Southwest Airlines baggage handlers and employees in airport ground-operations are joining the company’s pilots, mechanics and flight attendants in calling for the ouster of CEO Gary Kelly and COO Mike Van de Ven.
Leaders of Transport Workers Union Local 555 is calling for the resignation of Kelly and Van de Ven on grounds that the management has had a “misguided focus on cost control.” The Transport Workers join three other unions representing Southwest Airlines employees who have asserted that Southwest leadership continues to make “poor decision after poor decision.”
The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association voted 20-0 in a vote of no confidence this past Friday, which was agreed upon by the association’s board of directors and supported by the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association.
A major point of contention for the unions is management’s recent decision to spend $700 million on stock buybacks and to allocate an additional $2 billion on a buyback plan, rather than investing the money in updating the airlines aging computer system.
Jon Weaks, president of the pilot’s union, said in a Monday statement, “we believe that a change is needed for the best interests of Southwest Airlines and the loyal customers we serve.”
The recent calls for resignations come just after the company suffered from a July 20 technical failure that led to the cancellation of over 2,300 flights and caused widespread disruption for the traveling public as well as Southwest’s flight crews and employees.
According to Bloomberg, the combined unions calling for the resignation of Southwest’s top brass represent about 36,000 of Southwest’s 52,300 full-time employees.
Following the additional union pressure to oust Kelly and Van de Ven, Southwest management doubled down on their previous statement that the no-confidence votes are an effort to pressure Southwest to meet labor demands during contract discussions.
Kelly pushed back against what he characterized as a personal attack against him in a video where he said, “I’m not going anywhere and neither is Mike Van de Ven, we have important work to do and important issues to address, and we are not distracted by these games.”
Southwest employees are currently undergoing tense negotiations with management. The employees have been engaged in collective bargaining and contract negotiations for over four years and claim that they are not being compensated justly while Southwest earns record profits.
Send Tips to ted@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.