The Transport Workers Union of America, the union representing Flight Attendants and Ramp, Operations, Provisioning, and Freight Agents at Southwest Airlines, applauded the Department of Transportation’s lawsuit against Southwest that seeks maximum civil penalties for the airline’s unrealistic scheduling.
“Southwest is hurting workers and the traveling public by refusing to staff their operations properly to ensure that flights can arrive on time,” TWU International President John Samuelsen said. “Instead of investing in workers, Southwest is choosing to fight the DOT and waste more time and money. The right thing to do would be to hire more hardworking Flight Attendants and Ramp Workers to make their airline less susceptible to delays and cancellations.”
DOT sued Southwest after an investigation revealed two chronically delayed flights, one between Chicago Midway International Airport and Oakland, California and another between Baltimore and Cleveland. The flights were delayed 180 times between April and August of 2022.
“DOT is sending the right message to airlines, when they understaff their operations, the ensuing delays are fully within the airline’s control. These carriers should be prepared to pay the price for underinvesting in the workforce,” said TWU Airline Division Director Andre Sutton
TWU Local 556 President Bill Bernal, who represents Southwest Flight Attendants, said that on-board workers are forced to deal with irate customers while also having their own schedules upended by incessant delays.
“Flight Attendants are left to deal with the misguided decisions of management to schedule flights that weren’t possible to run on time,” Bernal said. “Southwest customers and Flight Attendants deserve a company that hires enough workers to ensure that flights can arrive in a timely fashion.”
DOT also fined Frontier Airlines $650,000 for chronically delaying three flights at least 63 times between August 2022 and April 2023.
“Frontier is an anti-labor company getting what it deserves,” Samuelsen said.
The Southwest lawsuit comes two weeks after DOT fined JetBlue Airways $2 million for chronic flight delays, the first fine of its kind.