Southwest Airlines flight attendants announced last week that they had rejected a proposed contract. The union and airline reached a tentative agreement to increase wages 20% on January 1, and 36% over 5 years, but members rejected it in a vote of nearly two to one (64% to 36%). Or did they?
It turns out that the union no longer has confidence in the integrity of the ballot. They’ve discovered vulnerabilities that would have allowed the vote to be manipulated, and errors that may have failed to tally some votes. And they’re going to hold the vote over.
Here’s the communication from Transport Workers Union Local 556 to Southwest Airlines flight attendants with the detail of what happened.
Dear Members,
Your TWU Local 556 Board of Election (BOE) is dedicated to ensuring that the integrity of the Union elections at TWU Local 556 is beyond reproach. Throughout the recent Ratification Vote, we worked to achieve the fairest possible election so that the will of the Members would be heard.
Throughout the days when votes were being cast, there were numerous complaints:
- When they logged onto the voting site and entered their PIN, a blank screen appeared with no option to choose a vote.
- The system showed a member voted, but no ballot was cast.
- The site froze while attempting to cast a ballot without a selection.
- Inoperative hyperlink to take them to the voting site.
When the complaints were raised with TrueBallot, the vendor that conducted the election tabulation, the Board of Election was assured that there were no issues with the voting system.
On the day voting closed, many Members joined the live stream to witness the outcome of the ratification vote. There was significant consternation relating to the unexplained time lag between the close of the vote and the time the representative from TrueBallot joined the Live Stream video. When Trueballot arrived, there was further delay caused by an unplanned computer update on his computer. When the vote totals were revealed, some noticed a discrepancy between the total number of Yes and No votes and the total number of ballots cast.
On Monday, December 11, 2023, at approximately 1750 CT, we contacted TrueBallot and our attorney, Denis Engel, to relay a disturbing report regarding an irrefutable vulnerability. In the voting system at the time, the TrueBallot representative shared his screen for the live stream video. In the address bar, there was information that permitted a Member to access the TrueBallot database, exposing every Member’s name, whether they voted or not, and their email address. In addition, upon access, ballots could be added and deleted. This was confirmation that the system was unencrypted and unsecured. The vendor admitted they could not verify if other attempts to access this website had occurred. TrueBallot notified every Member of this vulnerability to their system in an email blast on Tuesday, December 12, 2023.
The Board of Election met with your Executive Board on Tuesday, December 12, 2023. We informed the Executive Board that given the number and nature of the discrepancies set forth above, most importantly the vulnerability to TrueBallot’s system, we cannot certify the results of the Ratification Vote.
The Board of Election informed the Executive Board that it will be conducting a re-vote of the Tentative Agreement. We will begin that process in the near future. We will inform you once the details of the re-vote are finalized.
TrueBallot has acknowledged that its system was vulnerable. We have asked our legal counsel to pursue all available remedies, and we will keep you apprised of developments as such communication is warranted.
Sidney Powell, please phone your office?
The previous contract, that flight attendants have been working under, became amendable in 2018. American Airlines and United Airlines are currently in tense negotiations with their flight attendants. Southwest is still in negotiations with its pilots as well.
Corruption at its finest.
At least they admitted there was an issue…
The best way to hold a union election is by mailing back paper ballots , which were originally sent to the member at his address .
Amazing. Say what you will about airline unions, they take processes like this seriously and I can’t recall something like this happening before. This isn’t like it’s AFA or APFA… TWU is a pretty large organization. I expect they will pursue this legally, as they should.
Now the voting company says the votes are not affected. Only the union is making up that is was.
Let’s hear what TrueBallot has to say about this. Post their email. Get a comment from them. .
Please contact TrueBallot. This will definitely affect their reputation as a reputable company.
This is very hard to believe – not impossible that it happened – but that a vendor that would take a contract for balloting over 20k people had such vulnerabilities.
Regardless of the reason, union leadership realized that there was no way they would get the company back to the table any time soon – and the mediator might well have told them so.
Add in that the union leadership’s knew its future was in jeopardy.
Then you have to watch the heads spinning at the FA union headquarters on the other side of the N. Texas Metroplex and this has to be a show for the ages.
If real people’s lives weren’t involved, you would have to laugh
The NO votes won the election. So get over it! Quit trying to rig an election. If this were so much of a concern, then why put up such a stink days after the election and not before or while the votes were coming in? I see a corruption to its core.
Tim, I firmly believe, and speaking with a couple of friends who are flight attendants at WN, that while there is fire at the end of this smoke, it’s being stoked by the union leaders versus grabbing a fire extinguisher since the result wasn’t exactly good for them personally. But I think yeah, there’s some sort of possibility of malfeasance, or at least a case, but perhaps it’s akin to me saying I can’t find my wallet and it must be stolen because I left one of the upstairs windows unlocked last Thursday night.
