WN Mechanics seek mediation

[Glenn Quagmire]

Read the statement Mike put out in SWA life there is an injunction coming against AMFA, SWA is building their case. When you state your maintenance program has not changed, and the task cards have not. Lightning strikes, and pilot write ups are uncontrollable. However when you do the same task cards and you normally have 20 airplanes a day out of service, and then you go to 60 after negotiations not going well that is a job action. We need to watch our backs. Some idiot took a picture of the out of service screen and shared it with the media. So now that feature is blocked in OTCS. This is not a game.

Hearken back to the NWA AMFA days. History repeats itself.

 

[Kev3188]

Nice to “see” you on here. Hope you’re doing well!

 

[Birdman]

Hearken back to the NWA AMFA days. History repeats itself.

You are a very poor judge of apples and oranges. The similarities in NWA vs WN is the mechanics, who are the union, made their wishes known through the democratic process of voting. Perhaps one other is Nitschke. All other factors are so dynamically opposed it's laughable to mention.

 

[WeAAsles]

Hearken back to the NWA AMFA days. History repeats itself.

This is how the Airline is framing the issue.

“AMFA has a history of work disruptions, and Southwest has two pending lawsuits against the union. We will be investigating this current disruption and exploring all possible remedies,” Chief Operating Officer Mike Van de Ven said in a statement.

The union was quick with a response.

"Southwest Airlines scapegoating of its expert aircraft maintenance technicians does not bode well for the airline’s safe operations,'' Bret Oestreich, national director of AMFA, said in a statement. "Safety is, and always will be, our number one priority.''

 

[WeAAsles]

 

[WeAAsles]

 

[Birdman]

Well there we have it, Dallas is now the 5th city under the "State of Operational Emergency" Don't know what triggered it, I can only assume it has to do with more a/c removed from service. More info to come. Same memo sent out to the Dallas folks that were sent to the 4 other cities.

Van De Ven's statement today is nothing more than an effort by upper management to encourage other workgroups and the public to rebuke the mechanics for its own failures. His statement in regard to negotiations, "we’ve been actively engaged in ongoing mediated negotiations since the agreement was turned down", is a blatant lie and the Dallas operational emergency is a farce. February meeting was a complete wash considering his negotiators responded to AMFA's January counter as "O, that was a proposal you submitted??". The public statements of accolade towards the mechanics is shallow and far from his true attitude towards our workgroup. As I've said before it would have taken very little to sell a contract to the AMFA workgroup but management has again chosen the most difficult path to an agreement.

 

[B737 driver]

You are a very poor judge of apples and oranges. The similarities in NWA vs WN is the mechanics, who are the union, made their wishes known through the democratic process of voting. Perhaps one other is Nitschke. All other factors are so dynamically opposed it's laughable to mention.

That's what the poor Northwest guys thought, and were walked out the door.

 

[sendmeupacrowsfoot]

This is just a large group of mechanics refusing to skip steps and bypass procedures to get planes out on time. In the process of doing their job they are finding discrepancies/ things out of limits .100% compliance requires more time and manpower. In the end you have a higher quality of maintenance. That benefits everyone.

 

[B737 driver]

This is just a large group of mechanics refusing to skip steps and bypass procedures to get planes out on time. In the process of doing their job they are finding discrepancies/ things out of limits .100% compliance requires more time and manpower. In the end you have a higher quality of maintenance. That benefits everyone.

That's true, so tell me why were we not doing this last year, so now we are compliant. When we achieve our contract I hope we are just as diligent as we seem to be now. So the company can't fire people or sue AMFA, but we shall see.

 

[swamt]

We may as well sign up for the o/t. If these issue continue it won't be long before the co goes mandatory o/t and I for one would rather it be by my doing not mandatory. Sign up and work the out of service aircraft on your own schedule.

 

[sendmeupacrowsfoot]

That's true, so tell me why were we not doing this last year, so now we are compliant.

Again, open your eyes. We are shifting from a "Make it happen" mentality to a compliance mindset.

 

[B737 driver]

Again, open your eyes. We are shifting from a "Make it happen" mentality to a compliance mindset.

And Again I hope we operate,this way consistently after all this is behind us, so we have the best fleet.

 

[JREwing]

And Again I hope we operate,this way consistently after all this is behind us, so we have the best fleet.

I wouldn't bet on it.

 

[Birdman]

And Again I hope we operate,this way consistently after all this is behind us, so we have the best fleet.

It would be corporate suicide for the company to admit they were not allowing mechanics to perform the highest standard of maintenance on their fleet and every public statement reflects that position. The union national as well must distance itself from any involvement in a job action to deny the company any legal leverage to drain our financial resources. I agree we should have always been doing work by the book but having never worked the line in my 29 years of aviation maintenance that culture in foreign to me. In regard to the company's recent position in negotiations it appears they foresee spending more dollars to be compliant and must therefor squeeze every dime they can from us to pay for it while making every effort to outsource as much as possible. Rumor has it OKC's AAR will begin maintenance on our aircraft. You'll have to admit they are guarding the treasury better than any Knights Templar.