Southwest pilots’ union considers picketing over the holidays to protest lack of hotels, fatigue

Southwest Airlines pilots’ union is considering picketing at U.S. airports over Thanksgiving and Christmas to protest what they described as a frenetic increase in schedules, among other complaints, its president told CNBC.

The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association told members in a video late Wednesday that it was weighing pickets and demanded the company address scheduling and fatigue. The pilots’ union president, Casey Murray, said the company schedule means pilots are working additional shifts with little notice.

Southwest didn’t immediately comment.

The message highlights the increasing tensions between Southwest’s pilots as well its flight attendants over the company’s push to ramp up flying to meet a revival in travel demand following the pandemic slump. American Airlines pilot and flight attendant unions have also complained this summer about alack of food and hotels and poor scheduling.

Staffing shortages this summer have exacerbated flight disruptions for tens of thousands of travelers. Southwest this week started offering referral bonuses worth $300 to staff because it’s struggling to hire new employees, CNBC reported Wednesday.

“We have experienced technology failures, severe understaffing and operational failures that are completely out of our control, yet we suffer the sometimes violent frustration of our customers as the face of Southwest Airlines,” wrote the executive board of the flight attendants’ union, TWU Local 556, to Southwest CEO Gary Kelly on Tuesday.

Southwest’s said it was aware of the flight attendants’ concerns.

“The safety of our Employees and Customers comes first, at all times, and that continues to be the priority in everything that we do,” Sonya Lacore, the airline’s vice president of inflight operations, said in a statement. “We are aware of the concerns the TWU 556 raised in their letter, and there is much work already underway to address many of the issues this summer.”