Contract Is Released For A Vote By Rank And File Pilots

The Board of Directors for the Southwest Airlines Pilots' Association (SWAPA)voted on Thursday to send a new tentative agreement to the membership for a ratification vote. The board also voted unanimously to endorse the TA.

After the membership rejected the last tentative agreement in June, SWAPA surveyed and polled its members to find the deficiencies in the agreement. SWAPA returned to the table and was able to improve many areas of concern, while accepting a compensation package valued slightly less than the previous TA.

"Our pilots spoke and we listened," said Capt. Carl Kuwitzky, SWAPA President. "We were able to return to the table and make gains in areas the membership felt needed strengthening. The SWAPA Board of Directors felt these improvements along with economic gains were favorable to our pilot group and worthy of their consideration. At the same time, we'll be back at the table with the Company in a mere 20 months."

The new five-year agreement, which became amendable in September 2006, is different from the rejected agreement in that it allows more flexibility to the pilots' quality of life, maintains long-standing scheduling programs, gives an increase to a retirement benefit for pilots sooner, and further restricts the Company's ability to codeshare both domestically and internationally.

The full Agreement will be made available to the pilots soon and a ratification vote will take place in October.

FMI: www.swapa.org