49 long years later, Southwest Airlines just announced a strike

Southwest Airlines made a tough, important decision this week, a sign it has never made before in 49 years.

There was so much else going on in the world that it was easy to miss.

But that puts Southwest Airlines on the road to joining the unfortunate club: airlines that have simultaneously shed thousands of jobs as a result of the coronavirus epidemic.

If that happens, it will mark the first time that the Southwest, which has been flying under its current name since 1971, has resorted to furlough or scattering.

This is a tough story to write. It’s always hard to see anyone at risk of losing their job.

However, as it emerges, this experience involves enormous learning opportunities for almost anyone who runs a business of any type or size.

Here is the background. Last month, Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly recorded a video message for employees, describing the airline’s position and asking unions to agree to a 20 percent pay cut during 2021 to stop financial bleeding.

According to reports, projects in the Southwest are losing millions a day for the rest of the year, and Kelly said the non-union employee will already have a temporary pay cut. He also added that he will not take personal pay during 2021 and other senior officers will also see a 20 per cent reduction in their salaries.

In return, he promised that non-union workers would see no concessions during 2021, and that their salaries would, at the end of the year, “pull back” the epidemic rate.

Speaking of union workers, of course the South West cannot unilaterally reduce their salaries.

So, Kelly said he was seeking the pay cut in return for the same promise of no layoffs during 2021, but also warned that if the union did not agree, Farlow would likely follow suit.

At the time, I wrote that I think this is an interesting move on Kelly’s part. If the unions agree, it could continue the Southwest no-cut line and set a precedent. If they don’t agree, it can force them to shoulder some of the blame for the job loss.

Soon after, both Southwest Airlines pilots and unions representing flight attendants poured cold water on the idea of ​​cutting.

The Flight Attendants Union told me that its members were “not interested in getting a concession in getting a contract that took decades,” and the Pilots Union said Wall Street Journal When it agreed to discuss it with the Southwest, it was “very different from agreeing to a concession.”

But while I have no access to inside information or decision-making processes, as you might expect, neither side is incentive to agree to anything immediately.

In other words, I can look into this and expect that if an agreement is reached on the cut it will happen at the last possible minute – which will be months away.

All of this makes the latest move through the Southwest a little more interesting.

Because when Southwest issued its first furlough warnings this week, which are legally required before taking such action, those instructions did not go to pilots or flight attendants.

Instead, they went into a much smaller group: 42 content experts presented by the International Brotherhood Te f Temsters, who the Southwest said they would not negotiate.

I don’t know if this is by design or fabrication, but in any negotiation like this, it seems smart to cry as slowly as possible – taking one small step at a time, and allowing the other to enter the room as much as possible. Navigate closer to your position.

If I were a Southwest Labor executive whose job it was to try to persuade unions to agree to a cut, I would prefer to send a first-party notice to a small group of workers, rather than take a big step before I want to.

And that makes me think about my other questions, if I ask myself, if I’m running a business that needs a cut to survive – and especially if I don’t think I have the leadership capital to make a unilateral declaration (or Legal right).

How can you move slowly, carefully, methodically – stay in control of the negotiations as much as possible – while giving everyone else space to save face and get them everything they need as much as possible.

I don’t know where all this is in the Southwest. I definitely hope to return faster than we expected, and the need to cut jobs will be less. I would love to be able to write in a few months that the Southwest continued its 49-year-old, no-frills streak.