The SWAPA Number

By SWAPABusiness

The SWAPA Number episodes

March 20, 2023 45 (The History of SWAPA with Frank Schmuck)
Today’s SWAPA Number is 45. That’s the number of years since the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association was formally recognized by the National Labor Relations Board on March 27, 1978. You’ve heard the expression that history repeats itself, so for the SWAPA anniversary, we wanted look back at some of the events that have happened at our Union and see what they tell us about what we’re experiencing today in 2023.
So on today’s show, we’re talking with Phoenix Captain Frank Schmuck who has been with Southwest Airlines since 1994. About four years ago, he started the “Southwest Pilots Then and Now,” Facebook Group with a tagline of "A bridge to the future by way of the past." More active than ever, this group has become a sort of a historical, cultural and informational page related to many aspects of our lives as Pilots.
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28 min
March 01, 2023 89 ( Seth Kornblum, Strike Authorization Vote Past and Present)
Todays SWAPA Number is 89, thats the number of days Contract Admin Chair Seth Kornblum was on strike, when he was with his former carrier Comair.

With the Strike Authorization Vote coming up and the Strike Prep Booklet having been mailed to homes, we felt that the time was right to sit down and talk with him about what that time in life was like, what were some of the things he would do differently and what he feels is important about the upcoming vote.
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25 min
February 20, 2023 2.07 (Erich Schnitzer, Greg Auld, Damian Jeanette, Profit Sharing and Industry Update)
Today's SWAPA Number is 2.07, that's the percentage of 2022 profit sharing that will be funded next month. February is a busy time for our EFA Committee every year with full year earnings across the industry coming in and Southwest Profit Sharing getting announced. But this year it's especially busy with the fallout from the Christmas meltdown, a recent TA at Delta and big pay raises across the industry. So on today's show, we're gonna talk with Eric Schnitzler, Greg Auld, and Damian Jennette from the SWAPA EFA Committee. It's been a while since we've had all three on together, but with all the news we thought you'd wanna hear from each of them.
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32 min
February 10, 2023 27 (Senate Hearing)
Today's SWAPA Number is 27. That's the number of Senators on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. This week, that committee held a hearing to investigate the airline industry and invited SWAPA President Casey Murray to testify. If you had any doubt about the value of SWAPA’s Government Affairs Committee, this hearing should be all the proof you need. GAC’s relationships and their credibility in DC opened the door and our Union's data-driven analysis got Casey a seat at the table which allowed Casey to reach a nationwide audience. This week was proof that having a strong presence on Capitol Hill is critical to getting SWAPA Pilots' message heard by policymakers and the public.

On this bonus edition of the SWAPA Number, we've collected all the Senators' questions and Casey's answers during that hearing.

You can watch the full hearing at https://www.commerce.senate.gov/2023/2/executive-session

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21 min
February 06, 2023 33 (Mike Panebianco, History and Message Moving Forward)
Today's SWAPA number is 33. That's the percentage of pilots who have joined Southwest Airlines since our last contract cycle between 2012 and 2016, which led to our current CBA and ended our last trip through mediation. So on today's show, we're talking to SWAPA's Communications Committee Chair, Mike Panebianco, about SWAPA's message moving forward.
We'll also ask him to share with our newer members some of the history of SWAPA, what he sees as the most important thing our pilot group can do to help achieve Contract 2020, and what we can expect from the communications group as we roll through the next year.
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35 min
January 23, 2023 99 (Casey Murray, Jody Reven, SAV and What's Next)
Today's SWAPA Number is 99. That's the percentage of voting pilots who backed ALPA's strike authorization vote at Delta Airlines back in October. Pilots at Alaska voted in May with the same outcome. Those incredible numbers are the target SWAPA pilots need to aim for in our recently announced strike authorization vote. On today's show we're going to speak with Casey Murray and NC Chair Jody Reven, about how we got here, what an SAV means, and what our pilots can expect in the coming months.
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41 min
January 09, 2023 825 million (Casey Murray, Mike Santoro, Tom Nekouei, Christmas Meltdown)
Today's SWAPA Number is 825 million. That's the negative impact the meltdown will have to our fourth quarter earnings according to an 8-K, the Company filed on January 6th. I don't have to tell you that SWAPA has been super busy communicating with our members over the last couple of weeks. Our reps and our execs have written extensively about the leadership failures, while our committees have been trying to make sure that you get the information you need to help navigate this crisis. And speaking of committees, I want to give a special shout out to Scott Plyler and his SRC team that gave us a great day by day breakdown last week of how and why the scheduling side of the operation failed so badly. So if you hadn't had a chance to watch that video, please, you really, really need to. Like I said, we've been all over the airwaves, including business cable and major news networks trying to get SWAPA's message across to the public. The problem with TV interviews is that they get edited down to just a little bit of a sound bite and a lot of the important parts tend to get left out. So on today's show, my usual SWAPA Number, host Amy Robinson and SWAPA Comm chair Mike Panebianco, sit down with all three execs for a conversation that covers many of the same points you've already heard from SWAPA, but there's a lot more detail and nuance that had been left on the cutting room floor.
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1 hr 4 min
December 26, 2022 3,025 ( Scott King, AMFA)
Amy Robinson:

Today's SWAPA number is 3,025. That's the total number of aircraft mechanics and related professionals at Southwest Airlines, which are represented by the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association. AMFA and SWAPA have worked closely together over the last few years to help one another out during contract negotiations.
So on today's show we spoke with Scott King, National Safety and Standards Director for AMFA about maintenance issues, AMFA's focuses, and how pilots and mechanics can best work together.
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26 min
December 12, 2022 1 in 10 (Tom Stanley, HIMS)
Today’s SWAPA Number is 1 in 10. That’s the estimated number of American’s who have addiction issues. That means that with 10,000 Pilots as many as 1,000 of them might be dealing with some form of addiction. So today we are talking to SWAPA HIMS Chair, Tom Stanley about the upcoming holidays and what you can do to help mitigate risk, and who to call if you believe you need help.
If you have any feedback for us at all, please drop us a line at [email protected] or tap here to send us a text.
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25 min
November 28, 2022 25,000 (Scott Plyler and Dan O'Connor, Scheduling Issues)
Today’s SWAPA number is 25,000. That’s the number of days off our pilots have involuntarily given up since the beginning of the pandemic. On today’s show we decided to talk to SRC Chair Scott Plyler and member Dan O’Connor about this troubling trend as well as getting some other scheduling updates.

We’re recording this show in Austin while the NC is in active negotiations, and Kurt is downstairs in the room and therefore unavailable, so sharing hosting duties with me today is SWAPA SRC Manager Meagan Nelan.

If you have any feedback for us at all, please drop us a line at [email protected] or tap here to send us a text.
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27 min

About The SWAPA Number

From the publisher's feed

In each podcast we explore a number that will help us explain an issue that matters to our Pilots. This might be a scheduling metric, a Company financial number that impacts us, or anything else that…