January 31, 2022

Southwest Airlines is at an inflection point. It has gone from a Company that supports its employees to a corporation that is supported by its employees. Now is when our Pilots need strong leadership in Flight Operations. Sadly, what we have is not only a failing leader, but a poor manager.

Over the course of the last year, your Board of Directors has witnessed an integrity failure firsthand from VP of Flight Ops Bob Waltz and has signed a statement verifying one specific case in particular. Please take the time to listen to SWAPA President Casey Murray and Vice President Mike Santoro go into more detail on this subject on the latest episode of the SWAPA Number podcast. Below is a detailed account of Captain Waltz’spoor decisions and his failure to protect our Pilots.

1. He has not lived up to his word. The capstone of Captain Waltz’s failures occurred two weeks ago. For the last three months, your entire Board has been fighting to save the job of one of our Pilots after he was written up by another employee. When it appeared he would be unfairly terminated due to pressure from Inflight and TWU 556, SWAPA pressed Captain Waltz with the facts of the case and arrived at a resolution that would ultimately preserve his job.

One would think that striking an agreement with the VP of Flight Ops over a Pilot’s career is foolproof. It is not. With the Pilot’s livelihood on the line, Captain Waltz was asked multiple times to affirm his promise that the Pilot will be returned to flying. He gave his word to one of our OAK reps. He followed up with eight of us on a call with the exact words, “You have my word.” He outlined the Pilot’s “path” back to work before Christmas Day. He then made the same commitment in person before your Board of Directors — that we had his “word” and the Pilot would be back flying for Southwest before Christmas. Our execs further verified his commitment through follow-up texts, calls, and emails. Not only was the Pilot subsequently terminated, but on January 18, SWAPA was informed that Captain Waltz would not live up to his word and that the Pilot was no longer employed at Southwest Airlines.

Throughout this case, Captain Waltz stood by while the Company's Labor Administration department characterized the firing as a “clean kill” to the Pilot’s domicile Chief Pilot. When SWAPA attempted to show a video proving the “kill” was anything but clean to interested domicile Chiefs, we were served with a cease-and-desist letter from Company Labor Administration. They wanted to keep their own Chiefs from seeing the facts of the case with their own eyes.

2. He has failed us operationally. Flight Ops created the self-inflicted chaos of the past eight months because Captain Waltz and his team remained silent as commercial interests took priority over our people. SWAPA raised warning flags as far back as last March that it would be impossible to train ExTO requals while growing the ETOPS bases as planned, but rather than stand up and support us, Flight Ops stood by while the Company supported itself on the backs of its Pilots and other employees.

SWAPA has handed the Company a playbook of solutions (Contract 2020) built over years of data collection, analysis, and member input, but Captain Waltz has brushed it all aside. A DoorDash subscription, food in lounges, and last-minute schedule cuts are all band-aids that the Company chose only after SWAPA forced the issues, but they, along with the $130 million Operational Issues MOU, are not sustainable solutions.

3. He has failed to represent us. Throughout concession talks, COVID protocol negotiations, and even Section 6 negotiations, Flight Ops management has been completely absent. In the early fall, Casey Murray warned Captain Waltz that his lead negotiator, Carl Kuwitzky, had, on no less than seven occasions, claimed to have a comprehensive counterproposal prepared and ready to present. In light of Mr. Kuwitzky’s missive two weeks ago, SWAPA again pressed Captain Waltz on Mr. Kuwitzky’s intentions. Our VP offered nothing more than an “I don’t know.” SWAPA embraces our duty to represent you and every Southwest Pilot. It’s apparent that Captain Waltz does not.

4. He has ceded his authority. Captain Waltz refuses to uphold and honor the wording imprinted on the cover of our contract which says, “By and Between Southwest Airlines and Southwest Airlines Pilots Association.” Our CBA is not “between SWAPA and Flight Ops.” He has a duty to ensure compliance with our CBA across all of Southwest Airlines, but he has failed. Instead, he has enabled Corporate Security, Employee Relations, the Pass Bureau, and Inflight to walk all over the processes of Pilot discipline spelled out in our CBA. We have even seen another union (TWU 556) have a hand in the discipline of Pilots.

In a further abdication of his authority, he has stripped responsibility for Pilot discipline from your local Chief Pilots and handed it over to Monty Sparks (another former Pilot who, like Mr. Kuwitzky, has turned against his fellow Pilots) and Labor Relations in Dallas. Not surprisingly, Mr. Sparks penned the cease-and-desist letter from Company Labor Administration mentioned above.

5. He has allowed others to make a mockery of our negotiated rights. Despite claiming in a virtual townhall in July, “we’d like you to be able to fly what you bid,” Captain Waltz has not taken a single proactive step to ensure that occurs. In fact, it is Flight Ops that has enabled Crew Scheduling and Labor Relations to trample over our CBA through numerous reinterpretations and unilateral policies that have led to an ever-growing number of grievances and SBOAs (which total more than 120 as of today). Make no mistake, Flight Ops is responsible for allowing the bastardization of our IROPS language that can result in a thunderstorm in New England causing numerous reassignments in California.

6. He has made no effort to protect our Pilots throughout the pandemic. Flight Ops under Captain Waltz has drifted aimlessly with the current when it comes to COVID. His team has agreed to exactly zero COVID-specific MOUs to address the safety and health concerns of our Pilots during the pandemic. When SWAPA attempted to address positive-space commuting or correct our industry-last disability plans, he allowed Labor Relations to kick the can to negotiations. He failed to provide the support your Union made clear was needed until we did so in a very public way.

7. He has forced us to sue to protect our Union rights. Captain Waltz’s lack of leadership was one of many failures that forced SWAPA to file multiple federal lawsuits in the last year. Most recently, we were forced to defend against a serious Scope and Section 3.B.1 violation, going so far as filing with the NMB to help mediate this single issue. Despite our legal challenges, Captain Waltz permitted his people to press ahead with the violation, forcing us to seek an injunction. Whether or not he thinks these actions are legal, attacking SWAPA’s, or any labor group’s, scope is all but certain to destroy any remaining faith and trust.

Integrity is when you care more for the hard truth than the easy lie. It’s standing up and doing the right thing when no one is watching. The choice was there. Captain Waltz chose himself over each of you. It is something SWAPA will not soon forget.

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BOD Statement On the VP of Flight Ops