Looking at this company TrueBallot… their website gives quite the vibe from… what year did Compuserve end? Their list of clients is very long but very few of much size. But rest easy knowing that the Louisiana Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association counts on them. Well, really all the big Louisiana professional equine associations do. So do many Sikh Temples like Sikh Temple Gurdwara in Yuba City, CA.
Wow, this resembles November, 2020.
NedsKid,
yes…. haha. TWU=CYA.
Letter to True Ballot CEO:
Dear Mr. Seibel,
I hope this message finds you well.
I am writing to bring to your attention a matter of great concern involving the Flight Attendants at Southwest Airlines and the Union: TWU556 due to recent false allegations against True Ballot.
Our members, the flight attendants, have become increasingly aware of what appears to be corruption within TWU556. We believe it is imperative to address this issue promptly to ensure the integrity of our workgroup.
Additionally, a recent video released by TWU556 incorrectly places blame on True Ballot for certain issues.
Given the gravity of these circumstances, we kindly request your assistance in bringing this matter to the attention of the media. It is crucial that the public is made aware of the true nature of these events, and we believe that media exposure will contribute to a fair and unbiased understanding.
Furthermore, we urge you to consider legal action against TWU556 to rectify the false accusations made against True Ballot. This action is necessary to protect the reputation of your organization and to ensure that the truth prevails.
Time is of the essence, and we appreciate your prompt attention to this matter. Your efforts in resolving this situation will not only safeguard the integrity of True Ballot but also contribute to restoring trust.
Thank you for your understanding and decisive action in addressing these pressing concerns.
Thank you – I look forward to your reply.
Sincerely,
_________________________
TWU video link:
https://fb.watch/oW6MLXozfl/?mibextid=Nif5oz
Southwest Flight Attendants want out!
New grass roots union on the horizon:
https://swafaa.wixsite.com/swafaa
https://m.facebook.com/1SWAFAA
Useful blog.
Good for 556. Get it done right. If the members truly rejected this then they will a 2nd time. Conspiracy theorists be damned!
And no organization should ever use True Ballot again!
Ask APFA about fraudulent elections. 2003 APFA voted NO to Don Carty’s crap, BUT the vote was reopened because AA didn’t get the “Yes” votes needed for corporate corruption. Then 2014, the members of APFA voted NO to a miserable contract, but……..Laura Glading who was making a backroom deal with management decided to overturn the NO vote. Which is worse – Corporate corruption or Union corruption??? There is a HUGE problem with Union credibility and Corporate honesty.
Why did it take almost two hours to post results from 19000 flight attendants that could vote for six weeks?
Are you guys going to discuss in this blog how True Ballots email to us completely contradicted what TWU is telli my us? According to True Ballot the voting was safe and secure. So who are the liars? I’ll put my money on TWU.
The Email from True Ballot:
“ TrueBallot delivered the results of the recent Contract ratification vote on Friday, December 8, 2023.
The results are and were secure and accurate.
At the time, we showed the results page, which is normally accessed through a password protected interface.
The URL for the results page was exposed, screen shotted and accessed by other members of local 556 without going through our password interface.
While we thought that there was security protection for the exposed page, there was not.
As a result, your name and email address were exposed and copied by others.
The accessing and copying of the membership data was not authorized by Local 556 or TrueBallot.
This happened AFTER the conclusion of the election so it did NOT affect the vote in any way.
We regret this oversight. This was entirely TrueBallot’s oversight, and NOT that of Local 556.
Again, this did NOT affect the integrity or security of this election.
Thank You.
TrueBallot, Inc.
John L. Seibel, President”
The members of 556 have lost all confidence in our EB and we demand them all to step down now. We want a union that works for us and not our company!
The Leadership starting with President Lyn Montgomery at TWU 556 is trying to manipulate the overwhelming rejection of the TA at SWA. The statement issued to membership by TWU 556 Board of Elections clearly has been denied as to the authenticity of the voting results by the company processing the votes. This is a BLATANT ATTEMPT by Ms.Montgomery and the Board of Elections to overturn the election results when it was clearly evident the Rank & File REJECTED THE PROPOSED TA IN A HISTORICAL TURN OUT.
Numerous request have been made that Lyn Montgomery and the Election Board RESIGN IMMEDIATELY to prevent any further mismanagement of Union Funds. That is the STORY that should be covered!
This Union board is a joke! Corruption at its finest! If you only knew the real facts here… this is TWU 556 BS! They all need fired …PERIOD! It was a very loud NO so get over it and move on! And you better believe if we have to go through this nonsense of voting again …it will still be a NO!
Thank you Mr. John Seibel, President, for your email. If there is any fraud, I’m sorry to say, It lies with our union in trying to manipulate a voter outcome. You provided the requested answers to security concerns yet the Board of Elections still wishes to maintain fraud. I’m sorry for our workgroup and the dishonest people who we employees pay to represent us. Thank you again for your honesty, integrity and professionalism.
Union scum being union scum. No surpise.
All I see on the comments are a bunch of Idi0ts