A CULTure of Irony
10-10-2023, 04:49 AM
#1
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Joined APC: Apr 2022
Posts: 239
A CULTure of Irony
A Culture of Irony
Casey Murray, President
Sometime over the past decade, Southwest Airlines lost its way. The idea that culture doesn’t make people, rather people make culture was left abandoned along the way. Colleen Barrett famously said that in times of crisis, you have to be hyper-focused on culture. But instead of putting their employees first, senior managers at our airline, as accountants notoriously do, started putting a higher value on profits over people. Extracting value from employee goodwill and focusing on short-term quarterly earnings were instead the twin altars of Southwest’s worship.
In corporate America, and especially at airlines, integrity and trust are truly the coin that our customers purchase, and that coin becomes worthless when the trust is lost. And it is employees, not corporate slogans, that sell that coin. At Southwest, once our employees’ goodwill is lost, so too is the trust that goes with it, along with our customer base ultimately.
Against the shaken faith of our customers after the Christmas catastrophe and coupled with the shaken faith of our employees after their tone-deaf bonuses and aimless negotiations, management still hasn’t made a serious effort to halt the decline. As our culture has grown hollow, they have made promises and not followed through. After a promising start to “leadership” meetings directly with the highest levels of the Company, negotiations have drifted back into the hands of Labor Relations. And as their lead negotiator is prone to do, we have seen nearly zero effort put into preparation nor attempts to “get to a yes” on a ratifiable deal. For three weeks in a row, the Labor Relations team presented three sections almost identical to the way they were presented before. And with no real leadership attending this week’s meetings in Houston, SWAPA is expecting more of the same. Despite our low expectations, your NC has been working through the week (and more), preparing to make meaningful progress — an outcome that management needs more than we do. Until they truly realize that our employees, customers, and Wall Street need certainty, our stock price and our customers will continue to dwindle, as will our new hire Pilots.
Despite the hollow appearance of Southwest culture, the corporation continues to monetize it. They continue to use the Golden Rule as a carrot to sell and a stick to discipline employees. The truth is that this is not altogether new. In 2016, as NC Chair, I wrote about the loss of Southwest Culture and the value of the “psychic wage” that Herb managed to use to supplement Pilot pay. Today, SWAPA is no longer blind to the reality that our contract is singularly about getting what we negotiate. For you, that means knowing your value and the value you bring with being onsite leaders of the largest domestic carrier in the most important aviation market in the world. And it means recognizing your irreplaceable role in providing an assurance of safety to every flight, every day.
Is it ironic that every year Southwest Airlines hosts a conference for corporations around the world to learn about their “award-winning culture”? The Company advertises the Southwest Culture Connection as a “rare opportunity to experience one of the world’s most admired, successful, and enduring organizational cultures — up close!” This year’s conference is on October 26, and tickets are sold out at $600 a seat.
We live that "culture" up close and personal every day, and we’ve seen it at the negotiating table for the last three-and-a-half years, so the irony isn’t lost on us. When the “culture of Southwest” is to destroy the trust of their passengers, abandon the values and principles that made us a success, and to drag out negotiations with more than half of their employees for years, we call it something quite different.
Given management’s chosen path and the inexcusable behavior of Southwest Labor Relations in the face of the NMB’s expectation of a deal by November 30, SWAPA has decided that that "culture" will be on full display for those attending their conference. For those who want to see exactly what "Southwest culture” looks like up close, our message will be simple — don’t worry, they fooled us once too.
Join us at SWAPA headquarters on October 26 to demonstrate what the Southwest culture has become. We are planning a 0630 picket briefing followed by a morning picket at Southwest headquarters from 0715-0815. We will also hold a second briefing at 1545 for an afternoon picket from 1645-1800. In addition, SWAPA will host an open house throughout the day from 0815 to 1645. Join us for fellowship and enjoy the camaraderie of your fellow Pilots. Drinks and food will be provided. Stand with SWAPA as the Company hypocritically hosts a culture convention. Demonstrate the irony of their decision to delay a ratifiable contract by more than 1,150 days while driving 255 much-needed Pilots off property and to our competitors.
Case
Casey Murray, President
Sometime over the past decade, Southwest Airlines lost its way. The idea that culture doesn’t make people, rather people make culture was left abandoned along the way. Colleen Barrett famously said that in times of crisis, you have to be hyper-focused on culture. But instead of putting their employees first, senior managers at our airline, as accountants notoriously do, started putting a higher value on profits over people. Extracting value from employee goodwill and focusing on short-term quarterly earnings were instead the twin altars of Southwest’s worship.
