Southwest Airlines Co.’s pilots’ union has asked the US National Mediation Board to end its oversight of contract negotiations with the carrier, an action that would move the union one step closer to a potential strike.
(Bloomberg) — Southwest Airlines Co.’s pilots’ union has asked the US National Mediation Board to end its oversight of contract negotiations with the carrier, an action that would move the union one step closer to a potential strike.
Further mediation oversight “will likely not result in any additional agreements” between the union and the company, the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association said in a letter to the agency Thursday. Talks began more than three years ago and were joined by a mediator in September 2022, the union said, but a number of important issues remain unresolved.
The mediation board will next conduct an independent review. If it decides further negotiations will not lead to an agreement, it will release the two sides from further talks. Even if it does so, the Railway Labor Act, which governs airline labor relations, requires several more steps before a strike would be allowed.
“We strongly disagree that we’re at a point which justifies either party asking to be released from mediation,” Adam Carlisle, Southwest’s vice president of labor relations, said in a statement. “We feel confident that mediation will continue to drive us even closer to a final agreement.”
The two sides continue to meet regularly and the airline has made an industry-leading compensation proposal and scheduling changes to meet pilot quality-of-life concerns, Carlisle said.
Southwest and other US airlines are battling higher costs, in part as pilots and other work groups negotiate their first union contracts since the Covid-19 pandemic. The airline is also reeling from an operations meltdown at the end of 2022 that forced it to cancel 16,700 flights over 10 days, at a cost of more than $1 billion. That disruption has since become the focus of congressional inquiries.
In May, Southwest pilots overwhelmingly authorized union leaders to call for a strike if the National Mediation Board approves it. Negotiations can still continue in the event that a strike process is authorized. There hasn’t been a pilots’ strike at a major US carrier since 2010.
(Updates with Southwest comment in fourth paragraph)
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