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TWU Local 556 Negotiating Committee Update #39

by | Dec 4, 2020 | Negotiations, News, Union Business

TWU LOCAL 556 NEGOTIATING COMMITTEE UPDATE #38
Your Only Official Source of Factual Information

 

Dear Member:

Over the past few months, your Union has brought forth cost-saving solutions to avoid both furloughs and concessions, proposals that the Company has rejected. Today, the Company chose to send out WARN Act notices to 1,500 Members of TWU Local 556. Your Negotiating Committee met with the Company today to receive answers to the many questions Flight Attendants have about why the Company is choosing a path that could lead to furloughs rather than solutions to cash-flow problems the Company indicated it needs to solve.

30-second summary:

  • With WARN Act notices issued to Flight Attendants, your Union continues to engage the Company in discussion around solutions that avoid furloughs and concessions and meet the cost savings the Company has indicated it requires.
  • The Negotiating Team again demanded answers to questions around financial details of the Company’s most recent proposal. This information clarified for the Union that the Company’s proposal indeed provides no substantive cost savings to Southwest Airlines in 2021.
  • The Company has refused to provide any new proposals to the Union since November 9, and it has not countered the Union’s cost-savings proposals, maintaining its take-it-or-leave-it stance with negotiations.
  • Your Union expressed that its cost-savings proposal to avoid both concessions and furloughs was still on the table for the Company’s consideration, and that the Company was welcome to bring forth other cost-saving ideas or counter offers to help avoid both furloughs and concessions.
  • The next meeting with the Company is set for December 10.

Full recap:

On an unprecedented day for Southwest Airlines—the day that the Company chose to send WARN Act notices to 1,500 TWU Local 556 Members—your Negotiating Team went to the table with the Company to demand answers to questions about cost savings that the Company had not yet provided to the Union, including the cost to furlough and the Company’s projected cost savings attached to furloughs that the Company expected to realize if furloughs were to happen. Though they are the first step in the furlough process, WARN Act notices do not necessarily mean furloughs.

In many detailed questions from the Union and its economist, it was confirmed that the Company’s most recent proposal does not, in fact, achieve the cost savings that the Company previously stated are required to stem cash flow. The Company’s most recent proposal, which requires substantive, long-term changes to the Contract, would not realize any cost savings in 2021 to reduce SWA’s  daily cash burn, nor would it provide guaranteed furlough protection.  It would, however, create long-term changes to your Contract, including adding additional onboard duties and pay freezes, while removing any opportunity, during the proposed extension, to bargain for changes. 

The Union expressed that its proposal will achieve cost-savings and generate revenue. The Union proposed additional voluntary leave programs to achieve more savings. In addition, onboard credit card programs and specialty drink sales were proposed for a limited period of 18 months to create additional areas of revenue for the Company during the crisis. These programs could generate tens of millions in both cost savings and revenue, and we urged the Company to reconsider this proposal. The Union also expressed that the Company was welcome to bring forth other cost-saving ideas or counter offers that would avoid both furloughs and concessions.

“You may have given up on our employees, but we refuse to. The love may be gone, but the fight is far from over,” TWU Local 556 President Lyn Montgomery told the Company, noting that the Union would continue to seek ways to avoid furloughs and preserve the operational flexibility the Company had stated previously that it needed, a notion confirmed by recent news reports of expanded destinations, 30 new MAX aircraft and a vaccine on the horizon.

The Negotiating Committee set another meeting with the Company for December 10.

Learn more about the threat of furloughs. Attend the Zoomcast on Friday, December 4, at 1300-1400 CT, to hear directly from your Negotiating Committee and special panelists including legal counsel Lucas Middlebrook, economist Dan Akins, and TWU International Vice President Thom McDaniel.https://twu556.zoom.us/j/94639876693

You are also encouraged to watch this short video message from our President and Lead Negotiator, Lyn Montgomery. https://vimeo.com/487026047

Please ask Congress to help: As TWU Local 556 continues to advocate on behalf of Southwest Airlines Flight Attendants, securing an extension of the CARES Act is incredibly important in avoiding furloughs. It is strongly recommended that all Members reach out to your Congressional representatives to make our voices heard. If you have already reached out, please do so again, and ask your family and friends to do the same. Please click here to email your representative. If you have done so already, please reach out again

Negotiations Committee

TWU Local 556 Negotiation Committee

The views contained herein do not necessarily represent those of TWU Local 556 or TWU International. The purpose of this email communication is intended only to educate and inform TWU Local 556 Members. It is not intended to officially establish or clarify past practice, Contract language, or grievance/arbitration positions. It is therefore not to be utilized or relied upon by any person or party as evidence of the Union’s position on any past practices, Contract language, grievances/arbitrations, or any other disputes or issues between TWU Local 556 and Southwest Airlines.