Think beyond the capitalist and communist dichotomy… what OOfff said is just objectively correct. Neoliberal capitalism leads to degenerative corporate culture since the only thing that matters at the end of the day is making a profit for shareholders. Communism sucks but being ruled by international finance capital and WEF affiliated groups isn’t much better

 

Took the words right out of my mouth. And some guy named Herb with a napkin and some TX airports scribbled on it would’ve stayed just that. A guy with a napkin.

 

This problem is not unique to SWA. Ever since deregulation the bean-counters at all airlines have very successfully been trimming the fat from the system. Problem is most of the "fat" is all gone and they are still trimming. The system runs reasonable well until any small hiccup starts an operational crisis. We, meaning all US airlines, are not structured to handle IROPS well. DAL, AAL, UCAL etc we all have had our disaster weeks and we will all have more in the future.

Standby for an Otter paraphrase: We cant hold the employees of the whole airline responsible for the mistakes of a few Bean Counting VPs. For if we are to blame SWA then isn't this an indictment on the airline industry as a whole? And if we blame the whole industry, isn't this is a reflection on the country as a whole? Well Mister, I am not going to sit here and let you badmouth the United States of America!

Yes this episode seems worse than the standard "airline meltdown" but they all seem to be getting progressively worse so maybe next years XYZ AIrline meltdown will be worse than this.

Not sure I would change employers based on a meltdown unless you were already considering leaving.

Scoop

 

All the talk of leaving is kinda funny to me. It always happens. Most talk but never do. Then the few that do, get stories told about them when they get furloughed at the bottom of a list that they moved to for greener pastures. Happened pre 9/11, happened in 08, happened during Covid. Here we go again. I hope everyone does what’s in their own best interest and I wish anyone luck who strikes out in search of the flavor of the month. As for me, I’ll take that bird in hand seniority number that insulates me better against this industry. Then again I have a different outlook. If anything happens to my job, I’m not coming back somewhere and starting over. I’ll go do the only other thing I’m qualified to do, which is work the shoe rental counter at the bowling alley.

 

…and increase our ESG. It’s a double win!

 

I don’t think we want this back at all. Unless we are going to do some serious workgroup replacement!

 

Showed up on the 22nd on a cold clear day in denver. This is after the 2nd schedule change prior to showing. Didnt mind as it changed my 0445 report to a more manageable 0745 report. Weather was nice despite being cold. Sunny and not much wind. Only got 6" at my house and seemed like 2-3" at the airport.
got to the gate early cause I planned on a much longer drive in. Met a few cohorts that were DHing. About 12 of them. Talked to the ops agent and then found out the originators hadn't left yet. 3 hrs they've been waiting on equipment to warm up so they can get them started. Ramper came up and said they only have one belt loader working on the sw ramp and no tugs. All the plane from.last night hadn't been downloaded. He had no idea how they were going to do it. During this conversation I watched Alaska load and push their plane on time.
soni asked the ops agent if we could all go sit on the plane and get out of the way. She said no, not gonna happen. I'll let you down but none of the DH because I dont want to have to ask them to get off if the schedule changes. I thought this to be weird but clearly she was having a day so I let it go. Sat on the plane for an hr eating breakfast. Watched United after United load and go. Still not a single SW plane left. 3 hrs later a belt loader showed up and they downloaded onto carts moved by hand.
by the time we got loaded to go it had been over 4 hrs. I had already missed my scheduled DH later in the day and had two more reroutes. None of which actually happened.
Needless to say I knew I was in for an interesting trip and a lot of money.
First day ended with a cancelled flight they didnt have an FO for on which I was DHing. Called scheduling to tell them I could do it and they said no it's already cancelled..
asked what now and was told go get some dinner and hang around and we'll put something on your board when we get to it.
I said I'll go get my own hotel and wait for you. They said cool and hung up.
2nd day started with yet more DH. DH 2 legs and flew one. Got in so late I was illegal for flight next morning. Actually had a hotel. Called scheduling and asked what next. They said keep checking your board and please self acknowledge in the night. I said nope I'm going to bed and when I wake up I'll see what's there whatever time that is. She said ok and hung up.
day 3 was a later start probably because I didnt see the several other trips they tried putting me on without any way to tell me since I turn my phone in silent and unplug hotel phones on overnights.
day 3 was only DHing.
Actually dh me to fly an already cancelled flight. When I asked if this is really what they want me to do she said yes just take the DH and we'll figure out the rest.
No hotel. Grabbed and brand new guy, went to a nice hotel downtown, ubered and expensed it all.
Had a good xmas eve dinner and enjoyed some good music. At the time I went to bed there was nothing for my day 4. Woke up when I wanted and saw that what they put on my board cancelled so I JS home and had xmas at home.
Never was called or notified of anything on day 4.

When there is that much chaos all you can do it go with the flow. Take care of yourself and others and disappear.

 

That’s funny. That guy prolly thinks free health care is actually free too…. And definitely better because….well mean people suck!
I got to see what one of those “free” hospitals was like in Prague a few years back and all I can say is that I’ll take the capitalist system that we have in the good ole US of A every time every day. Health care (that someone else is paying for) is not a human right no matter how emphatically you Bernie bros may want to say otherwise. Ok enough thread creep….full disclosure: I’m a SWA Captain who’s out caught up in this mess and I’ll take this over Aeroflot, Yugoslav Airlines, Hungarian Airlines, Albanian Airlines, Adria Airways, Bulgarian Airlines, Interflug, Czech Airlines, Cubana de Aviacion, Air Koryo or any other Utopian paradise you care to list.
BTW I gotta say too that as a Texan who’s proud as hell of that every day more then the last….you guys may be on to something with your root causes analysis although I’d like to add my vote for post of the year to the guy who said “Texas Air Force” That’s funny right there.

 

New to big labor so please pardon ignorance. Is there a way for the unions of the different work groups to poll their respective groups to see if we have a vote of no confidence for the current leadership and clean house? Or is that fantasy? It seems that right now we would probably have the support of the media and customers.

 

The pilots did it last contract cycle. But honestly, who really cares? We still settled for more than a billion dollars less than "The Platform." A VONC gives us very little, if any, additional leverage.

What does give us real.leverage? The credible threat of a legal strike. To pose that kind of threat requires patience and knowing how to play the game. Those are two things that neither SWAPA nor this pilot group have demonstrated much aptitude for so far since the 1970’s.