SWAPA was notified today of SWA's plan to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine for all employees.
The Company has been pressured by the federal government to enact a mandate for all employees by December 8. In order to maintain its status as a federal contractor (and secure the revenue that goes along with it), Southwest Airlines has agreed to ignore our CBA and implement this mandate. They will require all employees to upload their COVID-19 vaccination records (or fill out a form requesting a disability, medical condition, or religious accommodation) by November 24. The Company has further stated that the presence of antibodies will not be a permissible exemption. Management has told SWAPA that beginning on November 29, they will begin the disciplinary process for Pilots not in compliance, which will ultimately result in termination. Given their repeated dismissal of our role as your representatives, it is unsurprising that this comes without consultation with the one labor group required to maintain a medical certificate, despite SWAPA's repeated attempts to reach an agreement with them for more than six months.
We want to be perfectly clear: SWAPA is not anti-vaccination, but we do believe that, under all circumstances, it is our role to represent the health and safety of our Pilots and bring their concerns to the Company.
This announcement and lack of detail only fuels a growing divide that continues to erode the already strained relationship between Southwest Airlines and its Pilots’ Union. Prior to notifying SWAPA of this latest development, the Company has not made a good faith effort to discuss the many concerns that we have repeatedly raised in our communications, both publicly and to them privately. Despite current CDC guidelines, SWAPA has not had any meaningful conversation with management about levels of antibodies, natural immunity, or any other type of qualified exemptions. As a result, SWAPA will be filing a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) this week to stop the Company from carrying forward this mandate. This TRO will be part of the federal lawsuit that SWAPA filed on August 30 in an attempt to stop the repeated violations of status quo during our formal Section 6 negotiations and it follows this demand letter SWAPA sent by President Casey Murray to Gary Kelly on October 3.
However, the TRO is also not the only front on which we will be attacking this unilateral decision. SWAPA Legal and your Government Affairs Committee (GAC) have been fighting for our Pilots' right to choose for months on various fronts. Your GAC has been talking to legislators on the Hill about our medicals and how they can be affected by this requirement. President Murray joined them during the week of September 20 in D.C., and along with the rest of the exec team, continued those meetings with numerous legislators last week as well. Additionally, SWAPA has been circulating a letter to members of Congress further stating our position.
The MAX RTS, ExTO, Hindsight, this summer’s operational meltdown, instructor manning, and nearly two years of COVID policies and procedures — all of these issues were approached as “management rights” and even when SWAPA objected, the Company attempted to take unilateral action rather than engage in conversation about our Pilots’ concerns. Your Union has been proactive and engaged internally and externally at many levels. We acknowledge the far-reaching effects of the pandemic, but we remain steadfast in our defense of our Pilots and the protection of their medical certificates. We will not sit idly by while the Company blatantly ignores our legal right to represent you.
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This Privacy Policy describes how Southwest Airlines Pilots Association ("SWAPA," "we," or "us") collects, uses and shares information in connection with SWAPA's services, systems, websites, and apps that refer or link to the Privacy Policy (collectively, the "Services").
By using our Services, you agree to our Terms and Conditions and consent to our collection, use and disclosure practices, and other activities as described in this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy is not a contract and does not create any legal rights or obligations.
SWAPA will collect only that information about employees and pilots which is needed and relevant. We collect information you provide directly to us. For example, we collect information when you use our Services, register for our Services or set up a SWAPA account, subscribe to our e-mails, mobile messages, or social media notifications, post on our forums or blogs, request customer support, or otherwise communicate with us through the Services.
The types of information we may collect include Personal Information. "Personal Information" is information that could reasonably be linked with a particular consumer or household, including information that can be used to identify an individual (whether alone or in combination), such as your first and last name, e-mail address, zip code, address, phone number, social media account information, birth date, and demographic information. "Personal Information" also may include sensitive information, such as present and future health status.
You may choose to voluntarily submit certain other information to us through the Services, including Personal Information, but you are solely responsible for your own Personal Information that you submit to us.
SWAPA may disclose personally identifiable information without prior notification or approval from individuals for various purposes including:
Information We Collect Automatically
We automatically collect certain information from and about you when you access or use our Services. This information may include, without limitation, demographic information; IP address; browser/device/hardware type; operating system characteristics; information about your use of our Services; and data regarding network connected hardware (e.g., computer or mobile device), such as unique device identifiers, type, model, version, MAC address, device or session ID, error related data status, capability, confirmation, functionality, performance data, and connection type. This information may also include clickstream data, which is information about the page-by-page paths you take as you browse through the Services.
This information is gathered by certain tools and methods such as cookies and sessions. A cookie is a text file that is placed on your hard disk by a Web page server. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you.
We may use information about you for various purposes including:
The Services may permit you to submit ideas, photographs, user profiles, writings, music, video, audio recordings, computer graphics, pictures, data, questions, comments, suggestions or other content, including Personal Information (collectively, "User Content"), such as on blogs and forums, and in association with your account and user profile. We or others may store, display, reproduce, publish, distribute or otherwise use User Content online or offline in any media or format (currently existing or hereafter developed) and may or may not attribute it to you. Others may have access to this User Content and may have the ability to share it with third parties. Please think carefully before deciding what information you share, including Personal Information, in connection with your User Content. Please note that SWAPA does not control who will have access to the information that you choose to make public, and cannot ensure that parties who have access to such publicly available information will respect your privacy or keep it secure. We are not responsible for the privacy or security of any information that you make publicly available on the Services or what others do with information you share with them on the Services. We are not responsible for the accuracy, use or misuse of any User Content that you disclose or receive from third parties through the Services. We are not responsible for User Content you submit to third party services via our Services.
It is our goal to take reasonable measures to help protect information about you from loss, theft, misuse and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction. Although SWAPA's objective is to use reasonable efforts to help protect your information, transmission via the Internet is not completely secure and SWAPA cannot guarantee the security of your information collected through our Services. Further, you are responsible for protecting your password.
This Privacy Policy is current as of the effective date set forth above. SWAPA reserves the right to change this Privacy Policy and its practices from time to time consistent with applicable privacy laws and principles. If we make changes to this Privacy Policy we will notify you by revising the date at the top of this Privacy Policy, and in some cases, we may choose to provide you with additional notice (such as adding a statement to the homepages of our Services or sending you an e-mail notification). If the changes are material, we may provide you additional notice.
If you have any questions, complaints, or suggestions regarding this Privacy Policy, please feel free to contact us by phone, e-mail, or postal mail.
