December 31, 2019 -- Tis the season, I hope your Christmas was enjoyable with all your family and friends. I would like to shout out to all the AMFA members who worked Christmas Eve and Christmas Day – thank you for your dedication and contribution to making the 51 million travelers safe during one of the busiest travel seasons of the year. I wish each of you a happy and safe New Year!
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December 18, 2019 -- Today, on December 18th, we received final notification that effective October 24th, 2019, the National Mediation board recognizes our single carrier status – designating the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) as the sole representative body for Alaska’s maintenance technicians, inspectors, tech helpers, and janitors. This decision is the last step in the process that determines December 18th as the transition effective date as ratified during the vote that took place in July.
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December 11, 2019 -- On the heels of having won its representational election at Horizon Air, the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) announced that a union card drive has begun at Spirit Airlines — the self-proclaimed ultra-low-cost carrier headquartered in Miramar, Florida. While it is unusual for AMFA to publicize card drive initiatives, given that the Aircraft Maintenance Technicians (AMTs) at Spirit Airlines are currently non-unionized, it is important to build awareness that this significant initiative is underway.
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November 15, 2019 -- Today House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Peter DeFazio (D-OR) introduced The Safe Aircraft Maintenance Standards Act, calling for unannounced FAA inspections of foreign repair stations, minimum qualifications for mechanics and others working on U.S.-registered aircraft at foreign repair stations, data gathering and analysis, a conditional moratorium on FAA certification of new foreign repair stations, and requiring the FAA to a create an online repository for carriers to report heavy maintenance history by location and specific aircraft registration number, as well as other safety metrics.
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November 12, 2019 -- Recent reporting on Southwest Airlines 88 Skyline Aircraft indicates that the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) internal Office of Audit and Evaluation raised issues with the carrier’s failure to ensure conformity with all FAA airworthiness requirements, which is a growing cause of concern to the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA).
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AMFA has been following the Boeing 737 MAX 8 situation very carefully over these past months. In addition to attending meetings and collaborating with our carriers to ensure the MAX 8 aircraft is safe prior to relaunch, we have worked internally to identify issues that affect our members. Our desire is to work together with all stakeholders towards identifying common solutions that affect us all, and we have sent a similar letter to Alaska Airlines and Southwest Airlines.
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October 23, 2019 -- This month the Aircraft Engineers International (AEI) held their 47th Annual Congress in Berlin, Germany on October 8-11, 2019. Aircraft Maintenance Technicians/Engineers from around the world gathered again to address the business of AEI: amending the AEI Constitution, electing members of the Executive Board, and attending presentations on a variety of relevant topics for our craft. Approximately 44 delegates from four continents, 15 countries, and 17 affiliate organizations attended this year. Our host was the German Professional Association of Aircraft Engineers, Berufsverband Prufer von Luftfahrtgerat e.V (BPvL).
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October 21, 2019 -- AMFA National is conducting a survey of the Appearance Technician membership at Southwest Airlines. Your Negotiating Committee will utilize the feedback gathered by this survey to prepare for the upcoming negotiations process.
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October 18, 2019 -- I wanted to let all AMFA members, Southwest Airlines flight crews, and most importantly the flying public know something that occurred this week. On October 14, Southwest Airlines (SWA) flew an empty aircraft to San Salvador at El Salvador International Airport in order to accomplish a heavy maintenance check on that aircraft. A heavy maintenance check is the most labor-intensive check performed on an aircraft during its flying life.
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October 14, 2019 -- On October 8, 2019, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) held a public meeting to solicit comments and suggestions from stakeholders on issues facing the agency in the administration of the whistleblower protection provisions under the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century (AIR21). OSHA is interested in obtaining information from the public on key issues facing the agency’s whistleblower program. AMFA National Safety and Standards Director Scott King was in attendance and had the opportunity to provide the following feedback to questions posed by OSHA...
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August 22, 2019 -The National Mediation Board (NMB) officially announced today that the Aircraft Maintenance Technicians (AMTs) at Horizon Air voted to elect the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA), to be their exclusive collective bargaining agent.
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Download:
 20190822_NMB_AMFA_Certification_Letter_Horizon_Air.pdf
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August 20, 2019 -- Many of you know from my August 8 update about the failure to reach agreement with Southwest Airlines in mediation that we hoped would have ended all of the federal litigation between AMFA, some of its current and former officers, and the company. AMFA must now defend itself from two separate federal lawsuits by Southwest against its own Mechanics and Inspectors filed before we reached agreement on the new contract.
