If I remember correctly, he said he would shelve the -800 order if we didn’t agree to fly them for no additional pay. Laughable, but we fell for it. Here we are like 7 or 8 years later flying 22% more passengers around for 0% more pay.

There was also the 15% ROIC “promise” he made back then that was tied to the -800 order that he failed to keep.

If you listened to the conference call yesterday, it struck me that GK made reference once or twice to the idea that ultimately all employees are beholden to the shareholders of SWA and that we need to take a 10% pay cut because we owe it to them. That’s the same logic he used to explain his refusal to take advantage of the government loans that he deemed too “onerous” because they barred share repurchases and dividends.

Imo, GK is waving around the threat of furloughs because he knows how powerful of an effect it has on employees at SWA. He is simultaneously attempting to play the role of hostage-taker and rescuer. GK is playing on the idea of “culture” and “LUV!” and “NUTS!” that, in reality, hasn’t existed at SWA for a couple of decades (if it wasn’t entirely BS to begin with). He’s trying to leverage a fantasy to take food off of your family’s table. If we all weren’t so deeply mired and psychologically invested in the idea of SWA, we’d see GK’s “deal” that he offers us for what it is: the f’d up manipulations of a cult leader.