bret Oestreich – National Director
Earl Clark – Chairman and Region I Director
Jason Munson – Airline Representative, Local 14
Mark Dahl – Airline Representative, Local 32
Lucas Middlebrook – AMFA Counsel
Will Abbott – Director, Region II
Gene Painter – Assistant National Director
Participants for Virgin America:
Tony Gibson – SFO Technician
Steve Vintch – LAX Technician
Lonny McGrew – DAL Technician
Sukhvirpal Sangha – JFK Technician
Steve Hoffman – Virgin Committee Counsel
Darvin Dalmet – Virgin Committee Counsel
Danny Rosenthal – Virgin Committee Counsel
AMFA leaders and the Virgin America Committee met in Seattle, WA to commence discussions on seniority integration of the Alaska Airlines (ASA) and Virgin America workgroups. This meeting started with introductions. Lonny McGrew of the Virgin Committee gave a statement on behalf of their committee expressing how grateful they were to have had the opportunity to work for a company with such great culture and a career that was bright, and he concluded with being unsure of the security of their career at ASA. Our Committee gave them an overview of AMFA and its structure. We then discussed what Alaska Labor Relations and Virgin are telling each other to expect through this process.
We then got to work on a Seniority Integration Process Agreement, a document that lays out what we need to do to achieve a single seniority list and how it would be voted on. This agreement also discusses the arbitration process as stated in the McCaskill ? Bond legislation that will be followed if we cannot agree on a single seniority list. We discussed the data required to accomplish this process, including accurate seniority lists of both workgroups, and requested that data from Alaska and Virgin. At the conclusion of this session, AMFA and the Virgin Committee agreed on the Process Agreement.
Here is how our Committee sees things progressing:
- Work out seniority list with the Virgin Committee. Members of both groups will need to vote to accept. If unable to negotiate or have a combined list voted in, an arbitrator will decide.
- Negotiate with Alaska Airlines on a Transition Agreement to bring the Virgin Technicians into our Agreement.
- Vote of members to accept the Transition Agreement.
- Only after we have both a membership approved seniority list and a transition agreement, we will submit to the National Mediation Board for single carrier status. This would mean AMFA would then represent the Alaska Technicians from Virgin America.
Our next session with the Virgin Committee on Seniority is scheduled for November 14 and 15, in California.
Fraternally,
AMFA Seniority Integration Committee