TWU Local 556 Negotiating Committee Update – Special Edition WARN notice

TWU LOCAL 556 NEGOTIATING COMMITTEE UPDATE
Special Edition – WARN Notice
Your Only Official Source of Factual Information

For the first time in the almost 50-year history of Southwest Airlines, the Company has chosen to send WARN Act notices to 1,500 of our Members. As you know, WARN Act notices are required by law if a company is planning a mass lay-off. These notices do not necessarily mean furloughs will occur, but can indicate the Company’s intent to furlough.

It’s a sad day at Southwest Airlines when the Company refuses to allow Members to participate in voluntary programs to save jobs and instead sends WARN Act notices to our hard-working aviation safety professionals on the front lines of the pandemic. Based on your feedback, your Union had presented cost-savings opportunities that would have saved the Company hundreds of millions of dollars, starting in 2021, and those ideas were rejected. Southwest Airlines chose not to engage in productive bargaining and instead presented your Union (and you, directly) a series of take-it-or-leave-it proposals that would require concessions to your contract and that didn’t provide you necessary protection from the threat of furloughs.

Unlike the Company, our top concern is our Members. Here’s what we are doing:

• Your Negotiating Team is taking your voice back to the table with the Company today. Negotiations will continue and your Union is fighting for each and every job. We remain steadfast in our mission and will update you accordingly.
• TWU Local 556 has created a Furlough Support Team for our Members who have received WARN Act notices. While these notices are not furloughs, we understand you will have questions and your Union is here for you. Please email fst@staging1.twu556.org to reach this multi-Member team. E-mails will be answered from 0800 to 1800 CT daily.
• Your Union representatives will be speaking with the media and will ask for the public’s help in securing an extension of federal funds through the Payroll Support Program (PSP). Please click here to express to your elected officials the need to extend this important program. Encourage your friends and family to do the same.
• The Negotiating Team will hold a Zoomcast on Friday, December 4, at 1300 CT, to discuss the threat of furloughs. Please look for the invite and make plans to attend.

The Company refuses to credit our Members for the record-breaking sacrifices already made through participation in voluntary programs, and has also refused to allow Members to contribute again through voluntary measures that would also maintain operational flexibility for Southwest Airlines. Other unions on property are also experiencing similar refusals to negotiate. While the Company blames unions for a lack of “meaningful progress” in negotiations, it’s the Company that is making the choice to furlough, not your Union. The Union brought forth cost-saving solutions to avoid both furloughs and concessions, which the Company rejected, instead choosing to send out WARN Act notices.

Meanwhile, the Company is expanding our route map in unprecedented proportions seen outside of an acquisition, and making plans to purchase 30 new 737 MAX aircraft while refusing government CARES Act loan funds that could have provided billions in economic relief  because of the limits those loans would present for shareholder profiting. It’s clear that Southwest Airlines is choosing to leverage growth on the backs of labor in this pandemic.

The sending of these WARN Act notices in the midst of the Company’s failure to engage in good faith bargaining is against everything our Culture is about. Herb Kelleher once said, “A company is stronger if it is bound by love rather than by fear.” No one should have to fear for losing their job when there are viable alternatives.

To those Members who received WARN Act notices this morning, know that your Union continues to fight for your jobs. To all Members, know that your Union is also fighting to save the Culture of the Company in which we have invested our careers and our lives. #NotSoFastGary