Ahead of the holidays, ground-workers for Southwest Airlines want the company to end lengthy contract negotiations and raise wages. A small group of union members picketed at Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers Tuesday.
About half a dozen ground-workers gathered at RSW during their time off. The group was just one of 17 protests taking place in airports around the country—including Orlando, Nashville, Denver, Seattle and San Diego.
Andrew Almanzo is an employee with Southwest Airlines and a local union representative.
Almanzo said workers are asking the airline, which has been in contract negotiations since 2011, to raise wages, improve benefits and hire more people. But, he said, in three and half years nothing has happened.
“The only thing we are asking for is a good contract – a fair contract,” Almanzo said. “Since Southwest started, there has been nothing but profits. There has never been a year where we lose money. We have made money every single year. So, we are all putting into the pie. It’s not the people behind a computer or us – the ground workers. It’s every single person. So we are just asking for a fair contract.”
Almanzo said he thinks the airline’s failure to reach a compromise with workers could end up hurting consumers during the busy holiday season. He said the company has been adding flights without hiring more people, which is causing delays and putting strains on staff.
A spokeswoman for Southwest said in a statement that “informational picketing is a common practice during negotiations and will not impact our operations.” The company’s statement also said the union members picketing already have “the highest pay rates in the industry.”
Both sides blame each other for how long the contract negotiations are taking.
