Originally Posted by
Staller
Short answer is YES! The success of the SW pilots is due to SW management's labor relations policies. The rest of the stuff you speak is a management function and the SW pilots just flew the airplanes - they did what we all did but had better management with a vision. You had either Jeff or Tilton leading you to the promise land and their vision didn't include your success in the process - just expensive labor. Sorry, just the way it is around here - you are labor!
That vision you speak of is called a business plan. One that ensured that they could operate between any markets at a profit at fares that led to red ink for the higher cost competition. If SWA pilots had just flown airplanes without an understanding of the business plan, they would have demanded a Legacy style contract long ago: a pension plan, 78 hours of pay for 40 hours of flight time for the month, and on and on.