Negotiations between Southwest Airways and the union representing its pilots, Southwest Airways Pilots Affiliation (SWAPA), have seemingly reached an deadlock. Regardless of the lack of progress in direction of an settlement, the Nationwide Mediation Board has now determined that negotiations should proceed, stopping a possible strike.
The SWAPA submitted a request in July to federal mediators to pause negotiations with airline administration. The request denial signifies that the union will likely be compelled to barter. Captain Casey Murray, SWAPA President, advised Bloomberg, “We’re additional away at present than the day we filed for launch, which is actually the definition of an deadlock.”
Based on Easy Flying, Southwest administration claims that they’ve made “scheduling changes to handle office quality-of-life points for our pilots.” SWAPA disagrees, noting that pilot fatigue is simply getting worse. The union additionally acknowledged that it supplied options to the systemic failures that brought about the mass cancellation meltdown final December. In the meantime, Southwest has threatened to furlough over 1,200 pilots because it palms out $4 million in inventory compensation to executives.
If the request was accepted, there would have been a 30-day cooling-off interval earlier than the following stage. The dispute would have gone earlier than a Presidential Emergency Board or escalated to a strike. Talks appeared to be hurtling in direction of a strike after a SWAPA strike authorization vote in Might handed with 99 % of taking part pilots voting in favor. Now, the pilots are compelled to remain on the desk, hold flying and generate income for the airline.