In corporate America, and especially at airlines, integrity and trust are truly the coin that our customers purchase, and that coin becomes worthless when the trust is lost. And it is employees, not corporate slogans, that sell that coin. At Southwest, once our employees’ goodwill is lost, so too is the trust that goes with it, along with our customer base ultimately.
Against the shaken faith of our customers after the Christmas catastrophe and coupled with the shaken faith of our employees after their tone-deaf bonuses and aimless negotiations, management still hasn’t made a serious effort to halt the decline. As our culture has grown hollow, they have made promises and not followed through. After a promising start to “leadership” meetings directly with the highest levels of the Company, negotiations have drifted back into the hands of Labor Relations. And as their lead negotiator is prone to do, we have seen nearly zero effort put into preparation nor attempts to “get to a yes” on a ratifiable deal. For three weeks in a row, the Labor Relations team presented three sections almost identical to the way they were presented before. And with no real leadership attending this week’s meetings in Houston, SWAPA is expecting more of the same. Despite our low expectations, your NC has been working through the week (and more), preparing to make meaningful progress — an outcome that management needs more than we do. Until they truly realize that our employees, customers, and Wall Street need certainty, our stock price and our customers will continue to dwindle, as will our new hire Pilots.
Despite the hollow appearance of Southwest culture, the corporation continues to monetize it. They continue to use the Golden Rule as a carrot to sell and a stick to discipline employees. The truth is that this is not altogether new. In 2016, as NC Chair, I wrote about the loss of Southwest Culture and the value of the “psychic wage” that Herb managed to use to supplement Pilot pay. Today, SWAPA is no longer blind to the reality that our contract is singularly about getting what we negotiate. For you, that means knowing your value and the value you bring with being onsite leaders of the largest domestic carrier in the most important aviation market in the world. And it means recognizing your irreplaceable role in providing an assurance of safety to every flight, every day.
Is it ironic that every year Southwest Airlines hosts a conference for corporations around the world to learn about their “award-winning culture”? The Company advertises the Southwest Culture Connection as a “rare opportunity to experience one of the world’s most admired, successful, and enduring organizational cultures — up close!” This year’s conference is on October 26, and tickets are sold out at $600 a seat.
We live that "culture" up close and personal every day, and we’ve seen it at the negotiating table for the last three-and-a-half years, so the irony isn’t lost on us. When the “culture of Southwest” is to destroy the trust of their passengers, abandon the values and principles that made us a success, and to drag out negotiations with more than half of their employees for years, we call it something quite different.
Given management’s chosen path and the inexcusable behavior of Southwest Labor Relations in the face of the NMB’s expectation of a deal by November 30, SWAPA has decided that that "culture" will be on full display for those attending their conference. For those who want to see exactly what "Southwest culture” looks like up close, our message will be simple — don’t worry, they fooled us once too.
Join us at SWAPA headquarters on October 26 to demonstrate what the Southwest culture has become. We are planning a 0630 picket briefing followed by a morning picket at Southwest headquarters from 0715-0815. We will also hold a second briefing at 1545 for an afternoon picket from 1645-1800. In addition, SWAPA will host an open house throughout the day from 0815 to 1645. Join us for fellowship and enjoy the camaraderie of your fellow Pilots. Drinks and food will be provided. Stand with SWAPA as the Company hypocritically hosts a culture convention. Demonstrate the irony of their decision to delay a ratifiable contract by more than 1,150 days while driving 255 much-needed Pilots off property and to our competitors.
Case
10-10-2023, 10:34 AM
#4
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Dec 2017
Position: 737 FO
Posts: 955
Originally Posted by Crockrocket95
Anyone read the thread about the VP candidate OTOF? He said "pickets don't matter" among 30 other things that were pretty eye popping for a VP candidate.
He has a fundamental misunderstanding of the leverage of a strike, no real plan for self-help, no contributions to a workable strategy, and his temperament for the job is…lacking.
I have 0 faith he isn’t anything other than a company plant, but that’s just my tinfoil hat fitting snugly.
10-10-2023, 11:23 AM
#5
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Sep 2006
Position: FOD
Posts: 520
Originally Posted by Crockrocket95
Anyone read the thread about the VP candidate OTOF? He said "pickets don't matter" among 30 other things that were pretty eye popping for a VP candidate.
10-10-2023, 11:30 AM
#6
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jul 2008
Posts: 828
Originally Posted by Timmay
I didn't until I saw your post. Holy crap...that guy just keeps digging himself a hole, doesn't he?
I hadn't been on the forum in a while, but that was worth logging on to read! Reading how he "saved" the union was really something to behold.
