Posted on 01/18/2023 10:41:05 PM PST by DallasBiff
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – As Southwest Airlines continues to clean up the mess left behind by its Christmas travel fiasco, the carrier faces a new challenge – a potential pilots' strike.
The Southwest Airlines pilots' union called for a strike vote on Wednesday.
"This isn't about pilots as much as it's about the soul of Southwest Airlines," said Captain Casey Murray, president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA). "It's about providing what our mandate is, which is safe and reliable transportation, and reliability is not there today, and our customers deserve better. Our employees deserve better."
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
10 years they were the top airline in the US.
Communist folk singer Woody Guthrie song Union Maid.
....Now, you gals who want to be free,
You gotta take a little tip from me
Get you a man who’s a union man and fight together for liberty
‘Cause married life ain’t hard if you got a union card
And a union man has a happy life if he’s got a union wife
Oh, you can’t scare me, I’m sticking to the union
I’m sticking to the union, I’m sticking to the union
Oh, you can’t scare me, I’m sticking to the union
I’m sticking to the union till the day I die
The only airline I remember who’s pilots went on strike was Eastern Airlines, it didn’t work out well for the company, it doesn’t exist anymore.
If the pilots strike, current management will certainly be gone and most likely the entire company and is eventually absorbed into another airline
Eastern Airlines was huge in the 70's, but management decided to rest on their laurels and went downhill.
Southwest seems to be repeating history.
I have a friend that was a pilot for Eastern, he told me once how illogical it was to think just because a guy was an astronaut he could successfully run an airline
Herb Kelliher was Genius.
I remember Pan Am airlines. It was heavily unionized and unable to show a profit.
So management sold assets to cover operating expenses. Sold planes and leased them back. Sold buildings and gates. Finally there was nothing left to sell and they folded.
A management which cared about their shareholders would have told the unions “Either you get more reasonable, or we stop operations, you are all fired, we sell all assets, and declare a big dividend”. But that would have resulted in management’s jobs going away too, so screw the shareholders.
Compare with TWA, which “corporate raider” Carl Icahn acquired in a takeover while it still had assets. Shareholders actually got some money.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Icahn
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