On the same day the SAV vote story hit the press, with headlines appearing yesterday like, “
Strikes and pay raises: Southwest pilots will hold strike vote, Delta's could see a pay bump,” SWAPA announced they signed the company’s gratitude pay MOU that did not include any C2020 improvements, despite Casey explaining on Dec 26:
Overwhelmingly, you replied that you had no interest in an MOU that was merely a one-time buy off unless the Company included Contract 2020 scheduling efficiencies
The signing of the MOU yesterday resulted in headlines like the following appearing in the press today: “
Southwest pilots, others to get bonus pay for working during meltdown.”
Part of the idea with the SAV is to get the wheels of the book away effect going with the public. Another idea behind the SAV is that we’re trying to communicate to the company and to the NMB that we’re through with half-measures; we want an industry-leading contract, period.
But, now the headlines regarding the MOU and the implied cooperation going on between SWAPA and the company have supplanted, at least for now, what we were trying to accomplish with the announcement of the SAV.
It appears we have played ourselves. Again.
I can imagine the scene on the conference call between FH, SWA Labor Relations, and the company PR folks this morning, “As expected expected, they took the bait! [Lots of lol’s] Send out the press releases!!”