10-10-2023, 01:08 PM
#7
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jun 2010
Position: DOWNGRADE COMPLETE: Thanks Gary. Thanks SWAPA.
Posts: 6,619
Originally Posted by Crockrocket95
Anyone read the thread about the VP candidate OTOF? He said "pickets don't matter" among 30 other things that were pretty eye popping for a VP candidate.
🔥👇
10-10-2023, 01:22 PM
#8
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Joined APC: Jan 2016
Position: Left
Posts: 1,192
Originally Posted by calmemployment
A Culture of Irony
Casey Murray, President
Sometime over the past decade, Southwest Airlines lost its way. The idea that culture doesn’t make people, rather people make culture was left abandoned along the way. Colleen Barrett famously said that in times of crisis, you have to be hyper-focused on culture. But instead of putting their employees first, senior managers at our airline, as accountants notoriously do, started putting a higher value on profits over people. Extracting value from employee goodwill and focusing on short-term quarterly earnings were instead the twin altars of Southwest’s worship.
In corporate America, and especially at airlines, integrity and trust are truly the coin that our customers purchase, and that coin becomes worthless when the trust is lost. And it is employees, not corporate slogans, that sell that coin. At Southwest, once our employees’ goodwill is lost, so too is the trust that goes with it, along with our customer base ultimately.
Against the shaken faith of our customers after the Christmas catastrophe and coupled with the shaken faith of our employees after their tone-deaf bonuses and aimless negotiations, management still hasn’t made a serious effort to halt the decline. As our culture has grown hollow, they have made promises and not followed through. After a promising start to “leadership” meetings directly with the highest levels of the Company, negotiations have drifted back into the hands of Labor Relations. And as their lead negotiator is prone to do, we have seen nearly zero effort put into preparation nor attempts to “get to a yes” on a ratifiable deal. For three weeks in a row, the Labor Relations team presented three sections almost identical to the way they were presented before. And with no real leadership attending this week’s meetings in Houston, SWAPA is expecting more of the same. Despite our low expectations, your NC has been working through the week (and more), preparing to make meaningful progress — an outcome that management needs more than we do. Until they truly realize that our employees, customers, and Wall Street need certainty, our stock price and our customers will continue to dwindle, as will our new hire Pilots.
Despite the hollow appearance of Southwest culture, the corporation continues to monetize it. They continue to use the Golden Rule as a carrot to sell and a stick to discipline employees. The truth is that this is not altogether new. In 2016, as NC Chair, I wrote about the loss of Southwest Culture and the value of the “psychic wage” that Herb managed to use to supplement Pilot pay. Today, SWAPA is no longer blind to the reality that our contract is singularly about getting what we negotiate. For you, that means knowing your value and the value you bring with being onsite leaders of the largest domestic carrier in the most important aviation market in the world. And it means recognizing your irreplaceable role in providing an assurance of safety to every flight, every day.
Is it ironic that every year Southwest Airlines hosts a conference for corporations around the world to learn about their “award-winning culture”? The Company advertises the Southwest Culture Connection as a “rare opportunity to experience one of the world’s most admired, successful, and enduring organizational cultures — up close!” This year’s conference is on October 26, and tickets are sold out at $600 a seat.
We live that "culture" up close and personal every day, and we’ve seen it at the negotiating table for the last three-and-a-half years, so the irony isn’t lost on us. When the “culture of Southwest” is to destroy the trust of their passengers, abandon the values and principles that made us a success, and to drag out negotiations with more than half of their employees for years, we call it something quite different.
Given management’s chosen path and the inexcusable behavior of Southwest Labor Relations in the face of the NMB’s expectation of a deal by November 30, SWAPA has decided that that "culture" will be on full display for those attending their conference. For those who want to see exactly what "Southwest culture” looks like up close, our message will be simple — don’t worry, they fooled us once too.
Join us at SWAPA headquarters on October 26 to demonstrate what the Southwest culture has become. We are planning a 0630 picket briefing followed by a morning picket at Southwest headquarters from 0715-0815. We will also hold a second briefing at 1545 for an afternoon picket from 1645-1800. In addition, SWAPA will host an open house throughout the day from 0815 to 1645. Join us for fellowship and enjoy the camaraderie of your fellow Pilots. Drinks and food will be provided. Stand with SWAPA as the Company hypocritically hosts a culture convention. Demonstrate the irony of their decision to delay a ratifiable contract by more than 1,150 days while driving 255 much-needed Pilots off property and to our competitors.
