Posted on 03/02/2019 7:53:21 AM PST by BenLurkin
Southwest filed suit in U.S. District Court in Dallas against its mechanics union, claiming the American Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) and its leaders have not done enough to stop what Southwest alleges is an illegal job action aimed at disrupting the airline's operations.
Southwest Airlines and the AMFA — which represents about 2,400 Southwest mechanics — have been locked in tense contract negotiations for six years. Central to the contract negotiations is Southwest's use of outside maintenance contractors, which factored into the mechanics rejecting a contract offer in the fall.
According to documents obtained by CBS News, the suit alleges mechanics are conducting a coordinated effort to disrupt Southwest's operations and thus exert concessions from Southwest Airlines during ongoing labor negotiations.
"On February 12, 2019 — immediately following AMFA's blow up at the NMB [National Mediation Board] mediation session — Southwest began to experience an unprecedented number of aircraft out of service, despite no change in leadership and no change in policies or procedures," the lawsuit reads. "Given the timing of the recent NMB negotiations and the nature of the write ups, it appeared that AMFA and its members were organizing and encouraging Southwest mechanics to unnecessarily write up maintenance issues in order to remove aircraft from service and disrupt Southwest's operations in an effort to gain an advantage in contract negotiations."
According to the complaint, Southwest began experiencing an "uptick on cosmetic and other minor maintenance write-ups that do not have an effect on the safety of the flight," like a missing row number for an airline that doesn't assign seats, which spiked almost 400 percent to 500 percent after Feb. 10, 2019.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Is it wise to piss off the folks that keep the planes airworthy?
Southwest used to be known for its high employee satisfaction.
SW was the airline that reached major status non-union and the unionized dying airline industry that could not compete was exposed as hamstrung by union dominations.
Six years ago, the mechanics got a toe hold to try and kill it.
Rather than abide by its contract, it keeps trying to get a strangle hold on the company it is negotiating with to featherbed and increase costs.
Is it wise to piss off the folks that keep the planes airworthy?
Per the snippet...
According to the complaint, Southwest began experiencing an "uptick on cosmetic and other minor maintenance write-ups that do not have an effect on the safety of the flight," like a missing row number for an airline that doesn't assign seats, which spiked almost 400 percent to 500 percent after Feb. 10, 2019.
Even union people wouldn't let an unsafe plane fly.
Falsifying maintenance logs would expose them to criminal prosecution.
It seems to me that it isn't wise to piss off the people paying your salary and, by extension, the union dues.
If I believed they were doing that, I’d fire them all and hire a contract firm. There would be no lawsuit and no new contract. Just pink slips.
Two people you never want to piss off: People who cook your food, and people who fix your planes.
why would workers sabotage their own good thing?...
Unions have the reverse Midas touch, everything gold they touch turns to s***.
Unions are rotten groups of thugs it seems. The USA had to deal with their shenanigans in World War II, contrary to the history that the US was completey united then.
And probably would be still if the union did not try to strong arm them into not using outside contractors.
The union wants a monopoly on maintenance for the airline so that they can further tighten the death grip and extort even more money from them. The union sees the airline as a profit center and not an employer.
This strong arm action by the union even further and faster paints Texas blue.
I don't know about everyone who works for Southwest, but my brother has been a Captain for them for many years. He has been making around a quarter of a million dollars a year for a long time.
https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Southwest-Airlines-Captain-Salaries-E611_D_KO19,26.htm
I grew up in a union family. My dad was in the Carpenters Union. They provided my family with amazing health insurance, back in the day, and my dad with a nice little retirement. On the flip side, they were as corrupt as anything. My dad told me that the head of the union, in NY State, got caught embezzling millions. Like ten’s of millions. No one seemed to care, as the union coffers were overflowing.
That being said, unions can be the devil. And when the unions and its bosses don’t get their way they get ugly. They’ve been trying to get in with some of the car manufacturers in Tennessee and, I think, Alabama. The South doesn’t do the union thing to easy. And the workers can see through the promises of the union organizers and bosses promising more money, etc. If the unions, in their attempt to get a hold of the Southwest workers, are doing some shady sh*t, f*ck them.
At the end of the day, the only people that get hurt are the customers and the mechanics, because they’ll be replaced.
So, in summation, unions can be scum...
Anyone know what Airframe and PowerPoint guys get per hour these days? Back when I was entertain joining the ranks the 14.00 per hour inducement didn’t seem all that much...
The Roosevelt socialists wrote the post war narrative and created the myth that all was well and that the united and patriotic workers of America made it all possible to create the arsenal of democracy. The winners write the history.
In reality industrialists led by William Knudsen, former President of Chevrolet Division of General Motors, made much of it happen in spite of the labor leaders. Many many times industrial leaders had to step in to break the union and encourage workers to produce the goods needed for war.
That’s some shady sh*t right there. The sad thing is, the ones who pay aren’t the union thugs orchestrating this. It’s the customers and the mechanics. There are lots of guys getting out of the Air Force and Navy Aviation wing that want jobs. It doesn’t take much to replace someone these days. And they way they advertise aviation maintenance training, one should be very careful in thinking that they cannot be replaced.
True story!!!
Herb Kelleher is rolling over in his grave.
Southwest could float a bankruptsy story with plans for closure and layoffs...can’t fly unsafe plane, then the airline can’t make money, then everyone needs to be fired...the unions could be hoisted on their own petard.
Baloney. They are union jerks killing Wyatt was the best airline out there. When the culture there was heavily “Texas” it was in its glory.
Now they have riff raff in places like Philly, New York, California, Florida, that laugh at that customer service ethic.
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