Hundreds more Southwest flights were canceled Monday morning after a brutal weekend of service disruptions as pilots fight the Covid vaccine mandate.
Nearly 2,000 Southwest flights were canceled over the weekend and the cancelations continued into Monday morning.
By Monday morning 365 Southwest flights were canceled and more than 600 were delayed.
Thousands of angry passengers were stranded due to the cancelations and Southwest went into damage control mode.
Southwest claimed the flights were canceled due to bad weather in Florida and air traffic control issues although their competitors in the region have reported far less cancelations.
Employees are on strike over the Covid vaccine mandate and the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association is fighting the tyranny in court.
Bloomberg reported:
Southwest Airlines Co. pilots asked a court to temporarily block the company from carrying out federally mandated coronavirus vaccinations until an existing lawsuit over alleged U.S. labor law violations is resolved.
The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association’s filing Friday also asked for an immediate hearing on the request before a federal court in Dallas, claiming the carrier has continued to take unilateral actions that violate terms of the Railway Labor Act, which governs airline-union relations. Those steps include the Covid-19 vaccination requirement.
“The new vaccine mandate unlawfully imposes new conditions of employment and the new policy threatens termination of any pilot not fully vaccinated by December 8, 2021,” the legal filing said. “Southwest Airlines’ additional new and unilateral modification of the parties’ collective bargaining agreement is in clear violation of the RLA.”
Southwest set the deadline on Oct. 4 under a federal vaccination mandate for employees of companies holding contracts with the U.S. government. Workers can seek medical or religious exemptions. The union represents 9,000 Southwest pilots.
Now the crews running ferries in Seattle have started calling out, leading to major cancellations. The cause may be a protest to the state’s vaccine mandate coming due October 18.
The Seattle Times reported on Friday:
A chronic crew shortage at Washington State Ferries suddenly became a transportation debacle Friday, when the nation’s largest ferry system was forced to reduce service on seven of its 10 routes, while preparing for weeks of missed trips and frustrated passengers.
Approximately 140 sailings were canceled Friday, and several were late, in what the agency called “a rough service day due to lack of crew.”
Reductions this dire are unprecedented for WSF, which serves as many as 24 million passengers a year. Though summer tourism peaks have passed, travelers waited three hours for a ferry at the Edmonds dock Friday, and two hours in Mukilteo as of midday…
…Another factor may be Gov. Jay Inslee’s deadline of Oct. 18 for state workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19, or risk losing their jobs. Rumors have circulated for weeks of sickouts, or a wave of people preparing to quit soon.
“We are aware of what is coming Oct. 18,” Fujioka said. “It’s obvious this is on the verge of becoming unsustainable — the crewing we already have.”
These callouts join the airline and air traffic controllers who have staged similar protests in recent days.
Big Media blacked out the news on Friday night that hundreds of flights out of Jacksonville were cancelled due to walkouts in response to vaccine mandates. We’ve reported already on the Southwest Airlines flights canceled this weekend. Southwest Airlines Cancels Nearly 2,000 Flights This Weekend as Rumors Swirl Employees Are on Strike Due to Covid … Continue reading
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