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AMFA SWA Technician Negotiations Update # 21
Jul 16, 2014

AMFA/Southwest Airlines Contract Negotiations Update

Update # 21 July 15, 2014

The Negotiating Committee is providing this update to the AMFA Membership at Southwest Airlines. This report is the only official authorized source of negotiating communications by the Committee.

We began the scheduled two-day Aircraft Maintenance Technician (AMT) negotiations on Wednesday, July 9, 2014. Due to the recent departure of Mr. Sokol, we were unsure of the direction for this session. We requested information from the Company prior to the session so that we could prepare to ensure our time at the table was used as efficiently as possible; however, an informative reply from the Company never came. The only message we received from the Company prior to meeting was that their Chairman was unsure if his new committee would be pursuing the same, less, or more "must have" items. It was not until we were in session on Wednesday that we learned the new Company Committee, with new Vice President of Technical Operations Landon Nitschke as their primary maintenance customer, would proceed pursuant to the same "must have" items that were previously presented. It was agreed that during this session we would focus on five articles (Articles 9, 12, 13, 21, 22), which the Company felt they could possibly move on. At the time, these five articles were either "Tabled" or the Company owed AMFA a response. Prior to the Company caucusing to work on their proposals, we took time for Landon Nitschke to visit and introduce himself to the Committee and share some of his viewpoints.

The Company returned at 1330 hrs and gave us their Article 12: Leaves of Absence proposal, and they removed their proposed language addition from the Guidelines for Employees, which mentions a 3-year limit to leaves of absences. The Company also presented a proposal for Article 13: Sick Leave and On-The-Job Injuries, where they removed their asks for "vacations" to be included in the current Article 13, Section 9 language and omitted their earlier proposal for a section dealing with gainful employment while on an On-the-Job Leave. The Company also said they would contact the Benefits Department in regards to our proposal that would allow the use of accrued sick time leave to care for a newborn child or a serious illness of a spouse or dependent children. The Company then presented an Article 9: Seniority proposal in which they reinserted the current temporary supervisor language that we had struck. It was noted that this is a valuable program for the Company as our members are providing approximately 20,000 hours a year to accommodate their supervisor staffing deficiency. There was further discussion dealing with our concerns regarding abuses with the current temporary supervisor system, and we will be presenting further proposed changes to address these problems.

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AMFA Local 32
1403 W. 10th Pl., Suite B-116
Tempe, Arizona 85281-5257
  480-420-6919

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