Cyio

I was referring more to the commute. Like trying to get to DFW from PHX as an offline is horrible at best, unless things have changed in the last couple of years.

ZapBrannigan

i did it for 9 months last year and had zero problems. 30 flights a day on 4 airlines. Easiest commute I've ever had.

Cyio

Times have surly changed if that is true. PHX/DFW was one of the worst in the system back when I was flying for a regional. It was not uncomommon to get bumped off 2-4 flights everytime I tried to get home to PHX. AA would walk up and take the last seat etc.

RJSAviator76

A chunk of our bases suck from the perspective of commuting. Think about it... OAK, DAL, MDW, HOU. What are your options to each one of those?

ElonMusk

They are all served by a large regional that flies guppies thinking they are the premier airline in the world???

RJSAviator76

... that's still working on inventing a brand new concept called "the redeye."

Hobbit64

You win the internet for today.

Profane Kahuna

Yeah, I don't get the whole "vote yes for a crappy deal because I don't need / want / understand industry standard" crowd.

The union is strongest when we 99% vs the company. Fracturing over negotiating points is just bad tactics.


.

mulcher

Sad, isn’t it? This is the mentality that has kept us industry lagging for so long. Next we will hear golden goose and squeezing balloons.

loveislost7M8

More reasons not to work for Southwest:November 10, 2023


Another Mixed ReportProgress continued between the scheduling and work rules teams. In Additional Voluntary Flying, the major remaining issue comes down to what counts as uncovered flying and when the Company must offer uncovered flying in Open Time. In Schedule Execution and Non-Voluntary Flying, both parties are exploring ways of limiting reassignments to the original footprint unless a Pilot volunteers for additional reassignment or Crew Scheduling has no choice (for example, when the last leg to base cancels or there is no itinerary available). When we consider the multitude of improvements that we have made throughout the rest of our scheduling sections, we are getting closer to a framework that should break the Company’s addiction to reassignments. It remains a tough fight though because they want to hold on to their coveted flexibility at nearly any cost.

On the non-work rules side, for the first time since we presented our fully formed rewrite in January 2020, the Company put a comprehensive proposal on the table designed to tie everything together into a single grand bargain. Unfortunately, their offer was basically their latest table positions on almost all items with a small bump in pay and retirement (including a retro scheme that wasn’t even legal according to their own SME). Issues that have sat unresolved for months in the NMB’s “parking lot” were included with few changes.

On the same day as their comprehensive offer, SWAPA made our own full counter. The Company was taken aback by the costs of our ratification bonus and the pay rates we placed on the table in response to their last pass. We explained that with no widebody career path and upgrade times that lag the industry by half a decade or more, the most productive Pilots in the industry will require rates of pay that recognize their value to Southwest Airlines. And now that we are beyond three and a half years of negotiations, there’s no way around it — the price tag for a ratifiable agreement will be big. That’s what happens when they delay a deal. Labor Relations’ answer was to skip non-work rules negotiations with SWAPA altogether on the third day.

We keep telling Labor Relations that simply matching our competitors (using questionable math) is not the path to a ratifiable deal. Their proposals require caveats and pages of explanation and spreadsheets to try to convince us that their deal is better than Delta (“about 60% of the time, so more than half the time it’s industry leading …”). We continue to tell them point blank that that’s not how our Pilots will see their offer. Their pitches to us like, “We’re comfortable with being the second best in paid holidays,” or “It’s true that two of our competitors have better medical reimbursement, but our offer is still ahead of the third,” won’t get our Pilots to vote yes.

The Company has offered sizable increases to FO pay and has pointed out that our FOs would be the highest paid 737 Pilots. While they are right, they have to face the fact that our second-year FOs will still be making a lot less than all of the second-year 737 Captains currently at our competitors. All this is to say that Labor Relations still hasn’t shown us that they understand Pilots or that they realize what it will take to get Contract 2020 ratified.

All in all, it was a disappointing week in Austin, and it is becoming more apparent that we will not reach an agreement prior to the NMB’s stated target of November 30. We simply remain too far apart from the Company on the economics of our deal.

What happens after November 30 is uncertain, but SWAPA is ready for any outcome. The NMB could put both parties “on ice” and tell us not to meet. They could determine that we are at an impasse and send us further down the RLA path toward self-help. Or (most likely) they could ask us to continue to meet and negotiate the following week and beyond. Anything will be on the table at that point, but for now, the mediators are holding their cards close.

Next week, we will reconvene in San Antonio. Given the major unresolved issues that remain between us and Labor Relations, our mediators have said that they plan to present both sides with a proposal by the NMB in an attempt to bridge the gap. We won’t be compelled to accept it, but we are open to entertaining any offer that rewards our Pilots and recognizes their essential role in producing revenue for our airline and profits for our shareholders.

Your SWAPA Negotiating Committee