October 15, 2024

Participants for AMFA
Earl Clark – Region I Director
Chuck Clum – Airline Representative 
James Lambert – Negotiating Committee Member
Lucas Middlebrook – Legal Counsel
Peter Manikowski - Economist 

Participants for Horizon Air
Cheri Ruger – MD, People & Labor Relations
Baron Converse – MD, Maintenance Operations
Latrice Lee – Legal Counsel
Kyle Moline – Director, Financial Planning & Analysis

The AMFA-Horizon Negotiating Committee (the “Committee”) is providing this update to the membership at Horizon Air. This is the only officially authorized source of negotiating communications by your Committee.

AMFA and Horizon met in Seattle October 7-9, 2024, to continue bargaining toward a successor CBA. As you will recall, the prior session in August concluded with the parties having exchanged hypothetical or “supposal” ideas on how to move toward a tentative agreement (TA). At the conclusion of the August session, the Committee advised that we were encouraged by these discussions and the economic movement we saw in these off-the-record exchanges. Unfortunately, our optimism diminished substantially during this session.

The parties remained in off-the-record supposal discussions, and the ball was in the Company’s court to provide a supposal response at the commencement of this session. The Company was prepared with its response; however, the Company’s ideas on wages failed to move us forward and were unproductive. The Company did not increase its position on base wages from its last supposal by a single penny. Instead, the Company delivered, once again, the tired speech that it can only compensate you in line with other regional airlines. The parties had made meaningful progress during our last session in August, and it appeared that momentum could have possibly led to a TA. However, the Company’s actions during this session indicated something had changed between August and October.

It is not lost on us that the Regional Airline Association (RAA), of which Horizon is a member, held its annual leadership conference on September 24-25, 2024, and thereafter, progress in these negotiations stalled. And, instead of further movement toward a TA, we were met with stale speeches from Company negotiators explaining how Horizon could not pay you out of line with the regional airline industry. In our opinion, Horizon is allowing its bargaining position to be influenced by the RAA, but the Company should focus more on compensating you fairly for your hard work and dedication and less on kowtowing to the RAA’s wage-suppressing directives.

The Flight Attendants appear to be dealing with a similar situation, and in a September 27, 2024, AFA update, the union noted: “The regional airline business model benefits executives and shareholders … by keeping pay and benefits for Flight Attendants and other workers in poverty levels. Management works to pit workers against each other to hide the fact that they’re the ones keeping wages low.” In that same update, the AFA explained how “Flight Attendants representing nine airlines picketed outside the Regional Airline Association (RAA) conference.” We let Horizon’s negotiators know we were aware of AFA’s position on this issue and would monitor it closely, especially if the Company continues with its approach of putting the interests of the RAA and the regional airline industry above that of you, the hard-working aircraft technicians that keep Horizon planes flying.   

Our next session is October 28-30, 2024, in Seattle. We will be prepared to negotiate a deal that fairly compensates you for your important work that is vital to Horizon’s success. We are hopeful Horizon shows up with the same mindset. The Committee would like to thank the observers who attended this session, and we continue to extend an invitation to all Horizon members to attend and watch the process of negotiation. Space will be limited to room capacity, please contact AMFA-Horizon Air Airline Representative (ALR) Chuck Clum if you are interested in attending. We would like to thank everybody for your continued support and messages of solidarity – together we will achieve a contract your hard work has earned. 

Fraternally,

Your AMFA Negotiating Committee