Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Southwest and its pilot union have denied the massive flight cancellations have anything to do with a strike, walk out or sick calls.
Apparently its not an organized protest at this time, but rather the result of many individual pilots acting on their own.
From an article on this topic: “So you have some people calling in sick, and then you have this extra 20 percent of flights that they’re relying on people to come out there and cover,” the pilot explained. “And people like me are saying, a week ago, you mandated me to do something I’m not comfortable doing—so these are the dominos beginning to fall.
He stressed that there was no “organized sickout,” or even unofficial talk amongst themselves about calling in sick.
Southwest Airlines canceled more than 2,000 flights Friday through Sunday, and hundreds more on Monday because employees called in sick, or refused to sign up for overtime hours over the holiday weekend, a Southwest Airlines pilot told American Greatness. Southwest blamed “air traffic control issues” and inclement weather for the cancelled flights, but the problems were actually a direct result of the airline’s announcement on October 4 that all of its 56,000 U.S. employees were required be vaccinated against COVID-19 or face termination.
Also, if there is an actual Federal vaccine mandate, why has no government agency issued any rules or guidance around it? It's a mirage designed to provide cover for big business CEO's.
Apparently its not an organized protest at this time, but rather the result of many individual pilots acting on their own.
From an article on this topic: “So you have some people calling in sick, and then you have this extra 20 percent of flights that they’re relying on people to come out there and cover,” the pilot explained. “And people like me are saying, a week ago, you mandated me to do something I’m not comfortable doing—so these are the dominos beginning to fall.
He stressed that there was no “organized sickout,” or even unofficial talk amongst themselves about calling in sick.
“Nothing like that is going on,” he insisted.
Organized sick outs are illegal, so they would never admit to that.
But whether it was organized or not - it rocked the system.
It's not likely to be an aberration until the "mandates" are dead.
The carrier and its pilot union deny the online rumors.
Unlike other major domestic carriers, SW operates point to point, not hub and spoke. As such, it is far more vulnerable than other carriers to weather related issues.
Prior to retirement, I flew weekly for decades. I avoided SW because at the time because of its record of flight cancellations and lack of alternative carriers because it often relied on alternative airports.
This is day 5. While things have greatly improved, schedules have not returned to normal for SW.
Of course they did. If there is no job action happening, then they told the truth. If there is, they lied. But if they lied, it's because they decided that the negative consequences of lying were less severe than the negative consequences of admitting that the pilots are engaged in a possibly illegal job action.
As for the weather, one would have expected it to affect all airlines equally. Yet it's Southwest that's been hugely impacted, while the others are business as usual. Plus, you've actually got it backward. Hub and spoke operations are much more vulnerable to weather delays. If there are severe thunderstorms over Chicago, all the flights on American and United at O'Hare are delayed or cancelled, which immediately cascades downstream to all the spokes served out of Chicago, which in turn impacts the interlined flights out of those spokes. Pretty soon, their whole system is disrupted. But on Southwest, they may have to cancel their flights heading into Chicago, but the rest of their point to point system continues unaffected.
SWA has really gone downhill in the past several years. We are now full time United customers with 200k SW points that will never get used.
They messed with flights we booked for December so we are just finally done.
Interesting. I've studiously avoided United for over a decade now, during which I've flown Southwest many times without incident. I'm actually booked to fly United next month, for the first time in years (I'm going to a place not served by Southwest), so I'll see if they've gotten any better.
Polio says hello. Oh wait it can't, because we're vaccinated against it(but it can come back if we let it).
Fortunately that vaccination is given to babies (as inactivated virus) and does not require boosters every six months. Covid shot is more like flu shot, not the series of vaccines given to children to prevent polio.
So glad to see the SW employees taking a stand and making their voices heard. We can only hope to see this with the other airlines facing unconstitutional mandates as well.
Let the media spin it however they want. When you know, you know.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
