SWAPA Comments about 717

[Lear70]

Lear, what's the latest news over on the AT side. -9 capt or some one said their might not be a full integration by 2015?????? You think SWA might whipsaw us?

I don't know if I'd call it whipsaw (I'd only call it that if they didn't bring over our Int'l flying AT ALL or tried to keep it separate for years, which I highly doubt they will try), but I'm fairly comfortable saying that there will still be flying at AirTran come 1/1/15, at least through the END of that year.

We know the 717's will still be here flying, the last 36 aren't scheduled to go over to Delta until the END of 2015 (36 in 2015 at the rate of 3 per month from company announcement, public info).

It also looks as if the 737's flying international ops won't be able to START transferring until the Res system is in place, which has been publicly slated for a TARGET date of late 1st quarter or early 2nd quarter 2014. It takes 45 days to convert ONE plane, so unless they bring up another conversion line (probably more like 2), there's not a feasible way to get that many 737's off-line and through conversion in only 6-9 months, not to mention ramp up THAT many new international destinations on the Southwest side that quickly and transfer the sales of those routes through the Res system, not pull so many offline that it impacts the Caribbean routes already in place, etc, etc.

Then there's bringing over all the pilots. Trying to train 40% of the pre-merger 717 pilots (assuming the deal doesn't trigger our Scope language which I'm not seeing how they're going to get around), PLUS 1/2 of the pre-merger 737 AirTran pilots that are still at AirTran flying those international 737's in just 12 months is a challenge in and of itself.

The interesting part is in the SIA documents, where SWAPA (probably not realizing it) signed off on the definition of "Operational Integration" being the AirTran pilots being on the SWAPA CBA (it's in the Agreement) and your contract's Scope language saying that the pilots have to be on the SWAPA seniority list (we already are), represented by SWAPA (which Southwest can file for when they want), on the CBA (which happens on 1/1/15), and having "Operational Integration", which has now been defined by the SIA documents as being on your CBA. I didn't even catch it until I started thinking "what can they do if they want to play hardball with SWAPA like they did with us in the event SWAPA pushes back on the 1/1/15 COI date?"

For all intents and purposes, it looks as if there will be no scope violation on 1/1/15 even if there are still AirTran operations separately from Southwest. It can be grieved, of course, but I think it's a loser grievance, since we will all be on one seniority list, on one Operating Certificate, on one CBA, and the Scope language satisfied, and by the time you get it heard, they're halfway through 2015 and not that many planes are left to be completed through transition / gone to Delta.

I could be wrong, but I don't think so...

Your Senior Labor Relations counsel is a genius.

 

[texman]

Oh boy, sigh, thanks for the reply Lear.

 

[Lear70]

Oh boy, sigh, thanks for the reply Lear.

No worries. :beer:

I don't think it's all that big of a problem. 6-12 months one way or another with this deal is small potatoes in the grand scheme of things. As long as they're trying to do it and they're not trying to indefinitely run the Int'l side separately or something in the realm of "years", and just got limited with the realities of getting all the pieces in place, there's much bigger fish to fry.

I see it as basically just what happens when they bite off such a big change to the way Southwest has operated for decades.

There really are a LOT of moving pieces. I just wish they'd throw us a bone in the interim, especially to our senior Captains who were supposed to be able to keep their seats on the plane. We're talking half a Million dollars lost income from what they were expecting when they voted for the Agreement. That hurts, no matter who you are.

I know, I know, go cry to the dog.

 

[Lear70]

Also, we *might* know more at the end of the week (MEC Chair and others headed to Dallas tomorrow) but I kind of doubt it.

The secrecy behind the details of the sublease to Delta is a little odd. Not saying we'd expect to see all of it, but enough to satisfy our questions about Scope and other issues would be normal, but NO ONE has seen the actual agreement, not DALPA, not us, no one, and SWA management isn't saying much to our inquiries about it, other than to say we can see them when they're signed, which is some time after the Delta T.A. voting is done at the end of the month.

Until then, we're pretty much in the dark for how things are going to work going forward.

Russ McCrady put out a memo saying the training plan wasn't going to change, but since there's no option to send pilots awarded SWA 717 to training ahead of pilots awarded SWA 737, that's going to have to be revisited.

I'm not expecting to hear anything major until right around Independence Day.

 

[texman]

I have a funny feeling Lear . Thx again.

 

[redflyer65]

I agree with Lear, there is no way they will have all the conversions done by 1/2015.

 

[texman]

I agree with Lear, there is no way they will have all the conversions done by 1/2015.

So you think we are all going to get a sales job from GK/SWA/SWAPA? This has to be talked about now.

 

[redflyer65]

Sales job? Maybe.

I'm not sure we can do anything about it until we cross that line in the sand. It could be polarizing moment for pilots on both sides. An actual event that we could and should pull together for. I hope I'm wrong, but as Lear stated, the timeline doesn't look good to meet those targets.

 

[texman]

When do we know if SL12 passed?

 

[texman]

Just in 60 plus % yes vote for SL12.