Earlier quoted context omitted.
They also explicitly deny that a sickout is occuring: > There are false claims of job actions by Southwest Pilots currently gaining traction on social media and making their way into mainstream news. I can say with certainty that there are no work slowdowns or sickouts either related to the recent mandatory vaccine mandate or otherwise. Under the RLA, our Union is forbidden from taking job action to resolve labor dis…
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Southwest operational meltdown as hundreds of flights canceled or delayed
131–140 of 627 posts
Re: Southwest operational meltdown as hundreds of flights canceled or delayed
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think that's because it's technically illegal to do a walkout... https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/urgent-a-southwest-airli... In reality, a lot of pilots can just message each other on the side and say "f-it". Idk how many it takes to take down the system, but I suspect even 20% out sick could cause a cascading failure.
20%? That would mean they have 20% extra pilots on standby ready to take over for the sick. I think it is far lower than that, more like 5% or less. I suspect it might be closer to 2%, that there are no real backups. I bet that when someone is stick someone else is called in on their weekend. That would be the labor action: pilots refusing to work overtime/weekends when called to cover for someone.
What I suspect is actually happening is much larger.
Re: Southwest operational meltdown as hundreds of flights canceled or delayed
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
To counteract this Southwest does not do red eye flights which theoretically should allow them to reset operations overnight. This does not seem to be working for some reason.
Often the limiting factors for an airline aren't the planes, but the humans to operate them. If the pilots aren't in the right place and available to fly, then an overnight to reset the positions of the planes does nothing. Nevermind the fact that resetting the network would in fact burn up flight time which seems to be in short supply.
I did see in the Dallas Morning News that SWA had schedule the most flights today since the start of the Covid.
>Dallas-based Southwest planned more than 3,600 flights on Sunday, the most of any day since the COVID-19 pandemic began, but nearly one-third of those were canceled.
https://www.dallasnews.com/business/airlines/2021/10/10/sout...
Re: Southwest operational meltdown as hundreds of flights canceled or delayed
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I assume the current administration could direct the Dept of Defense to make military pilots available to Southwest Yeah just have them switch to a completely different type of aircraft without getting trained or checked out at all, this will definitely fix the problem in short order.
I understand you have an axe to grind, as many of your recent posts are anti vaccination in nature. Regardless, public support is robust for the measures being taken to bring the pandemic public health crisis to a conclusion, and with regards to vaccine mandates and terminating those who refuse, so far those actions have been adjudicated as lawful. So, the current administration has to get creative when you have coho…
Re: Southwest operational meltdown as hundreds of flights canceled or delayed
#135Seeing stories like this makes me wonder if we'll ever see a company actually go bust based purely on the instability of its decades-old, duct-taped architecture. I have a relative who works for a large credit card processor running on mainframe systems and I hear over and over again that they're all retiring and unable to fill the newly opened roles. This problem is compounded by the fact that their offshore contrac…
> decades-old, duct-taped architecture The way the survivorship bias works out, this is generally a strength, not a weakness. You want to get good money, you learn how stuff works under the hood and get familiar with your predecessor architectures, emulate them if you need to.
Re: Southwest operational meltdown as hundreds of flights canceled or delayed
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
They also explicitly deny that a sickout is occuring: > There are false claims of job actions by Southwest Pilots currently gaining traction on social media and making their way into mainstream news. I can say with certainty that there are no work slowdowns or sickouts either related to the recent mandatory vaccine mandate or otherwise. Under the RLA, our Union is forbidden from taking job action to resolve labor dis…
Doesn’t that just mean the union itself isn’t organizing a sickout?
Re: Southwest operational meltdown as hundreds of flights canceled or delayed
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Under the RLA, our Union is forbidden from taking job action to resolve labor disputes under these circumstances They couldn't admit it if that's what they're doing. They'd have to deny it either way. Even an "unofficial" unorganized sick out. On the other hand- if a pilot knew he was getting fired in two weeks for not getting vaccinated, and he happened to have two weeks sick pay, well then the company policy did a…
Even if an employee is fired for cause the employer is required to pay out accrued vacation time.
Re: Southwest operational meltdown as hundreds of flights canceled or delayed
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
They also explicitly deny that a sickout is occuring: > There are false claims of job actions by Southwest Pilots currently gaining traction on social media and making their way into mainstream news. I can say with certainty that there are no work slowdowns or sickouts either related to the recent mandatory vaccine mandate or otherwise. Under the RLA, our Union is forbidden from taking job action to resolve labor dis…
I think that's because it's technically illegal to do a walkout... https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/urgent-a-southwest-airli... In reality, a lot of pilots can just message each other on the side and say "f-it". Idk how many it takes to take down the system, but I suspect even 20% out sick could cause a cascading failure.
> Employee exodus could 'cripple' Washington ferry system as dozens of sailings canceled again Friday
> 'The new norm': Washington ferry workers call out sick in protest of COVID-19 vaccine mandate
https://www.king5.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/washin...
Re: Southwest operational meltdown as hundreds of flights canceled or delayed
#139Re: Southwest operational meltdown as hundreds of flights canceled or delayed
#140Seeing stories like this makes me wonder if we'll ever see a company actually go bust based purely on the instability of its decades-old, duct-taped architecture. I have a relative who works for a large credit card processor running on mainframe systems and I hear over and over again that they're all retiring and unable to fill the newly opened roles. This problem is compounded by the fact that their offshore contrac…