Southwest Airlines has sued its mechanics’ union, alleging that the union is engaging in an illegal work slowdown.
For the last few weeks, mechanics have taken far more aircraft out of service than usual, citing maintenance concerns. Southwest has a total of 752 Boeing 737s in its fleet. Historically, about 14 aircraft are taken out of service each day for maintenance reasons. Southwest claims it can handle up 35 grounded aircraft and still operate a full schedule. But over the last month, mechanics have pulled up to 62 planes from service per day. This has led to about 100 flight cancellations a day, every day.
Southwest blames the issues on its contract negotiations with mechanics, not the airworthiness of its fleet. It adds that many aircraft have been taken out of service for minor issues that do not affect the airworthiness.
The Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) issued a statement warning Southwest that to “intimidate, threaten, restrain, coerce, blacklist, discharge, or in any other manner discriminate against an employee” who seeks to perform his work in conformance with federal aviation standards is against federal law.
At the same time, the AMFA warned its members not to “get baited into acts of defiance” that would only backfire. In fact, it even more explicitly warned that “members are unequivocally instructed to refrain from any collective actions” without the explicit direction of the union. You can read the full statement here.
Meanwhile, Russell McCrady, Southwest’s Vice President of Labor Relations, tried to appeal to both sides:
Yesterday’s action does not alter our goal of reaching an agreement that benefits our hardworking maintenance employees, nor does it change the company’s unwavering commitment to safety. We will not stray from our focus on rewarding our mechanics, while we work to shield our employees and customers from unnecessary disruptions within the operation.
The union did not respond.
CONCLUSION
This isn’t the first time Southwest has sued its mechanics. In 2017, Southwest sued its mechanics after the union advised its members to boycott overtime work. That lawsuit is still pending. Whether or not this is a labor ploy, the lawsuit ratchets up tensions between the two sides. Without further knowledge about why the aircraft were pulled out of service, we cannot know if the mechanics are playing games. But my guess is that Southwest would not have sued if flights weren’t being canceled for inoperative coffee pots and overhead lights…
Have you been impacted by the uptick in cancellations on Southwest?
image: Stephen M. Keller / Southwest
Was stuck in Vegas a few weeks back as Southwest blamed the weather and cancelled almost all its flights to the Bay Area. United operated a full schedule that day…
Southwest CEO Gary Kelly needs to resign, His relationship with Southwest workers like the mechanics union is totally acrimonious, which is the exact opposite as to how Herb Kelleher worked with the employees. Kelly clearly is subordinating employee work conditions and plane maintenance to stockholder returns. At some point, this mis-focus of priorities will jeopardize passenger safety. And this is how the old Eastern Airlines went out of business.
I’ll address the elephant in the room here. Are the mechanics making outrageous demands? Do they want wages and benefits that are notably better than what competitors offer? If they’re not currently under contract, how long have they gone without one?
I ask these questions because frankly it sounds like there’s something seriously wrong here. Under remotely normal circumstances, mechanics don’t act this way, so it seems likely that they’re acting out of major frustration. Then again, maybe not, and the mechanics have a magnificent contract but just want more.
Christian, I believe they have been without a contract for upwards of 6 years!!
This is typical of organized labor (i.e. organized crime). Extortion, racketeering, they do it all to advance their greedy desires. I am waiting for the evidence to surface of the union bosses (Greek and/or Italian) instructing the mechanics to take more planes out of service — it will come. Ridiculous!
They recently turned down a very good offer. Nice raise was included and 2 big bonus checks for the majority of their missed back pay for the past 6 years. The thinking of the majority was “you never vote for the first offer” and “they will offer more”. It was sad as the offer was a very good one and included most of what they have asked for.
Southwest is trying to pressure the AMFA union to take the next offer, however what isn’t reported in the press is the contingent that SW can outsource more of it overhaul maintenance overseas (south america) to countries who pay way less and most likely have looser standards (hence why the aircraft are out of service more lately). When the last contract expired six years ago they were one of the highest paid in the industry, because of the railroad labor act of 1929, they cannot strike, leaving no incentive for the company to give an acceptable offer, so they have been slow rolling for six years while the rest of the industry has bypassed the once good wages. While the last offer included back pay, it was only 80% and the threat of more maintenance being done overseas does not protect the employees jobs and safety of it’s passengers. SW sueing and threatening it’s employees is unheard of especially for SW. Both parties need to reach an agreement, and end the blame game for it’s maintenance issues.
I am an aircraft engineer and used to work for KLM. KLM also tried to sue for an illegal 1 day strike. All the engineers simply worked 100% to rule. If the AMM aircraft maintenance manual stated you needed a step X height that’s what you needed to use and spend your time getting one. Same for lifting aircraft batteries or generators an official hoist is needed but often its man handled into position. After 2 weeks KLM dropped all legal action and the engineers went back to normal work.
But it’s also hard to imagine Kelleher ever letting a contract dispute like the one behind this public spat get this far. Though he was a traditional Democrat with strong pro-labor views, Kelleher was not shy about using his huge personality, his wisdom and his “Godfather”-like stature within Southwest’s famous corporate culture to bully labor leaders and management’s labor negotiators into a deal. In numerous tough talks with labor unions over the years Kelleher, who rarely actually involved himself personally in such talks, demonstrated uncanny ability at keeping the carrier’s labor costs low despite paying Southwest’s heavily unionized workers (the most heavily unionized by percentage in the industry) industry-leading wages. He mostly did that by convincing union leaders and their members to stay away from the kind of employment bloat and heavily rules-laden agreements that weigh down conventional airlines. Thus Southwest employees either worked more hours or accepted more outsourcing of certain work than most of their industry counterparts, but in return they got top pay. Now, however, leaders at AMFA, a craft union with a history of overplaying its hand at both Northwest Airlines and United Airlines, don’t want to give management any more flexibility to contract out more maintenance work to third parties. But they still insist on retaining their mechanics’ status as the best-paid in the industry. In short, after six years of frustrating contract talks, AMFA appears to be spoiling for a fight while the airline’s management shows no sign of backing down. Kelly says in public all the right things about how wonderful Southwest’s employees – especially its mechanics – are. But one tier down in the corporate hierarchy management’s rhetoric and actions are uncharacteristically tough-sounding.