Union workers at Southwest Airlines demonstrated at 16 airports across the country on Tuesday including Dallas Love Field.
These workers, who are part of the Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 555, said Southwest is not treating their employees properly.
Their main concern is that since Southwest added flights that they are not expanding their fleet. They say this is causing passengers costly delays, and is straining the airlines operations.
They said the strain is causing their workloads to increase without proper compensation and that most ground workers have not had a pay raise in four years.
They also say they have not had a new contract in years.
"We have been going three and a half years without a contract,” said TWU Local 555 district 5 representative Robert Bettinger, “Three and a half years is way too long. As the price of everything goes up we have no raises. We are not even going along with the cost of living."
NBC 5 did reach out to Southwest Airlines for comment on these workers concerns.
They released this statement:
“Informational picketing is a common practice during negotiations and will not impact our operations. We have always supported our employees and their right to express their opinions. Furthermore, we share the union’s sense of urgency to secure an agreement that is fair to all employees, enables the company to grow, and protects our position as a low-cost leader in the industry.
TWU 555 employees (ramp, operations, provisioning, and cargo agents) at Southwest have the highest pay rates in the industry. Agents with less than 12 years seniority continue to receive guaranteed annual raises. Our top-of-scale ramp, operations, provisioning, and cargo agents have not only kept pace with the cost of living, but they earn eight to 45 percent more than their counterparts at other airlines. From 2000 until now, during which time our competitors slashed pay and benefits, our base rates for our employees have increased more than 37 percent.
We’ve made multiple offers to TWU 555 that have gone unaccepted or ignored. Our proposals would put more money in employees’ pockets, improving individual compensation by thousands of dollars per year. In exchange for increased compensation, the company is seeking more operational flexibility in a manner that safeguards employees from negative impacts in a competitive industry — helping preserve and add more jobs in the future.”
-Brandy King, Southwest Airlines Communication Director
This is the second protest the TWU Local 555 has done this year. They say if their demands are not met they plan to hold future protests.
