In A Close Vote, Ground Workers Approve New Contract With Southwest Airlines

Source: NH Labor News

After a five-year, often difficult contract battle, Transport Workers Union Local 555, the union representing 12,000 ground crew workers employed by Southwest Airlines, announced today that union members narrowly voted to approve a tentative agreement with the airline. TWU members by a close margin, 50.4 percent (4,703) cast “yes” votes, and 49.6 percent voted “no” (4,628), out of 11,073 eligible. Electronic voting began February 4 and concluded earlier today. Ballots were tallied this afternoon in Dallas.

On December 29, 2015, the TWU Local 555 Executive Board voted to send the tentative agreement to union members for a ratification vote without a recommendation. Contract talks had been ongoing since July of 2011 and federal mediation with the assistance of the National Mediation Board began in September of 2012.

“Our Board wanted the members to decide this one,” said TWU Local 555 President Greg Puriski. “While we had reached agreement on significant improvements in compensation there were still unresolved issues important to our members related primarily to working conditions. This was a hard vote for many of our members and this explains the close results.” The new contract includes pay raises of more than 20 percent over the five-year life of the agreement.

Southwest Airlines earned a record 2.4 billion in 2015. The airline has been growing in both size and profits since the ground workers contract became amendable in 2011, yet many ground workers have not had a raise during that period.

FULL story at link.

TWU Local 555 is a local union of the Transport Workers Union of America (TWU), representing more than 12,000 ramp, operations, provisioning and freight agents at Southwest Airlines.


Southwest Jet at BWI (image by Rudi Riet FLIKR CC)

Read more: http://nhlabornews.com/2016/02/in-a-close-vote-ground-workers-approve-new-contract-with-southwest-airlines/