Short rant.
Southwest Air has cancelled ~70% of its flights in an epic meltdown this holiday season.
Remember, Southwest took $3.7B in federal aid from 2020-21.
Itโs CEO got a pay raise to a $9.1M package in 2022.
Yet Southwest employees are working 16 hour shifts & threatened w/termination if they refuse overtime or call in sick.
Socialism for the wealthy. Capitalism for workers.
Stop trusting billionaires. Start holding them accountable. And start protecting workers.
End Rant.
@QasimRashid I saw some guy on "the other site" saying how the workers needed to step up, and there'd be a reckoning for every employee who didn't show up, or refused to work overtime. Proudly exclaiming how he'd worked 36 hrs shifts in the past and that he kept a list of ppl he worked with who didn't do the same so he could get even with them.
And I just... HOW have they managed to get workers pitted against each other and NOT blame the CEOs and upper management?
<<<<Edited to add the following: I was mistaken here and after reading more on the subject, am in complete agreement with Qasim & Chelle.
I wrote another reply after reading more about SouthWest airlines.>>>>
Original & unedited reply:
I've no doubt at all that someone said that someone would say that.
There is always that one, or even a few, people.
Why they are pitting the workers against each other instead of blaming the CEO's is an excellent question.
@CherylBlueWave @QasimRashid Yeah, I think it's similar tactics to when they have ppl arguing about minimum wage and never do they talk about the CEO who makes more per minute or hour than their employees make ALL YEAR.
Keep us arguing with each other so we don't go after the hydra's heads.
@Josiah_Mannion @CherylBlueWave @QasimRashid
It's the three-headed monster of racism, the patriarchy and capitalism. Each exists to prop up the others, and they thrive off of the intersection.
Dig at any systemic oppression or failure of society and you're going to find one of them. And where you find one, you find the others.
@forsythec @WestCoastChelle @Josiah_Mannion @QasimRashid
2/ Of course, I want the pilots, flights attendants, et.al., to have their jobs. They need far better pay & work conditions.
That & upgrading their software would be far better uses of $9.1 million. Actually, that would not be enough.
The sys admin in my family says their software could run on a 386.
A friend who upgrades programs for another airline is horrified by SouthWest's lack of foresight.
The CEO? Accountability.
@WestCoastChelle @Josiah_Mannion @QasimRashid
1/ ๐ข Before commenting, I wish I'd read Chelle & Qasim's posts more carefully, as well as doing some research 
CEOs IMHO are paid way too much. In this instance: he still has a job?
I've now read 3 articles about SouthWest & don't understand how they're still operating.
They canceled & delayed flights like this year in 2021
Software & phone systems not updated since the 1990s๐ก so are crashing
CEOs & boards need to be accountable.
@WestCoastChelle @DebbieT156 @Josiah_Mannion @QasimRashid
Chelle, I wish I knew what to do.
I've seen a video on Twitter a friend forwarded to me, The idea was to elect blue candidates starting in local and school board elections.
I hope you had the opportunity to see the reply I made after more thought and reading on the subject.
I only mention that reply, because it expressed my agreement, as well as my being unable to find it.
Then a rant which about CEOs and SouthWest airlines. ๐
@metaphase @QasimRashid Absolutely! This guy was trying to argue that unions were too soft on employees and they needed to work harder for the company. It was just so gross.
I told him there were better things to lick than boots and he deleted his posts, lmao.
As the LA times notes, also underinvestment in infrastructure.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-12-28/how-southwest-airlines-meltdown-happened
One airline analyst said he "never seen an airline meltdown of this size." A combination of bad weather, outdated technology and vulnerable flight schedules played into the mess at Southwest Airlines.
@QasimRashid please can we just build high speed rail across the US? We could eliminate basically all domestic flights with a proper high speed rail network, and have massively lower emissions, and tell these billionaires to sod off.
Win-win-win.
@bouriquet @QasimRashid reading up recently I saw an article about the staggering costs of US infrastructure projects being about 'jobs for the boys' more than the actual cost of materials or work.
And sure, the distances are big - but the long term costs of continuing air travel instead of developing a long term public transit strategy are immense.
@pyoor @QasimRashid @RickiTarr
I was raised on the Saint Louis side and live near KC. I would love to go back to visit regularly without the long drive. And I know a lot of people would travel back and forth for a job.
(Itโs normal here to commute up to an hour and half one way for work.)
I agree 100%. IMHO, Flight attendants have always been underpaid.
Being a flight attendant has been dangerous from the beginning of the COVID outbreak to now with no end in sight.
Add that to airlines serving alcohol again and hundreds of canceled flights & the growing lack of kindness and respect, their job is even more perilous.
This is the result of the 1978 deregulation.
Gone are the days of Pan Am, TWA, Eastern, Western, Northwest, Republic, Piedmont, Air Cal , PSA, America West and National.
Since deregulation during the Reagan Administration, the airline industry has operated as an oligopolistic monopoly. Corporate executives, such as the ones at Southwest Airlines, have immensely profited from federal subsidies and aggressive lobbying to Congress to protect deregulation. Major airlines no longer allow unions that used to protect wages and employment of airline employees. Four decades of deregulation have created the crisis about which you and everyone rants.
Jason
Qasim Rashid, Esq.
Chelle (she/her) ๐ธโ
CherylBlueWave
Josiah Mannion
Charles Forsythe
Debbie156
Ty Ross
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