After 2 years of "negotiations" SWA basically said they were going to completely ignore SWAPA's comprehensive contract proposal and has now wasted a couple of months proposing minor changes to the existing contract. Meanwhile during what should be a period of explosive growth, SWA is teetering on the brink of more operational meltdowns due to low manning and a number of other issues including an amazingly bitter poo flinging contest initiated by a handful of FAs and other employee workgroups against the pilot group. SWAPA's contract proposal directly addresses the root causes of some of these operational problems, but the company has signaled that they're happy with the current language and apparently really like how bitter and disillusioned our pilots are becoming due to the continual and totally preventable operational meltdown we're having.
My prediction is that SWA's negotiations drag on for at least 2 more years and in the process we'll give up at least 50% of the market share gains we *could* have if the company was all pulling in the same direction. During annual CQT one of the company senior leaders pretty much begged us to get our highly qualified friends to apply. Thing is, I quit recommending SWA to my friends about a year ago.
New CEO, maybe new direction, who knows. As it is though, it's not a healthy place for many of our pilots.