True words!
I think it's lost on all current employees forever. No amount of future propaganda will ever put this genie back in the bottle. It really doesn't matter if they furlough or not at this point. The gig is up already.

So 42 of roughly 300 people. That’s around 15%. If they did furlough pilots, would it be 15% or higher?

I don’t think there’s a correlation, our salaries are most likely different, how over staffed are they versus us, can their work be contracted out etc etc.

I think if they it right pilot side they’d go big like 20% to scare a big chunk of people to vote in concessions, the only reason I see them not doing that is it might make Wall Street nervous because some of our stock price has been kept up by recent plans for expansion

Apples and bowling balls. The company picked a small group to push around as to intimidate the FA,MX and pilot groups.

Didn’t work.....No concessions. I’ll loan you money to be paid back with interest. I’ve no desire to work more for less....I did that the first 5 years I was here due to lower FO pay.

If I’m going to loan a multi-billion dollar industry juggernaut money, I want loan-shark rates. I also want an equity share in the form of stock grants or RSU’s. And a pilot seat on the corporate BOD elected by the pilot group.

LUV stock is up, but nowhere near it's contemporaries in the legacies or majors. I would suspect this has a lot to do with the short-sighted money grab tactic of furloughing a small labor group to scare others into accepting concessions. The optics of downsizing don't exactly inspire confidence with shareholders.

SWA's folksy reputation was sacrificed at the alter of profitability. A 10% pay cut, while very meaningful to employees already suffering sizable income losses, wasn't going to make any significant difference to SWA's bottom line, but will definitely carry a cost not seen on an accountant's spreadsheet: morale and recruitment.

SWA's spirit and folksy mojo is a huge attraction to its loyal customer base; once it's people, or 'employees' (cost units?) lose that LUVing feeling, the brand will suffer and cost infinitely more than the 10% it hopes to save.

GK declined $7.5B in low interest loans, presumably because of the restrictions to buybacks and the fact he didn't need it; SWA can continue operate at the current burn rate for 2 years. The cash burn will turn to profit long before furloughs make financial sense. I suspect GK knows this, which implies he's willing to sell the 'family' to maximize profitability. GK squandered a shot at having a 'Herb moment', and looking more like a courageous and caring leader than a callous bean-counter.

Yup and we all knew the results from vaccine would be favorable, they have been touting the Biontech one in Germany for weeks. This really was a poorly played move, a unnecessary wallop to culture

That’s not “presumably” why he turned down the loan. He stated that’s why he turned down the government money. Here’s the quote: “The terms of the government loan are pretty onerous ... I think we would much rather avoid those. And I think what's near and dear to shareholders' hearts is it puts restrictions on dividends, which I object to, and share repurchases."

Stock charts over cohearts. High five?

Moving forward with furloughs is making SWA look extremely weak. Like the stock valuation is at risk, even more than industry peers and competitors. Expect SWA to underperform until they drop the furlough nonsense.