Negotiations open Mar 2020. Amendable six months later.

Benefits are a focus area. Ours lag the industry in quite a few areas.

Work rules will probably also be a target.

Keeping PBS off-property will also be big. My guess is management knows the pilot group is so keen to avoid PBS that they will use that as a major bargaining chip (whether they actually want it or not) in order to obtain a more favorable outcome for them.

There are so many other big things that need to be fixed before we would ever prioritize long-call reserve that it's way, way far down the list. Plus, enough guys feel like it would hurt line construction at SWA (right or wrong), that it's basically a non-starter. Not likely to happen at SWA...probably ever. By the time we ever got to the point of being able to negotiate that, we'll be up to our eyeballs trying to address single pilot issues.

That being said, we are currently in the longest economic expansion in US history. I'm not an economist and I don't have a crystal ball. Just saying it's likely, given the reality of economic cycles, that we'll be in a recession of some sort in the next few years. Management is not stupid. They realize that. It likely behooves them to drag out negotiations in order to take advantage of a future recession. OR, another realistic scenario is a quick settlement with a 51% solution and middling gains.

Things are coming together very nicely for the company in terms of negotiating environment next year: the MAX grounding and the economic hit that is taking and the fear they can generate with that (RyanAir, for example, just laid off a bunch of folks a couple of days ago, blaming the MAX), a recession likely in the near future, the threat of PBS (SWA is only major passenger airline without it, except AS), and the launch of an ab initio program to minimize the "pilot shortage" argument. They can massage all of those factors very well to create much FUD within the pilot group. They are very good at that.

 

All FUD. Eff that. Those of you that have been in the industry long enough should see right through that. Keep your eyes on the ball for crying out loud.

 

WRT the MAX grounding......look for another acquisition if it drags out long enough. The T-Mobile/Sprint merger just got approved and the probable target airlines’ stock are down.

Like it or not, if we can’t grow organically they’ll grow through an acquisition (just like last time).

 

True. But we're talking SWA pilots. Different breed. They SHOULD see right through that, but...history tells a very different story.

 

Well said....... Golf clap.

 

History shows that no company works to a resolution until performance is affected, regardless of the economy. Not trying to propagate something, just making an observation.

 

Bingo. Unfortunately too many line pilots don’t seem to understand this or take it to heart which is sad considering how much we can affect the operation one way or the other.

 

Yeah, the reason I was asking is because we have long call at my regional, and it's awesome if you live in base.

 

If you want to sit reserve and not fly, Southwest is not the place for you. Southwest uses reserves differently than anywhere else I've seen. Scheduling is very aggressive about utilizing EVERY reserve.

 

Now they are....earlier this year...not so much.