AMFA National - Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association

Dear Members:

During the first week of January I and the rest of the NEC were in Phoenix for our face to face meeting. On Tuesday we all attended L32’s LEC meeting were Louie swore in Mike Nelson as the new Vice President and Tim Ketschek as the Treasurer of L32. On Wednesday morning the entire NEC attended L32’s membership meeting and the rest of the day was spent addressing the NEC agenda. On Thursday, Earl Clark and I flew to Seattle to meet with Local 14 and the FAA at the local CMO office to discuss ASAP issues related to the Alaska membership and the lack of confidence in the program. Tim Cullen, Mark Dahl, Mark James, John Pollom and several other local representatives expressed their frustration with the program and the lack of consistency between the pilots program and the technicians. The same concerns were voiced to the Alaska management late last year and it appears that both the FAA and Alaska are receiving pressure from above. “Inadvertent” is the new word and its definition will most likely be battled over often. While I did feel we had walked into the lion’s den, I am confident that we are all moving in the right direction and that our meeting was a productive one.

The following week I was asked to review LOIs received by two Mesaba technicians. I read their statements and provided some input to Mesaba ASAP representative Dave DuFour. Also that week I spoke again with Mark Dahl concerning an ASAP issue that had risen at Alaska.

Recently I contacted Southwest Airlines to arrange a meeting in March to discuss the possibility of signing an LOA that would require Southwest Airlines to recognize and assure that the AMFA/SWA Accident team would be called on in the event of an accident. Once this process is accomplished, we will be able to use this model language for our teams at the other carriers.

I contacted Simon Roberts of the Civil Aviation Authority in England. While I am gathering additional information, AMFA has been invited to attend the next human factors symposium in England and may possibly be a member of the labor panel.

I spent some time designing a new AMFA tri-fold that would be distributed during organizing efforts and have finished designing the new AMFA recognition award which will be unveiled at the May JAC meeting.

“The way to be safe is never be secure”— Thomas Fuller