Thursday Was A Tough Day For Southwest Airlines Labor Relations As Pilots And Cabin Crew Protest

by Gary Leff

Thursday was a tough day for Southwest Airlines employee culture. Flight attendants picketed the airline, while pilots walked out – again – on an employee rally, though possibly to their own detriment. They missed an incredible performance.

These were the flight attendants in Dallas.

Meanwhile, the pilots union planned both the arrival and departure of its pilots. They walked out on company CEO Bob Jordan in early February and walked out again in later February too.

Southwest’s pilots aren’t the only ones frustrated by the slow pace at which airlines are backing up the truck to increase their compensation in the face of a nationwide pilot shortage – due to using taxpayer bailout money meant to keep employees connected to airlines during the pandemic to instead of pilots to retire early, while not hiring new pilots to replace them, and due to pilots having lobbied successfully for stricter occupational licensing rules than anywhere else in the world.

Delta pilots approved a record-setting contract and that places additional pressure on United and American as well which, like Southwest, are in the midst of contract negotiations with their pilots. United pilots famously turned their back on CEO Scott Kirby when he want to meet them while they picketed.

Meanwhile, the American Airlines flight attendants union has had to tell its members not to freelance and engage in work actions of their own. I’ve overhead a crewmember on an American Airlines flight tell their colleagues not to do more than the minimum that’s required, “work to rule” due to “contract negotiations.” United flight attendants are in slow-moving contract negotiations as well.

The thing is, those Southwest Airlines pilots should have stayed at the rally. Walking out again hardly makes a point that hasn’t already been made. It’s rude and doesn’t accomplish anything in negotiations. And they made themselves a public enemy by missing out on Flavor Flav. Yeah, boyeeeeee!

The controversial Spirit Airlines Gold member helped pump up Southwest Airlines employees at the rally, continuing the company’s efforts to bolster their culture following an operational meltdown that tested the airline famous for employees who actually like their jobs. With nearly 20% of employees new in the prior year, they lacked the historical positivity to fall back on against the backdrop of massive cancellations over the holidays. Southwest is going to significant efforts to ensure they maintain that cutlure.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. United’s pilots union leadership told the pilots yesterday that the airline and union are far apart on a settlement for a new contract even though UAL CEO Scott Kirby that United would lead the industry with a new pilot contract and it would be record setting.
    American’s CEO said that the Delta pilot labor deal would significantly change the economics of airline costs.
    The ultra low cost and low cost airlines except for Southwest have settled their pilot contracts and have done the same either with their other large labor groups or are working on them. In an airline labor market not just with pilots but also mechanics in short supply, low cost carriers cannot afford to be squeezed out of skilled labor by larger airlines.

    The simple fact is that no other airline can afford the pay raises that Delta has agreed to across its workforce – the only airline that has increased pay for all of its employees.
    Those people that criticized Delta for the large number of retirements and buy outs during the pandemic missed the plot. Delta is now rehiring employees at lower pay rates and lower on the scale so they can offer higher pay increases right as the industry labor shortage deepens.
    No other airline structurally reduced its labor costs as much as Delta and will pay much higher labor rates when they do raise levels that labor expects to be in line with what Delta employees are making.

    2023 will be a year of significant labor unrest across much of the industry esp. AA, UA and WN. UA esp. is trying to aggressively grow its mainline operations as it takes scores of new aircraft but cannot even fill captain seats.
    The UA pilot contract motto says it all: “Contract first, United Next.”

  2. Gary I guess you will be writing plenty of follow-up articles on these contract negotiations…..

  3. Well, I can at least verify that Flav actually does patronize Southwest. I was once on a flight with him on WN from LAX to LAS a number of years ago. He couldn’t have been mistaken for anyone else. Had a couple of his people with him in the Big Front Seat…oops, wrong airline association with Flav. Seemingly a nice guy, though.

  4. YouTube “How Airlines Quietly Became Banks” by Wendover Productions and then tell me how much Airline Management can afford. Your eyes will be opened.

  5. Is Southwest still doing pilot & flight crew scheduling via their 1979 Mead Trapper Keeper or is it finally computerized?

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