Originally Posted by
CA1900
You mean the bill that had three Democrat and three Republican cosponsors in the Senate, including Ted Stevens? The bill that is the very reason Southwest exists as anything more than a Texas intrastate airline?
No not that bill.
It is strange....I spoke to a guppy driver at SWA that made 440K last year. Blew me away. The salaries at LUV are pretty impressive. A whole lot better than widebody Captain at some major's. it's more than just an intrastate airline today. The backdoor deals that went into that bill and the State politics at play are something that I don't know about directly as I wasn't a citizen of Texas back then. I've read about it and it all seems to hinge around the money that was spent at DFW, which for sure benefits AA. As history has shown, SW's steady growth along with the easing of those restrictions have been two big positives for the airline. It's all about money at the end of the day. Follow the money and you follow the influence.
At present time however.......
Everyone in the industry is watching as to what the SW pilots will do.
Management played their cards and had no problem negotiating in public. Clearly, they threw down the gauntlet in public for a reason. They plan on pressuring labor. SWAPA is not likely very happy about that. Typically, negotiations are done in private so that they can be to some degree "in good faith." It shows bad faith to negotiate in public like that.