Case
Casey Murray, President
Sometime over the past decade, Southwest Airlines lost its way. The idea that culture doesn’t make people, rather people make culture was left abandoned along the way. Colleen Barrett famously said that in times of crisis, you have to be hyper-focused on culture. But instead of putting their employees first, senior managers at our airline, as accountants notoriously do, started putting a higher value on profits over people. Extracting value from employee goodwill and focusing on short-term quarterly earnings were instead the twin altars of Southwest’s worship.
In corporate America, and especially at airlines, integrity and trust are truly the coin that our customers purchase, and that coin becomes worthless when the trust is lost. And it is employees, not corporate slogans, that sell that coin. At Southwest, once our employees’ goodwill is lost, so too is the trust that goes with it, along with our customer base ultimately.
Against the shaken faith of our customers after the Christmas catastrophe and coupled with the shaken faith of our employees after their tone-deaf bonuses and aimless negotiations, management still hasn’t made a serious effort to halt the decline. As our culture has grown hollow, they have made promises and not followed through. After a promising start to “leadership” meetings directly with the highest levels of the Company, negotiations have drifted back into the hands of Labor Relations. And as their lead negotiator is prone to do, we have seen nearly zero effort put into preparation nor attempts to “get to a yes” on a ratifiable deal. For three weeks in a row, the Labor Relations team presented three sections almost identical to the way they were presented before. And with no real leadership attending this week’s meetings in Houston, SWAPA is expecting more of the same. Despite our low expectations, your NC has been working through the week (and more), preparing to make meaningful progress — an outcome that management needs more than we do. Until they truly realize that our employees, customers, and Wall Street need certainty, our stock price and our customers will continue to dwindle, as will our new hire Pilots.
Despite the hollow appearance of Southwest culture, the corporation continues to monetize it. They continue to use the Golden Rule as a carrot to sell and a stick to discipline employees. The truth is that this is not altogether new. In 2016, as NC Chair, I wrote about the loss of Southwest Culture and the value of the “psychic wage” that Herb managed to use to supplement Pilot pay. Today, SWAPA is no longer blind to the reality that our contract is singularly about getting what we negotiate. For you, that means knowing your value and the value you bring with being onsite leaders of the largest domestic carrier in the most important aviation market in the world. And it means recognizing your irreplaceable role in providing an assurance of safety to every flight, every day.
Is it ironic that every year Southwest Airlines hosts a conference for corporations around the world to learn about their “award-winning culture”? The Company advertises the Southwest Culture Connection as a “rare opportunity to experience one of the world’s most admired, successful, and enduring organizational cultures — up close!” This year’s conference is on October 26, and tickets are sold out at $600 a seat.
We live that "culture" up close and personal every day, and we’ve seen it at the negotiating table for the last three-and-a-half years, so the irony isn’t lost on us. When the “culture of Southwest” is to destroy the trust of their passengers, abandon the values and principles that made us a success, and to drag out negotiations with more than half of their employees for years, we call it something quite different.
Given management’s chosen path and the inexcusable behavior of Southwest Labor Relations in the face of the NMB’s expectation of a deal by November 30, SWAPA has decided that that "culture" will be on full display for those attending their conference. For those who want to see exactly what "Southwest culture” looks like up close, our message will be simple — don’t worry, they fooled us once too.
Join us at SWAPA headquarters on October 26 to demonstrate what the Southwest culture has become. We are planning a 0630 picket briefing followed by a morning picket at Southwest headquarters from 0715-0815. We will also hold a second briefing at 1545 for an afternoon picket from 1645-1800. In addition, SWAPA will host an open house throughout the day from 0815 to 1645. Join us for fellowship and enjoy the camaraderie of your fellow Pilots. Drinks and food will be provided. Stand with SWAPA as the Company hypocritically hosts a culture convention. Demonstrate the irony of their decision to delay a ratifiable contract by more than 1,150 days while driving 255 much-needed Pilots off property and to our competitors.
Case
10-10-2023, 05:03 PM
#9
Logbook...
Joined APC: Sep 2008
Posts: 416
Originally Posted by WHACKMASTER
Are you guys referring to TN?
🔥👇
🔥👇
No there’s a real psycho out of MCO that’s running. It’s worth reading in the elections section.
Click “VP”, look for “time for change” and have your barf bag ready.
10-10-2023, 05:50 PM
#10
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jun 2010
Position: DOWNGRADE COMPLETE: Thanks Gary. Thanks SWAPA.
Posts: 6,619
Originally Posted by Tankerhead
No there’s a real psycho out of MCO that’s running. It’s worth reading in the elections section.
Click “VP”, look for “time for change” and have your barf bag ready.
Click “VP”, look for “time for change” and have your barf bag ready.
🔥👇
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