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On August 9th thru the 12th, 2004 the AMFA negotiating committee met in Detroit with the Company to continue the current contract negotiations. Articles discussed during negotiations were 2, 3, 4, 8, 11, 13, 17, 21, and 25. At first glance you would think that with the amount of Articles discussed we could come to some agreement with the Company, unfortunately that was not the case. After putting together many good faith proposals, the Company’s counter proposals were not much more than current book language, and for some reason the Company is under the impression that we have to negotiate in order to keep our current book language. If history teaches us anything, the Company will continue to draw out these negotiations for as long as they can. It took the Pilot group four and a half years to get their first contract and it took us three and a half. The Pilots last contract took over two and a half years and almost resulted in a strike. Only after the Pilots strike deadline drew dangerously close and they began their strike preparations did the Company begin to negotiate. How often has the Company preached to us about being a team player and how we all need to work together. They should be thankful that we are not as uncooperative as they are. When is the next round of negotiations? After previously agreeing to negotiate with or without our assigned mediator, the Company has decided to NOT negotiate further without him and he is unavailable for the previously scheduled round of negotiations that were to take place in MSP, August 16th thru August 18th. After this sessions lack of meaningful progress the mediator informed us that he would discuss our negotiations with his superiors and get back to us concerning further negotiation sessions. We currently do not know when or where we will meet next and we will keep you informed when we do. Ken Wagers- AMFA National Treasurer
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