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August 15, 2019 -- American Airlines, with the help of the U.S. federal court, made the skies more dangerous with their latest lawsuit and subsequent ruling. The airline sued its own mechanics and made it more difficult for them to report safety issues, creating fear of punishment and retaliation — having a chilling effect that hurts the airline and flying public.
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August 8, 2019 -- Yesterday, Wednesday August 7, 2019, AMFA representatives met in Dallas, TX to participate in a pre-scheduled settlement mediation conference with representatives of Southwest Airlines.
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July 31, 2019 -- In accordance with Article XII, Section 1 of the AMFA Constitution, this letter shall serve as the official notice of the 2020 AMFA National Convention. The delegates to the 2016 National Convention voted to convene the 2020 National Convention in Las Vegas, NV. The Convention will commence on Monday, May 4, 2020. Further information regarding the Convention location will be sent separately.
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Download:
 2020 Const Amend Form.dotx
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July 18, 2019 -- The votes for the AMFA – Alaska Airlines (AS) and Legacy Virgin America (VX) Referendum were tallied on December 17, 2018. Votes for this referendum were counted and certified by ElectionBuddy, and the results are as follows...
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July 16, 2019 -- The Boeing 737 MAX was grounded by the FAA on March 13, 2019, and based on current information, will continue to be out of service until at least October. The Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) has been monitoring the situation very carefully, and a very important question remains regarding to what degree we will be involved in the process of introducing the aircraft back into the Southwest Airlines fleet and into the Alaska Airlines fleet.
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July 15, 2019 -- First, I would like to thank you for placing your confidence in the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA). Your grassroots organizing efforts and collection of Authorization Cards from your workgroup in favor of AMFA was a wonderful surprise.
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June 10, 2019 -- On June 3, 2019, AMFA and Alaska Airlines (AS) announced an Agreement in Principle (AIP) on another Transition Agreement to integrate the Legacy Virgin America (Airbus) Technicians into our current collective bargaining agreement with Alaska Airlines. The AMFA Committee is working with the Company to finalize the documents and we should have them ready to send to you in the coming week. The full Transition Agreement with an updated Article 26 Schedule A Pay Scale, which will reflect what is in the Transition Agreement along with Seniority Agreement, will be emailed to each member’s Alaska email for review. It will also be posted on the Alaska Maintenance & Engineering website under the AMFA tab.
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June 5, 2019 -- We started off the year with a goal for our Maintenance and Engineering division to work as one team — on both the Boeing and Airbus fleets. On Monday, June 3rd, we moved closer to that goal when AMFA and Alaska Airlines reached a Transition Agreement (TA) in Principle.
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May 30, 2019 -- Contract negotiations between TWU-IAM and American Airlines have been stagnant for years as a result of American Airlines management’s “must haves” — ending protected work in favor of outsourcing to less skilled foreign international maintenance vendors and demanding headcount reductions.
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May 24, 2019 -- The Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) joined several labor and industry groups to encourage President Trump to officially recognize Aviation Maintenance Technician (AMT) Day, May 24. AMFA also galvanized support from members of Congress to formally recognize AMT Day on floor of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives.
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May 22, 2019 -- AMFA National Director Bret Oestreich and Legislative Affairs Director Justin Madden have been invited to participate in the Aircraft Maintenance Outsourcing Summit to be held on June 4, 2019.
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March 19, 2019 -- The Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) National Executive Council (NEC) fully supports the Transport Workers Union’s “American Airlines Should Care” Educational Campaign. AMFA appreciates and encourages efforts to educate the public on a user-friendly platform that exposes flaws in business practices that compromise safety.
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March 8, 2019 -- Today your Association filed its formal Answer in federal court to the lawsuit brought on February 28, 2019, by Southwest Airlines Co., against AMFA and your designated collective bargaining representatives. The Answer filed by AMFA attorneys today strongly denies the allegations by the Company that any of the Named Defendants violated the Railway Labor Act, and our attorneys are prepared for and are planning a vigorous defense in court.
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March 3, 2019 -- On Thursday, February, 28, 2019, Southwest Airlines filed yet another federal lawsuit against AMFA, as well as your elected negotiating representatives individually. This is but one more step in a long-standing campaign aimed at your Union and at you and the very job that you do. his lawsuit comes on the heels of the Company’s self-styled “State of Operational Emergency” at several maintenance locations where it believes too many discrepancies were being generated and resulted in aircraft not being pushed back into service fast enough.
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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.
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Download:
SWA Supervisor.pdf
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Its_Your_Call_12-6-17.pdf
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FAA-SWA-LAX-Report.pdf
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FAA-SWA-Dallas.pdf
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FAA-LAS-Violation.pdf
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