×
This is the last article you can read this month
You can read more article this month
You can read more articles this month
Sorry your limit is up for this month
Reset on:
Please help support the Morning Star by subscribing here
by Our Foreign Desk
SOUTHWEST Airlines suspended more than 100 US ground workers at the weekend, claiming that they left work without permission to attend union meetings in California and Florida last month.
The Transportation Workers Union Local 555 billed the meetings as a “strike preparation summit.”
The union said that it was appealing against the suspensions, which range from 45 to 90 days.
Relations between the Texas-based airline and Local 555 have been strained as negotiations on a new contract have dragged on.
The employees noted that, although Southwest is earning record profits, they had not received a raise since their last contract came up for renegotiation more than three years ago.
Southwest filed a legal case against the union last month, claiming that workers were planning an illegal strike over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend of November 28-9.
Airline spokesman Bob Hughes said on Friday that employees could take personal time off unless the company declared an emergency, which he said it did before the November meetings.
He said that employees who missed work had been interviewed and that those who could not show a valid reason had been suspended.
But the union countered that some of those who were suspended were among 350 people who used their own time to attend the union meetings.
The Transportation Workers Union, which represents baggage handlers and workers who stock planes with food and drink, has started a fundraising campaign to help the suspended workers and talked to Southwest executives about reinstating them.
