After a summer of labor discontent, Southwest Airlines is keeping up its recent negotiating hot streak with the announcement Friday of a tentative agreement with its flight attendants union after more than three years of contract talks.
Details of the deal, which must still be approved by the union's executive board and a vote of its members, were not immediately disclosed. Last July, flight attendants overwhelmingly rejected a previous tentative agreement with 87 percent of votes against.
“Our members are the best flight attendants in the industry and provide legendary service to our customers. We deserve a contract that recognizes that dedication and professionalism,” Audrey Stone, president of Transport Workers Union Local 556, which represents 14,500 Southwest flight attendants, said in a statement.
It’s the third tentative agreement announced in the last two weeks between Southwest and one of its labor groups, following a summer that has seen union pickets at airports around the country and a vote of no confidence in Southwest’s CEO Gary Kelly by several of the Dallas-based carrier’s largest employee groups.
On Aug. 29, Southwest’s pilots union announced a tentative agreement had been reached that would increase their total pay by 29.4 percent over the life of the contract. That deal came after more than four years of negotiations with the union, which represents more than 8,000 pilots. The company also announced a tentative agreement with a much smaller group of facilities maintenance technicians on Sept. 2.
In an interview with the Dallas Morning News, Stone, the flight attendants union president, said the tone of negotiations shifted following a July 20 technical outage that led to the cancellation of 2,300 flights over several days and impacted hundreds of thousands of passengers and Southwest crew members who were stranded at airports around the country.
That outage led leaders from four unions -- representing pilots, flight attendants, mechanics and ramp workers -- to call for the removal of Kelly. The unions have also organized more than a dozen pickets at Dallas's Love Field and other airports around the country throughout this year protesting the lack of progress in contract talks.
Stone said progress came as Southwest began engaging with the union on the economics of the contract that affect pay and benefits. The union was also concerned about proposed changes to work rules that affect scheduling, working conditions and quality of life for flight attendants.
Stone declined to comment on what work rule provisions the new tentative agreement contains, preferring to share those details directly with union members.
Negotiators for Southwest and the union will continue to meet next week to draft final language for the agreement, which will then be reviewed by the union's executive board later this month. If two-thirds of the board's 17 members approve, the proposed contract will be put to a vote of the members, which would likely conclude in November.
For Southwest, the tentative agreement is a major step towards quelling labor unrest that has struck the carrier famous for taking care of its employee in recent years.
In addition to the pilots and flight attendants unions, who have been in negotiations since 2012 and 2013 respectively, Southwest has also been negotiating with its mechanics union since 2012, but has not yet reached a tentative agreement.
“I am pleased that we have reached this tentative agreement which, if ratified, will allow us to continue rewarding the many contributions that our flight attendants make to the success of Southwest Airlines,” Sonya Lacore, Southwest’s vice president of cabin services, said in a statement.
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