A Southwest Airlines Co. plane. takes off as Southwest Airlines Pilots’ Association (SWAPA) representatives and pilots demonstrate outside Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW) in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., on Wednesday, May 18, 2016.
Daniel Acker/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Southwest airlines The pilots’ union said on Thursday it was seeking to be released from federal mediation for a new labor contract, laying the groundwork for a possible strike as talks with the airline have yet to produce an agreement.
The airline and union, the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, have been in contract talks for more than three years and the negotiations are tense. The Dallas-based airline’s pilots voted last month to authorize the union to call a possible strike, a poll the union called late last year following a holiday crisis.
“I regret to inform you that SWAPA and Southwest have been unable to meaningfully resolve numerous important, unresolved issues, and that further mediation is unlikely to result in additional agreements between the parties,” Jody R. Reven, the chairman of the negotiating committee, wrote Thursday to the National Mediation Council, according to a letter that has been seen by CNBC.
The union said Southwest has declined to “enter into substantive discussions or make ratifiable proposals” on issues such as better wages, work rules, quality of life improvements and reductions in fatigue, according to a letter the union sent to the National Mediation Board .
Southwest’s vice president of labor relations, Adam Carlisle, said in a statement that the company disagrees with the need to be relieved of mediation.
“We have continued to meet with SWAPA on a regular basis and have actually made an industry leading compensation proposal and schedule adjustments to address workplace quality of life issues for our pilots,” he said. “We are confident that mediation will move us even closer to a final agreement that will benefit both our pilots and Southwest Airlines.”
Pilot strikes in the US are extremely rare, and the request from the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association does not mean one is imminent due to procedures in the US workforce. law. The last major US passenger airline strike in the country was up Spirit airlines in 2010.
There are several so-called cooling-off periods in case the National Mediation Board declares a standoff between Southwest and its pilot union. Those last 30 days each, which gives time for a possible deal.