Randy Barnes, President of Transport Workers Union Local 555, appeared on the America’s Work Force Union Podcast and discussed how decisions by Southwest Airlines management has led to poor working conditions and high worker turnover, which ultimately caused some flights to be delayed or canceled.
Local 555 has members in over 100 different cities.
Barnes claimed Southwest Airlines’ abusive culture, mistreatment of workers and general mismanagement is driving worker turnover. The airline is forcing ramp workers and members of Local 555 to work more than 16- hour work days, oftentimes with no lunch or water breaks. Southwest is also denying workers their paid time-off. By enforcing these extreme working conditions, Southwest is violating its union contract and putting workers and passengers in harm’s way, he said.
Southwest also recently transitioned to a hybrid business model between “Point to Point” and “Hub and Spoke,” he explained. In the process, they failed to hire and retain enough workers to meet the needs of this new model. As a result, Barnes believes there will be more flight delays and cancellations.
Listen to the entire episode to hear more about these topics.