Southwest Airlines transport workers approve new labor contract

FILE PHOTO: A Southwest airliner takes off from Las Vegas·Reuters
Reuters
1 min read
1
In this article:

(Reuters) -Southwest Airlines said on Thursday ramp, operations, provisioning and cargo agents approved a new five-year labor contract.

The contract covers 18,000 workers, represented by the Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 555.

The agreement with Southwest constitutes a wage rate of $38 per hour at the top of the wage scale, which TWU had said last month was 6.6% above United Airlines' current industry leading rate.

The deal also allows workers to reach the top of the pay scale after 10 years of service instead of 11 years.

In the past two years, unions representing pilots, flight attendants and maintenance workers have sought higher wages, better scheduling and other benefits against the backdrop of a tight U.S. labor market.

On Wednesday, the union representing nearly 20,000 of Southwest's flight attendants reached a tentative agreement on a new labor contract after two previous attempts failed.

Southwest has ratified contracts with ten worker groups since October 2022. Earlier this year, the airline reached a deal with its pilots, which will offer about a 50% pay raise over a five-year period.

(Reporting by Aishwarya Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)

Advertisement

Recommended Stories

  • Owner of exploded Michigan building arrested at airport while trying to leave US, authorities say

    The owner of a suburban Detroit business that caught fire and exploded, killing a man, was arrested at a New York airport as he was preparing to depart for Hong Kong on a one-way ticket, authorities said Friday. U.S. Customs and New York Port Authority personnel arrested Noor Noel Kestou, 31, on Saturday at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Kestou, of Commerce Township, was arraigned Thursday on an involuntary manslaughter charge.

  • New Jersey Target employee thwarts 3 women stealing shopping cart full of merchandise: police

    New Jersey police said that three suspects nearly got away with a cart full of stolen items, until one Target employee took action.

  • Chipotle Tells Staff to Skip Eating Chicken, Then Relents

    (Bloomberg) -- Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. told its employees last week not to include chicken in their own meals, as surging customer demand crimped supply — but the chain now says its workers can go back to ordering freely.Most Read from BloombergJavier Milei Fuels Wild Rally That Makes Peso No. 1 in WorldUS Economy Slows and Inflation Jumps, Damping Soft-Landing HopesPlunging Home Prices, Fleeing Companies: Austin’s Glow Is FadingMalaysia in Talks With Tycoons on Casino to Revive $100 Billion

  • The economy is moving us back into the 19th century as fertility rates plunge

    The U.S. birth rate from 2023 was down 2% from 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

  • Swindlers Are Now Using AI. Here Are the Warning Signs.

    Interactive deepfakes such as live phone calls or video conferences with what seems to be a real person are becoming more common.

  • Temporary farmworkers get more protections against retaliation and other abuses under new rule

    Temporary farmworkers will have more legal protections against employer retaliation, unsafe working conditions, illegal recruitment practices and other abuses under a Labor Department rule announced Friday. The new rule, which takes effect June 28, will target abuses experienced by workers under the H-2A program that undermine fair labor standards for all farmworkers. California has a vast agricultural industry, growing over a third of the country’s vegetables and nearly three-quarters of the country’s fruits and nuts and attracting a large number of farmworkers.

  • American workers are slowly regaining power

    New worker protections, expanding labor unions and a strong job market are finally helping the typical worker get ahead. Americans aren't feeling it.

  • Millennium Slams Jane Street ‘Gamesmanship’ in Secrets Case

    (Bloomberg) -- Millennium Management accused Jane Street Group of playing games by not fully disclosing the proprietary trading strategy it claims was stolen by two former traders who joined Izzy Englander’s hedge fund group.Most Read from BloombergPlunging Home Prices, Fleeing Companies: Austin’s Glow Is FadingApple Intensifies Talks With OpenAI for iPhone Generative AI FeaturesWall Street Humbled as Fast-Reversing Markets Confound the ProsThe Long, Slow Death of Urban NightlifeJavier Milei Fue

  • Daimler Truck reaches deal with United Auto Workers, averts U.S. strike

    "For months, we said that record profits should mean a record contract with no concessions," UAW President Shawn Fain said in a late-night appearance on YouTube from Charlotte, North Carolina, near where the company has plants. Daimler Truck, which makes Freightliner and Western Star trucks and Thomas Built buses, had faced the possibility of a strike beginning at midnight ET (0400 GMT on Saturday). Daimler Truck said in a statement: "The UAW members... will now be asked to vote on the new contracts, and we hope to finalize them soon, for the mutual benefit of all parties."

  • Trump to set interest rates himself under secret presidential plan

    Donald Trump’s aides have drawn up secret plans to oust the chairman of the Federal Reserve and allow the president to set interest rates, according to reports.