Sounds a bit rough for Alex Airlines.
By Lewis Lazare
– Reporter, Chicago Business Journal
2 hours ago
Southwest Airlines on Friday morning issued a blunt memo to hundreds of the carrier’s mechanics.
The memo, which came Lonnie Warren, Southwest's senior director of tech ops production, declared what the low-fare carrier called a “state of operational emergency.”
The Chicago Business Journal obtained a copy of the memo, sent to 277 mechanics based in Houston and 167 mechanics in Orlando, Florida. The same memo also was distributed to 375 Southwest mechanics based in Phoenix and another 80 based in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Some 2,400 mechanics work full time for Southwest. All Southwest mechanics belong to the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA).
Warren wrote in the memo: “We have been experiencing an unusually high number of out-of-service aircraft over the last few days. Due to this number of out of service aircraft, our operation requires all of our scheduled aircraft maintenance technicians and inspectors. We have an obligation to our customers and to our fellow employees to safely and efficiently run our operation.”
Then Warren’s memo turned tougher. Warren said any mechanics “alleging illness” will require a doctor’s note on their first day back, and went on to say that “failure to comply may be considered insubordination and abuse of sick leave which could result in termination.”
Other clauses in Warren's memo used the same insubordination and termination verbiage in regards to vacation time and company-mandated overtime work.
A Southwest spokeswoman Friday had only this to say of the memo from Warren: "The memo addresses an increase in the average number of out of service aircraft this week. In order to take care of our customers, we need all hands on deck to address reported maintenance items, to promptly return aircraft to service and safely operate our flight schedule."
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Some sources inside AMFA viewed Warren’s memo as an attempt to intimidate mechanics and “push them back into the shadows,” as one mechanic put it.
AMFA sources also denied on Friday that a possible covert work action by Southwest mechanics might have prompted Warren’s tough-talking memo.
The Warren memo comes amid reports from sources that as many as 50 Southwest aircraft have been out of service the past several days due to various mechanical issues. One source said a plane was sent to the hangar in Houston because of a malfunctioning tray table. There have been other reports of issues related to filters on planes.
Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) management’s declaration of operational emergency comes amid increasingly contentious contract negotiations between mechanics and management that have dragged on for well over six years.
Mechanics last year voted down a tentative contract and returned to the bargaining table, where management suddenly last month reintroduced a plan to outsource maintenance work to international vendors — a move that is anathema to Southwest mechanics.
The new declared state of operational emergency also comes as Southwest is still awaiting authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to fly the carrier’s first-ever scheduled flights from the United States mainland to Hawaii.
The new declaration also comes as the Inspector General in the United States Department of Transportation is in the middle of an audit of Southwest’s safety culture and alleged cozy relationships between Southwest and some FAA safety inspectors.
