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- Southwest pilots are suing the airline for failing to negotiate with the union during the pandemic.
- The lawsuit claims Southwest has put some pilots into mandatory quarantine without pay.
- Southwest said in a statement to Insider that the company disagreed with SWAPA’s claims.
Southwest Airlines pilots are suing the company for failing to negotiate with the union before making changes to pay and working conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Southwest Airlines Pilot Association says the company violated the union contract by implementing an “emergency extended leave” policy, which gave pilots the option to take unpaid leave during the pandemic.
SWAPA said Southwest had no option to withhold pay without first negotiating with the union.
The union added that Southwest had started directing some pilots to mandatory quarantine without pay from December 2020 and through this summer.
On May 11, the lawsuit says Southwest revised its infectious disease control policy ensuring that pilots “will be paid” for work missing due to COVID-19 events to employees “may” be paid.
“The accused’s illegal tactics are a form of asymmetric warfare in the negotiations,” said the trial. “If left unchecked, the respondent’s illegal tactics will cause irreparable harm to SWAPA and the pilots it represents.”
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Russell McCrady, Southwest’s vice president of labor relations, said in a statement to Insider that the company disagreed with SWAPA’s claims made in the lawsuit.
“Southwest remains committed to the health and well-being of the pilots and to working with SWAPA and our other union partners as we continue to address the challenges presented by the ongoing pandemic,” said McCrady. “The safety of our employees and customers remains paramount at all times, and Southwest has a proven heritage of putting employees first in our decisions – including upholding our 50-year history of no time off or layoffs of employees throughout the pandemic. “
The pilots said they put themselves at risk by the nature of their jobs: they are confined in small cockpits for hours on end during a flight and pass through airport terminals and overcrowded hotels.
The Southwest pilots added that while company employees could work from home, pilots exposed their children every time they returned from a flight.
“While management employees protected themselves by closing headquarters offices to work from home and meet virtually, pilots, along with other frontline workers, did not have that option,” the lawsuit says. .
The pilots ‘union claims in the lawsuit that Southwest has rejected the pilots’ “real world solutions” to save money during the COVID-19 pandemic. The lawsuit says Southwest was “not receptive” to solutions and subsequently told 1,221 pilots that they would be on leave.
“As hundreds of flights were (and continued to be) canceled and pilots were overworked on the line and stranded overnight, while still at risk of COVID, and increasingly with strains Delta and Lambda, SWAPA has made their voices heard in demanding action from management, ”the suit read.
Southwest Airlines was not immediately available for comment.
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