AMFA/Southwest Airlines Contract Negotiations Update

Update #8 March 11, 2013

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

Unfortunately, our negotiation session scheduled for February 27 and 28 had to be cancelled due to airport closures caused by Winter Storm Rocky. We resumed negotiations on March 7 in the Mecca Meeting Room and began with an over-view of negotiations to this point. We discussed the status of information that we were waiting for regarding Articles 4 and 17, affirmed that Articles 8, 21, and 22 are currently in work, and that Articles 12, 26, 27, and 28 have been worked through and are currently TA’d.

After agreeing to where we are in the process, we began working with our counter offer to Article 21. Much discussion was devoted to the timelines and responsibilities of both parties in an attempt to make the steps through the grievance process more defined and efficient. We also entered into a lengthy discussion dealing with our proposed "discovery" language relating to discipline being administered after a Fact Finding Meeting. The company said they needed to caucus later on Article 21 and we proceeded to discuss Article 22. Again, the discussion centered on our proposed "discovery" language, which in this article relates to the arbitration process. After much debate the day concluded with both sides planning to seek advice from their legal councils on this issue prior to our next session.

We met again on Friday, March 8 for a scheduled half day of negotiations. The morning began with establishing negotiating dates through November. We continued with the company presenting Article 17 which we discussed and ultimately TA’d. We then presented our Article 23 proposal to the company which was debated for some time before we agreed to table the issue for now. Lastly, Article 8 was discussed with the focus on international field service and wrapping up with the company explaining their concept for GSE field service. We also scheduled a meeting prior to our next negotiation session with representatives from the Maintenance Control Department to help us through some of the questions that have arisen from our Article 8 discussions.

Our side continues to be committed to making a concerted effort to reach an agreement that addresses our members’, and the Company’s, concerns.

Sincerely,

Your Negotiating Committee

Upcoming Negotiation Date - Dallas

March: 26-27 (Cancelled at Company’s request)

April: 2-4 and 29-30

Pdf File here