December 13, 2021
Participants for AMFA:
Bret Oestreich –National President
Earl Clark – Chairman and Region I Director
Bobby Shipman – Airline Representative, Local 14
Brian Goodwin – GEG Area Representative
Participants for Horizon Air:
Peggy Willingham – VP, People, Labor & Strategy
Jeremy Ellison – Sr. Labor Relations BP
Baron Converse – MD Maintenance Operations
Molly Gabel – Legal Counsel
AMFA and Horizon Air met again in Seattle, WA on December 9-10, 2021, to continue negotiations. The session started by reviewing the articles discussed during the last session. We then tentatively agreed on Article 10, Shift Realignment, with the only change being to bidding limits for probationary employees. The Company had no substantial update for our ask on Article 23, Employee Benefits, regarding limited use of Air Group Seniority for Non-Rev Travel. We provided the Company with AMFA structured language on Article 18, Union Security and Representation, prior to the start of this session and the Company again had no update or movement on the article.
We moved to Article 21, Health, Safety and Standards, where the Company wanted to clarify what is included for pay during the time an individual is on a light duty assignment along with if we wanted to incorporate the Drug and Alcohol Letter of Agreement (LOA) into this article. After some discussion we tentatively agreed to Article 21, Health, Safety and Standards, with the agreement that pay while on a light duty assignment will be at the normal hourly pay, including all premiums and longevity, but will only get the shift differential for the shift they are working on during the light duty assignment. We did not agree to incorporate the Drug and Alcohol LOA and informed the Company we will not be renewing the LOA.
Next, we provided the Company with another option on Article 17, Union Business for Union Travel. We believed this option provides some of the oversite the Company believes they need while also providing seven (7) Union Representatives necessary flexible travel. As with previous Union issues, the Company provided no options to help get us closer to a resolution in this article.
We then moved to discussions on what we are looking for in Article 12, Holidays, where the Company is open to incorporating the current practice of giving Veterans Day as a holiday. We told them that is nice, but we are looking at an additional holiday on top of Veterans Day and also discussed expanding the banking of holidays. They explained that an additional over Veterans Day needs to be part of the overall economic package. No further discussions were had on the article. The Company then asked what our issue was in Article 6, Workweek and Hours of Work, and we explained capturing the current practice of paid lunches. After a short discussion we tentatively agreed to the article with replacing the word “unpaid” with “paid” in Section II, paragraph B.
After a lunch break, we provided the Company with a proposal for a new article, Severance Allowance. This would provide for employees who have been with the Company for the last two years to receive pay if employment is involuntarily interrupted, two weeks’ pay at two years and incrementally increasing to a maximum of fifteen weeks’ pay after fifteen years. A short discussion ensued, but no commitment was made one way or the other. We then moved to asking the Company what they wanted to discuss within Article 20, Grievance Procedure and System Board of Adjustment. The Company’s issue in the article is when the fourteen days start for them to take disciplinary action. We discussed but could not agree to change what we believe is the past practice, which is they have fourteen days from first knowledge or reasonably should have known to take action. The last issue discussed on the first day was Article 22, General and Miscellaneous, centering around changing to new uniforms and requiring you to clean your own uniforms. The Company asked us to provide them with the Alaska Airlines uniform policy, which will be discussed during our next session.
On the second day, the committees spent the whole day reviewing Article 8, Field Trips and Training, line-by-line. Discussions resulted in the renaming of the article to “Field Work, Rescue/AOG Missions, and Training.” We will also reformat the article to distinguish between Field Work, Rescue Missions, AOG Missions, and Training. The Company has agreed to incorporate the letter that all hours spent working on a Rescue or AOG Mission will be paid at the time and one half pay rate. We also explained, for safety reasons, we need to incorporate language that two technicians must be sent on Rescue Missions. The Company agreed but would not commit to putting it in the agreement at this time. Other discussions within the article were about the selection of technicians for Field Work, and we proposed selection should be by seniority from all stations. They explained that could not work for them but would consider allowing a minimum of one technician from each station. Toward the end of the day, we made another request within the article to increase the per diem rate. Our Committee will present a re-write of the article at next session. We ended about 2:15pm to allow our Committee to travel home. The Committee would like to thank the observers that attended this session.
Upcoming Scheduled Negotiation Dates:
December 15–17 in Seattle, WA
December 20–23 in Seattle, WA
Observers are welcomed to attend the next session. Please contact Bobby Shipman to make arrangements if you wish to attend as an observer.
Fraternally,
Your Negotiating Committee
