March 15, 2024
Participants for AMFA
Earl Clark – Region I Director
Will Abbott – Region II Director
Bret Oestreich – National President
Pat Amore – National Vice President
Chuck Clum – Horizon Air Airline Representative
James Lambert – Negotiating Committee Member
Lucas Middlebrook – Legal Counsel
Participants for Alaska Airlines
Cheri Ruger – MD, People & Labor Relations
Audrey Kahawai-Kekipi – Sr. Labor Relations BP
Baron Converse – MD, Maintenance Operations
Latrice Lee – Legal Counsel
Kyle Moline – Director, Financial Planning & Analysis
The AMFA-Horizon Negotiating Committee (the “Committee”) is providing this update to Horizon Airlines' membership. This is the only officially authorized source of negotiating communications by your Committee.
AMFA and Horizon met in Seattle, WA, on March 11-13, 2024, to continue bargaining towards a successor CBA.
The parties had another productive week of bargaining. On Day 1, AMFA presented opening proposals on Article 3 – Status of Agreement; Article 5 – Covered Classifications and Qualifications; and Article 22 – General and Miscellaneous. The parties engaged in meaningful dialogue on all three articles and were able to reach a tentative agreement (TA) on articles 3 and 5 by the conclusion of Day 1. The Article 3 TA included changes proposed by AMFA to align the Article with current law related to certain aspects of integration in the event of a merger or related corporate transaction. In addition, the TA on Article 5 included most of AMFA’s proposals, including generalized cleanup, clarification of certain qualifications, and removal of certain inapplicable qualification language. In addition, the Article 5 TA included new language proposed by AMFA whereby the Company would provide Employees with an additional, reasonable amount of time to obtain required qualifications if training and/or aircraft opportunities are not available. The Company provided a counterproposal to Article 22 in the afternoon of Day 1, which AMFA began to review.
AMFA spent the majority of Day 2 in caucus preparing its first proposal on Article 8 – Field Trips and Training, which your Committee presented to the Company in the afternoon. Extended time in caucus was needed to formulate this proposal as Article 8 needed substantial cleanup, including removal of duplicative language and a reordering of provisions for better readability. In addition, AMFA made proposals within the Article that included items such as higher compensation for Rescue Mission and AOG work, limitations on how long you could be mandatorily required to be away on a Field Trip, improvements to the amount of per diem to align with rates established by the United States Governmental Services Administration, hotel standards, and standards for travel of your tools on Field Trips.
On Day 3, following an internal review of the Company's Article 22 counter, the parties confirmed they had reached a TA on that Article. The Article 22 TA contained general cleanup as well as an increase to the monthly laundry allowance and language allowing AMFA to review any video the Company intends to rely upon in a disciplinary situation. In addition to the Article 22 TA, the Company presented its first counterproposal to Article 8 – Field Trips and Training. The Company’s counterproposal agreed to some language proposed by AMFA, but the parties will need to spend additional time at the next session negotiating prior to a TA being reached for this Article.
This week’s session produced three additional TA’s: Article 3, Article 5, and Article 22. The next bargaining session is scheduled for May 20-22 in Seattle. We advised the Company that AMFA’s economist would be sending an information request in advance of the next session so that your Committee can begin costing and formulating its opening economic proposal. We continue to extend an invitation to all Horizon members to attend and watch the process of negotiation. Space will be limited to room capacity; please contact AMFA-Horizon Air Airline Representative (ALR) Chuck Clum if you are interested in attending.
Fraternally,
Your AMFA Negotiating Committee
