Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan said the carrier is getting closer to deals with key labor unions, contracts that would improve pay for pilots, flight attendants and other unionized workers at the Dallas-based carrier.
After Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines closed its pilot contract earlier this year, carriers have looked to the deal as a foundation for pay rates, especially Fort Worth’s American Airlines, which has already said it is prepared to match the contract’s pay for pilots.
“While we have a few big ones that are still open, we’ve closed five contracts since October,” Jordan told The Dallas Morning News. “We’re really close on, one or maybe two more.”
But for the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, it was “another week wasted,” according to an update to members sent last week.
“In the worst-case scenario for reaching an agreement anytime soon, and against the mediators’ wishes, this week labor relations presented their reserve counter working from current book rather than SWAPA’s last proposal,” Kurt Heidemann, a member of the union’s negotiating committee, said in the email.
The email called on Southwest to make a “compelling offer now,” before pilots vote to ratify the deal.
Lyn Montgomery, president of Transport Workers Union Local 556, said there’s still a lot to get through for their deal, but they’ve reached “the nitty gritty,” which is all the things that matter to Southwest’s flight attendants.
“We’re getting closer, but we just hope that the company sees the need and delivers what is going to be industry-leading, since flight attendants are the face of Southwest Airlines,” Montgomery said.
Adam Carlisle, vice president of labor relations at Southwest Airlines, said United Airlines, American and Delta have been in negotiations longer than the Dallas carrier. He said he thinks American is “on a big push right now” to get a deal.
“We’re all doing the same thing,” Carlisle said. “We obviously saw the change in environment when Delta ratified their agreement.”
Carlisle said that the Delta agreement sets a “new marker” and makes carriers sensitive to other areas of agreements, like where a company is spending money in the contract.
Pilots at Delta Air Lines approved the contract last month, raising their pay by more than 30% over four years. The union said the Delta deal will lead to a cumulative $7 billion in pay raises.
Both flight attendants and pilots have called for mediation. Carlisle said the mediator controls the processes with Southwest’s schedule and is “making really good progress.” Southwest is also in direct negotiations with its meteorologists, represented by Transport Workers Union Local 550, and its ramp, operations, provisioning and cargo agents, represented by Transport Workers Union Local 555.
In all, those groups represent more than 42,000 employees. As of December, there were 54,406 full-time employees at Southwest represented by a union, roughly 82% of the company’s employees.
“I’ll never be pleased with the pace of negotiations because I’d like them all to be done very quickly,” Carlisle said. “But the reality is, there’s just a lot to talk about.”
Heading into a busy summer travel season, Carlisle said he doesn’t know if the company can secure contracts before then “because it takes both sides to reach an agreement.”
Southwest flight attendants picketed at Love Field in March, the first picket since the December meltdown. Flight attendants were calling for executives to fix the technology problems that contributed to the disruption.
Jordan said the language in the contract is a very important piece of sealing the agreement. With the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, the company is working on a “full rewrite.”
“It doesn’t necessarily mean that we want different things,” Jordan said. “But it does mean the language even around the same thing could be different.”
