May 16, 2024

Participants for AMFA
Will Abbott – Region II Director
Tony Christner – Airline Representative
Lucas Middlebrook – Legal Counsel
Peter Manikowski – Economist

Participants for Sun Country Airlines
Kristen Peterson – Sr. Director, Labor & Employment
Bobby Purzitza – Director of Maintenance
Jacki Thompson – Legal Counsel
Roy Fan – Financial Planning & Analysis

The AMFA- SCA Negotiating Committee (“Committee”) is providing this update to the Sun Country Airlines (“Sun Country”) membership. This is the only officially authorized source of negotiating communications by the Committee.

The parties met in Minneapolis for a three-day mediated session from April 30-May 2. This was our first session in mediation under the National Mediation Board (“NMB”). For those Members who might not be familiar with the NMB process, an NMB mediator assists the parties in negotiation. The mediator sets the time, place, and agenda of sessions. At the same time, the mediator has no authority to make either party make or accept any proposal.

In our last session of September 2023, the Company had made its woeful economic proposal and made little meaningful progress on other articles. At the close of that session, your Negotiating Committee made another attempt to move the negotiations forward with another comprehensive proposal.

This session began with the mediator’s introduction, opening statements by each party, a discussion of the open articles, and each party meeting separately with the mediator. The Company did not have a comprehensive counterproposal. The mediator decided the parties would work on individual articles: Classifications and Hours of Service. The idea was to get some momentum with articles that were potentially close to tentative agreement (TA) from prior passes.

The session continued with open discussion and “supposals” on how on-the-job training could be handled in a new CBA. At the close of Thursday, the Company made a “supposal” covering parts of Classifications and Hours of Service. Your Committee is reviewing the Company’s supposal and will be prepared to respond at our next session. What occurred in this session, based on prior experience, is not unusual for the first mediated session. We were glad to be back at the table after the delay following filing for mediation. We will again be fully prepared for our next session in Washington, D.C. on May 29-30, 2024. We expect the same from the Company so that we can move forward to a prompt agreement.

While the mediator is not permitting observers in the joint meeting room for future sessions with the Company, we thank the observers who came to our caucus room. Your solidarity is greatly appreciated, and we hope you keep coming to future sessions. If you would like to be an observer in our caucus room, please communicate with your ALR, Tony Christner.

Remember - stay engaged, remain informed, and continue to support the Negotiating Committee, as that support increases the ability to bargain a CBA your hard work deserves. We look forward to picking up the pace of negotiations under mediation and expect the same from the Company.

Fraternally,