If nothing else, the world now knows that SWA management embraces the words of Herb’s legacy for public relations purposes only while having completely abandoned them in deeds. Despite negatively impacting our Denver operation in a concrete manner and humiliating SWA on a national level, this VP remains in his position and will likely do so indicating the tacit approval for his “leadership” style by SWA executives. Additionally, one need only look at last week’s viral memo from the SWA VP of Ground Ops to his workers in Denver to see how far Gary Kelly allowed this Company to deviate from the culture and principles that Herb cultivated. ![]() As Pilots, we need look no further than the string of milquetoast headquarters “leadership” we have been subjected to within our own operations stovepipe in the Company. In his two decades at the helm, Gary Kelly managed to build an organization of yes-men and yes-women around him and promoted within that organization, based on agreeability rather than competence. Rather than keeping the organization flat and lean with minimum distance between the nerve center of the organization and its executing appendages as Herb had originally designed, he added layer upon layer of bureaucratic fat, staffed by corporate automatons whose defining skills are sheltering the boss from bad news from below and never disagreeing with him. Talks across the industry have been particularly tense as unions seek increases in compensation and more flexible work schedules, and pilots have frequently picketed outside of airports and sites of company investor meetings.How did we get here? How did we go from the most stable and profitable airline in history to the greatest meltdown in airline history? As with most organizations, the answer can be distilled down to one word: Leadership. Actually, in our case, it’s three words: Lack of leadership. While we continue to receive saccharine corporate-communications-department-written and legal-counsel-reviewed “we’re sorry” and “I love you” meaningless and generic messages from SWA corporate executives, they obscure a genuine cancer within our Company that has been an ever-growing existential threat that must be excised before it becomes terminal. And these messages obfuscate the actual corrective action that is absolutely necessary to pull out of this graveyard spiral that our Company’s so-called leaders have placed us in. That fix is actual and tangible accountability above the front-line worker level for the first time in our recent history. It is time to have a frank discussion about the root cause of the quagmire that we find ourselves in today. That root cause has a name. “A contract is needed now more than ever to address our failing operation, mitigate the fatigue that is affecting the safety of our operation and to staunch the bleeding of pilots who are leaving Southwest for better working conditions in ever-increasing numbers,” Casey Murray, president of the union, said in the message.Īll four of the nation’s largest airlines are working to reach new pilot labor agreements after the pandemic stalled negotiations, and the updated contracts are expected to be costly. It’s one in a series of steps required under a federal law governing airline-labor relations that involves the National Mediation Board and eventually could lead to a strike. ![]() The vote, which starts May 1, won’t allow pilots to walk off the job. It will be the first time that Southwest aviators have voted on such a move, the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association said in a message to members Wednesday. pilots will vote on whether to authorize their union to strike, frustrated by lack of progress in talks that started three years ago and scheduling issues that contributed to 16,700 flight cancellations late last month. Digital Replica Edition Home Page Close Menu
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