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Memo: State of Operational Emergency February 15, 2019 -- By letter dated February 15, 2019, Southwest’s Sr. Director Tech Ops Production Lonnie Warren declared a State of Operational Emergency which imposes extra-contractual demands with respect to the services of our Aircraft Maintenance Technicians and Inspectors with the explicit threat of termination if they fail to comply. This declaration of a State of Operation Emergency occurs just eleven (11) days after a CBS News report detailing the efforts of Southwest maintenance to resist coercive pressure to ignore aircraft damage and the FAA’s confirmation of the degraded safety culture at Southwest. The CBS report exposed a problem so severe that two United States Senators have called for a congressional investigation. Read More... Blog: Delay and Distort: The Truth About What Really Happened During Our Negotiations With Southwest February 11, 2019 -- As we wrote in our member update Friday, the AMFA negotiating committee was “prepared to receive the Company’s counterproposal this week and advised the Company we wanted to reach a deal,” however “the Company is not currently engaged in good faith negotiation.” Likewise, Southwest Airlines wrote an employee update of its own, and described the talks as “tough and disappointing” in its characterization. We agree — but what followed in Southwest’s update so egregiously mischaracterized the facts of both the last week and really the last six years, we must address them head-on. Read More... National Director's Letter to SWA CEO Regarding Safety February 8, 2019 -- The degradation of Southwest’s aircraft maintenance safety culture has been recognized by the FAA, reputable media sources, and Landon Nitschke himself. Your personal involvement in restoring Southwest’s safety culture is long past due. The CBS News investigative report, Accident Waiting to Happen, exposed to millions of Americans Southwest management’s resort to coercive practices to deter Aviation Maintenance Technicians (AMTs) from reporting aircraft damage. Read More... AMFA - SWA Technician Negotiations Update #73 February 8, 2019 -- As you will recall, your Committee provided the last proposal in these negotiations two weeks ago in response to the Company’s counterproposal. The Company outright refused to provide a counterproposal this week with the only explanation being: “We did not view that as a proposal.” The Company continues to insist on massive offsets of foreign outsourcing and elimination of your paid rest. The Company asks for these “offsets” while not increasing the money in any significant fashion from the Tentative Agreement (TA) that you, the membership, rejected by a wide margin. Read More... National Director's January 2019 Update February 6, 2019 -- I want to encourage you to recognize the importance of the responsibilities and work you perform day to-day: increase awareness of performing your jobs safely; maintaining compliance; being aware of your surroundings; and above all, working safely side-by-side with your co-workers. Read More... Press Release: Local 591, Transport Workers Union and Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association Response to CBS Morning News Report on Coercion of Aircraft Maintenance Technicians February 4, 2019 -- Two of the leading union representatives of aircraft maintenance technicians (AMTs) – Local 591, Transport Workers Union (TWU) and the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) – issued a joint statement in response to the CBS Morning News report on the coercion of aircraft maintenance technicians. TWU Local 591 represents the aircraft line maintenance technicians of American Airlines and AMFA represents the aircraft maintenance technicians of Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines. Read More... AMFA-ASA and Virgin America 2nd Transition and Seniority Integration Agreements Referendum Results December 17, 2018 -- The votes for the AMFA – Alaska Airlines (ASA) and Legacy Virgin America (VX) 2nd Referendum were tallied on December 17, 2018. Votes for this referendum were counted and certified by TrueBallot, Inc. and the results are as follows... Read More... AMFA-ASA Virgin America Transition Agreement Discussions Update #7 November 19, 2018 -- On November 15, 2018, AMFA and Alaska Airlines have reached a Tentative Agreement on an Alaska Airlines -Virgin America Transition Agreement. We also received a commitment letter from Kurt Kinder stating timelines that upon ratification of this agreement he will bring current outsourced line maintenance on Airbus aircraft under our Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). Read More... 2018 AEI Annual Congress Report October 16, 2018 -- Last month the Aircraft Engineers International (AEI) held their 46th Annual Congress in Stockholm, Sweden. Aircraft Maintenance Technicians/Engineers from around the world gathered to address the business of AEI, including: amending the AEI Constitution; electing members of the Executive Board; attending presentations on a variety of topics; and developing strategies for responding to the pressures being pushed onto our craft by air carriers looking to cut costs, government agencies inconsistently enforcing regulations and a growing trend of “atypical employment” in response to a shortage of qualified licensed personnel. Read More... Download: 2018 EASA Presentation AEI Congress.pptx , 2018 Swedish Transport Agency Presentation AEI.pptx , 2018 ECA AEI Congress Presentation.pptx ASA Annual Wage Review Discussions - Second Year Review October 10, 2018 -- In accordance with the terms outlined in Article 23, Wage Rules, AMFA and Alaska Airlines met on October 2, 2018, to discuss the second year Annual Wage Review of our current Agreement in Seattle, WA. Both sides viewed all data used for the review. We then conducted an external review of our all-in wage compared to our primary competitors in accordance with the Agreement. Read More... Letter to SWA VP of Labor Relations Regarding Continuing Negotiations September 20, 2018 -- As the Chairs of the AMFA Negotiating Committee, we want to follow-up on the tentative agreement vote results announced Tuesday, September 18, 2018, rejecting ratification. Read More... Press Release: AMFA AMTs Overwhelmingly Reject Tentative Agreement With Southwest Airlines September 18, 2018 -- Today, Southwest Airlines (SWA) Aircraft Maintenance Technicians (AMTs) rejected a tentative agreement put forward for a referendum vote. According to the union’s National Executive Council, the group rejected the contract because the economic package overall falls short. In the next week, AMFA will survey the AMT group to confirm the reason for rejection. Read More... Southwest Airlines Decline of Maintenance Safety Culture Read More... US Airlines' Outsourcing of Aircraft Maintenance Read More... Important Information on AIR 21-Whistleblower OSHA's Whistleblower Protection Program enforces the whistleblower provisions of more than twenty whistleblower statutes protecting employees who report violations of various workplace safety and health, airline, commercial motor carrier, consumer product, environmental, financial reform, food safety, health insurance reform, motor vehicle safety, nuclear, pipeline, public transportation agency, railroad, maritime, and securities laws. Rights afforded by these whistleblower protection laws include, but are not limited to, worker participation in safety and health activities, reporting a work-related injury, illness or fatality, or reporting a violation of the statutes herein. Read More... Download: SWA Supervisor.pdf , Its_Your_Call_12-6-17.pdf , FAA-SWA-LAX-Report.pdf , FAA-SWA-Dallas.pdf , FAA-LAS-Violation.pdf