Prior to recognition, the pilots were without any representation from June 18, 1971, the date of the first flight, until June 1st,
1973. Work provisions and compensation was set by the Company. Pay consisted of a base salary, dependent upon the seat the pilot
occupied, plus a sum for each trip flown. Pilots were given employment letters when they started flying and pay was “guaranteed” at
$1,000.00 per month for Captains and $400.00 per month for Reserve Captains and First Officers. Pilots were paid the guarantee,
which the Company said was “basically 50 trips which in effect each pilot flew at no trip pay.”1 In due consideration, however,
Southwest was a struggling company in the early ‘70’s. It started with three B-737’s, added a fourth, sold it to meet debt payments,
and all the while fighting the larger carriers of Braniff and Texas International.
In June of ’73 the then Executive Vice President – Operations, Rollin King, brought forward what would become known as the
first unofficial “Agreement” between the Company and a newly formed Pilot’s Council. Captain Jim Everett was the Association’s
first President and served as the Chairman of the Pilot’s Council. This particular agreement codified many areas of interest to the
pilots and still exists in today’s contract. The agreement survived through 14 amendments and ended on July 1st, 1978. The key
player during this time was Lamar Muse, an experienced aviation hand and champion of productivity, who had a propensity for hardnosed
approach to operations and unions. Various expansion scenarios existed in the form of “Midway Southwest” and deregulation
expansion. Generally speaking, through the initial post certification years, relations between SWAPA and the Company were good.
The Association originated on March 27, 1978 when the Company, in a letter from their legal representative, openly
recognized SWAPA. The process had actually started a year earlier when a small group of pilots realized that to better the group’s
wellbeing, it would have to organize. Handouts and open solicitation preceded a petition drive that started on March 6th, 1978 and
lasted for seven days. All but one of the 112 on the seniority list signed the petition. On the 17th a petition for recognition under
Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act was filed with the National Labor Relations Board. That same day the NLRB
notified Southwest Airlines and called for a formal hearing on March 31st.2 After discussion, Southwest recognized SWAPA to the
NLRB on March 27th. Mr. Joe Harris, acting for Southwest, noted “The Employer concedes that the unit petitioned for is appropriate
for the purposes of collective bargaining. The Petitioner has been active for several years, and the Company has no reason to doubt its
continuing majority status among the employees in question.”3 Thus the Southwest Airlines Pilots’ Association was born. One year
later Southwest openly recognized SWAPA as the Flight Engineers bargaining unit.4 The timing could not have been any better.
