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The Levee

The Levee

May 15, 2023

As I finish writing this on May the 4th, I sense a subtle shift in the force. It’s as if a thousand junior (and a few very senior) Pilots all decided that they made a mistake in choosing to hang their hat at Southwest Airlines and began submitting their resumes to our competitors. Those who have already left for more lucrative opportunities were covered last month in “The Departed.” But a troubling thing has happened since then. Current SWA Pilots who have a firm class date, conditional job offer (CJO), scheduled interview, or have updated their logbooks and are actively seeking another employer have begun calling me in advance of their departures.

What’s the reason for the sudden acceleration?

Well, a reservoir can only contain a fixed amount of water before it begins spilling over whatever was put in place to contain it. After significant “rain events,” including the “1,221” WARN (furlough) notices, “Columbus Day massacre,” “summer 2022 of discontent,” and the 1,000-year flood known as the “Christmas Flightmare” followed shortly thereafter by the 100-year flood of profit sharing being cut in half while the C-Suite took millions, the levee built upon a foundation of culture, hard work, hustle, and yes, even “Herb Kelleher’s B.S.”1 that SWA has constructed over the years is just about to give way. Don’t say we didn’t warn you, Southwest. But hey, don’t take my word for it. Here’s an open letter to CEO Bob Jordan from one of our own Pilots who has a CJO at United, but issued one final plea to the guy in charge of Southwest Airlines, before resigning:

Dear Mr. Jordan,

I need your help.

I have a career decision to make, and I need you to help me make Southwest the last job I ever have.

I am a junior Pilot at Southwest, and I have a confirmed class date with United Airlines.

I need you to understand that I want to stay. But this letter will be an honest account of my experiences and observations during my tenure at Southwest in the hopes that you, as my CEO, can right the ship. I will be the first to admit that it is not the whole picture, however it is what I and many of this great Company’s employees are seeing and experiencing on the front lines of the operation.

When I started at Southwest, I stopped updating all of my applications because I believed I had landed at my last job. The Southwest culture is legendary, and from the outside it appeared alive and well. Sadly, I feel it was over promised and under delivered. As I approach the end of my first year with Southwest, I now have more than words touting our culture. I have experiences that speak volumes more than those words. The glimpses of a waning culture are only evidenced by the individual employees who strive to hold onto and the remnants of that legend as it is seemingly swept away from the top down. I cannot tell you the number of times I have heard, “This is not Herb’s Airline anymore,” or “You should consider going somewhere else.” As a young aviator, this is discouraging and confusing. I must ask myself, "Are they right?"

In the past, I have worked for incredible organizations and leaders, and terrible ones as well. They all taught me something. But the greatest of these had one thing in common — an unrelenting commitment to their vision. So focused that they cut out anything and anyone that opposed it. Growth was never placed above the vision. We cannot ask people to do that which we ourselves are not doing. Likewise, the Company cannot ask its employees to embody a culture it is not itself living and defending relentlessly at all levels. Cancer is cut out for a reason — it spreads.

I updated my applications to our competitors over the Christmas weekend while deadheading in the back of a Southwest jet as our operation seemed to burn all around me. I was virtually in the dark while I fielded hundreds of questions and insults from our passengers that I could not answer. I was nervous and worried about my job and my ability to provide for my family. I had to ask myself, “How does this happen to such a legendary organization?” “What am I missing?”

I do not believe failure defines people or organizations. The true defining moment comes immediately after the failure, in their response to it. In the past four months, I have patiently watched you, Southwest Chief Operating Officer Andrew Watterson, our Company, and our contract negotiations, and I am at a loss.

When I was first hired, you promised me and my classmates in person that we would have an industry-leading contract soon. It’s been nearly a year, and it appears that SWA and SWAPA are not even in the same room during negotiations. The climate for Pilots at Southwest (from my perspective) is one of under appreciation, adversarial relationships, and denial of the current state of the industry. Contrast that to what I experienced during my interview with United, and I find myself tempted to leave.

When I interviewed at United, one of the first things they said to us in summary was, “We understand it’s a Pilots market, and you have options. Please ask questions, tour the campus on breaks, and speak to our employees. We want you to be a part of the United Family.” Now I recognize perception is not reality, but the observable facts indicate that United at the highest level is committed to recruiting and retaining the best talent in the industry.

Please help me. And please, help us make SWA the destination airline for aviators.

I’m a native of southwest Michigan, where there is a large Dutch population, and I cannot help but wonder if the folklore of the little Dutch boy who plugged the leaking dike with his finger and waited all night for help to arrive is apropos to the dilemma faced by SWA. The problem here is that he only has 10 fingers (five if he hopes to use his free arm to frantically wave for the help that may or may not materialize). If the rain keeps on falling, does it even matter how many fingers the boy has available to stop the leaks from destroying the dike and the commensurate Pilot attrition? Just as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted El Niño to increase rainfall this summer, so too is the possibility that an “operational El Niño” could overwhelm what temporary measures management has put in place for our house-of-cards operation. When the levee breaks, Southwest will be sorry it didn’t heed the warning signs and ink a timely deal on Contract 2020 that would help to recruit and retain the best aviators from a rapidly-dwindling supply. The reservoir is full, the river is above flood stage, and the Dutch boy is out of digits.

If it keeps on raining, levee's going to break
If it keeps on raining, levee's going to break
When the SWA levee breaks, I’ll have no place to stay

Mean old levee taught me to weep and moan, Lord
Mean old levee taught me to weep and moan
It’s got what it takes to make a Southwest Pilot leave his home
Oh well, oh well, oh well

—Kansas Joe McCoy, Memphis Minnie, and Led Zeppelin

1“That place (Southwest Airlines) runs on Herb Kelleher’s B.S.”
– Principal aide to former American Airlines CEO Robert Crandall, Hard Landing, p. 319.