Noconcessions

Will not vote for ANY concessions. Gary can file CH 11 if he wants them.

Lewbronski

100% agree with this. Moreover, all officers and board members should be required to reimburse the corporation for any stock-price related incentive compensation they received in the last several years. Between 2010 and 2019, SWA spent two out of every three dollars in free cash flow on share repurchases. Between, 2015 and 2019, the portion devoted to buybacks and dividends increased to 88% of free cash flow. Some of that money could have been used to build up a rainy-day fund that could have allowed SWA to better weather the lows of the notoriously cyclical airline industry. Apple, for example, while still repurchasing shares has managed to build a cash position of more than $200 billion. Social Capital CEO Chamath Palihapitiya explains, "When you do things like buybacks and dividends, what you are essentially saying is, you are throwing your hands up in the air and declaring to the world: 'I do not know what to do with this money.”’ He further argues that repurchases and dividend payouts, which he says tend to benefit C-suite executives and other insiders, have left many companies flat-footed, where they may be ill-prepared to deal with a once-in-century pandemic.

Since 2014, Gary Kelly, has received $75.3 million in stock-based compensation. Now, however, GK is floating concessions and furloughs for his SWA "cohearts" while touting a paltry 10% cut to his base salary. How about GK puts his money where his mouth is and begin the attempt to keep the SWA "family" together by returning the $75.3 million to the corporation, eliminating any current and future stock-based incentive compensation, and cutting his total pay package by 90%? And, while he's at it, how about he puts himself on a line employee standard United Healthcare benefit plan?

On a related note, I absolutely do not agree with concessions. As many have pointed out, employee concessions will not prevent a furlough regardless of how much good will or financial relief GK or SWAPA might directly state or imply voting for concessions will generate. History has borne out that GK's assurances carry nearly zero weight and history has borne out that SWAPA, to put it nicely, drops the ball and more often than not, takes the corporate bait.

The only thing concessions will do is increase the number of years that will be required to wrestle back what we gave up and provide a BK judge (if it ever came to that) with a lower starting position to further hack away at our pay, benefits, and work rules. How long did it take the legacies to get back to their pre-9/11 levels? How many BK's and furloughs did concessions prevent post-9/11? Furloughs will not be prevented via concessions. Concessions will not save the company. History has borne that out.

ZapBrannigan

Anybody who is hard set against shared sacrifice to prevent furloughs should post your date of hire so we can see if you truly believe it’s not worth trying to save a fellow pilot from furlough, or if you know YOU’RE safe and don’t want anybody to move your cheese.

i came here for one reason and one reason only. Job security and a pilot group that was known for taking care of each other. If the forums are any indication, it’s just another pilot group no different from the ALPA groups I was furloughed from. “I’ve got mine. Tough luck”

e6bpilot

Yep. I agree.


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PowerShift

I get some of you who want to roll in the guillotine and in Mary Antoinette style throw the execs off the roof for all past transgressions “The Man” has inflicted on you. The reality is that will never happen. They will close the doors and move to some other company just like a parasite seeking a new host, and you will be out of a job, wondering what happened, just like Eastern, and all the others .

Lewbronski

I don't think you need to worry about whether or not the pilot group will vote in concessions. I can almost guarantee you that they will. It's the Lucy and Charlie Brown thing. It's just what we do.

That doesn't mean that furloughs will be prevented via concessions. It also doesn't mean that concessions are the right move. What became of the pilot profession in the decade following the concessions agreed to as a result of 9/11? What will concessions cure? What will the profession look like if we collectively respond to what is, by many accounts, a more significant industry event than 9/11 by agreeing to a similar or deeper level of concessions?

I'm not saying that furloughs don't suck or "sucks to be you" or anything like that. And ya, I could also end up being furloughed. But it has taken more than a decade to get back to some vague semblance of what this profession was like pre-9/11 in terms of pay and work rules, etc. And I think most would agree it hasn't fully recovered on a profession-wide level in the US. If I'm furloughed, I want to come back to a job that's worth coming back to. I don't know about you.

As far as SWA being special in terms of taking care of each other: I dunno. SWA is my second airline. From my perspective, there have been really cool guys and really big richards at both places. I was also military. About the same thing there, but honestly, probably more guys willing to go out of their way in the military. Just my experience. Ymmv.

When I came here, I also bought into the idea of SWA culture.It took me a bit to discover the talk of "family" and "cohearts" was almost entirely illusion. It took me a bit longer to figure out the deal with SWApA. Imo, we're largely on our own.

The one caveat I'll make to all of the above about absolutely disagreeing with concessions is that I might be willing to agree to a small concessions package for one calendar month at a time with an automatic snap-back at the expiration of each month and a repayment of any concessions with interest to each pilot along with a bonus payment for any work rule or other non-monetary concessions upon a return to profitability that is written in ironclad language (like a mortgage forbearance). It would require a pilot group-wide vote each and every month for the concessions to remain in effect. If it was a SWApA BOD vote, I'd be a hard no.

4V14T0R

The one thing about GK though is he came up at SWA. I certainly won't say there's no chance of that but much less so than any other company I'm aware of.


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Lewbronski

Duh.

Of course it'll never happen. It's kind of a rhetorical point.

hoover

I've been furloughed before at another company after concessions. I absolutely do not trust airline to not use this pandemic to get concessions at all costs. It's their job to get the most work out of us for the least amount of money. Period. It's out to get the most for our work. Period.
Full pay till last day.
spring 2016, on the cusp.

ZapBrannigan

What's your approximate DOH Lewbronski. Don't need an exact date. How about the first 2 or 3 digits of your employee number?

Because how I choose to take your opinion depends on where it's coming from.


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