Ongoing negotiations for pilots at Southwest Airlines center around improving efficiency, its union says.
“I feel confident when I say that we’re the only labor union in the world that is not trying to work less and get paid more; we’re trying to provide efficiency so that we work smarter,” Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA) President Capt. Casey Murray tells Aviation Daily. “That’s our main sticking point in negotiations—simply trying to drive some efficiencies in how we are being used.”
Emphasizing that focus, SWAPA points to “meltdowns that Southwest has from time to time,” including on Columbus Day 2021 and most recently during the December 2022 holidays. Following that winter disruption, the Dallas-based carrier began implementing a remediation plan and is budgeted to spend more than $1.3 billion on upgrades and maintenance of information technology (IT) systems this year.
But the union representing nearly 10,000 pilots says the problem is more than IT and infrastructure, describing an “operational drift.”
“Yes, $1.3 billion does need to be spent,” says Murray. “With the focus on dividends and buybacks over the last decade, there has been a lack of investment in infrastructure and IT, and that does have to be done. But none of that is going to solve the process problems of connecting pilots and airplanes ... there has to be a refocusing on efficiency. Really what makes—and made—Southwest great, is doing more with less. And now we’re doing less with more. That’s what we’re trying to focus on; it is about efficiency and it’s about maintaining our position in the industry as a low-cost leader.”
Southwest Airlines in a statement said they feel confident that mediation will “continue driving us even closer to a final agreement” that is beneficial to pilots and the business.
Deals, tentative agreements (TA), or agreements in principle (AIP) have so far been reached by pilots at Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, and United Airlines. An AIP announced by United pilots on July 15 would provide cumulative 34.5%-40.2% increases in pay rates over four years along with improvements to quality of work-life provisions, job security, retirement, and benefits—a deal causing American’s pilots to re-examine their own TA.
The bargaining landscape, the Allied Pilots Association (APA) says, has once again changed.
“While our pending TA built on some of the gains achieved in the Delta pilots’ agreement, it appears that United CEO Scott Kirby has found ways to address pay and quality-of-life items for his pilots that American CEO Robert Isom and his team have repeatedly told us were simply impossible to do here,” APA said in a July 16 statement. On July 18, APA President Capt. Ed Sicher called their TA “woefully deficient by comparison,” and said Isom had “acknowledged that significant improvements must be made.”
A focus on quality-of-life provisions in addition to pay has been a recurring theme during post-COVID pilot negotiations. And for Southwest pilots, that means addressing scheduling—including reassignment practices and resulting fatigue—but ultimately boiling down to better efficiency.
“More efficient means better quality of life; it’s not more time off, it’s just working more efficiently while we are at work,” Murray says.
SWAPA-represented pilots in early May authorized potential strike action with a near-unanimous vote, and in late June requested a release from federal mediation, describing an impasse over several items including pay. In a July 17 message to membership, Murray said a “wasted week of negotiations” had included the take-back of agreements on parental leave that had been set to improve language described as being nearly 40 years out of date.
He called on leadership to take an active role.
“To date, in over three years, we have yet to see anyone but the company’s negotiator and his team in negotiations,” says Murray. “That’s disconcerting, especially considering where we are in this process. American, Delta and United’s CEOs have been involved and deals have gotten done, and they’ve gotten through some very difficult issues on their side. Having senior leadership in there to kind of push it along has really helped.”
Related Content
