The SWAPA Number

Today’s SWAPA Number is 3 billion. That’s Southwest Airlines’ net cash position today. Despite the unprecedented damage the pandemic has done to our economy and industry, our airline still has more cash on hand than we have debt. We are fortunate to work for an extraordinarily strong company. 

Last week, the Company announced fourth quarter and full year earnings, so today on the show, we’re going to ask EFA and NC member Damian Jennette to give us a rundown of Southwest’s financials, tell us know how our competitors around the industry did in comparison, and offer a little color from the earnings conference call with Wall Street.

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Today’s SWAPA number is 4. That is the number of new BOD members elected for 2021. On the show today, we talked to each of them about their background, what drove them to run for office, and what they hope to accomplish in their time on the BOD. 

While we did the same podcast last year, we feel it is important that the membership get the chance to hear from the people who represent them, learn a little bit about those they have elected,  And, hopefully, encourage a few more people to get involved next time around.

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Today’s SWAPA number is 9,144. That’s the number of SWAPA Pilots on the Master Seniority List that new SWAPA president Casey Murray was elected to represent. It’s a difficult job in the best of circumstances, but during these tumultuous times, Casey and his team have their work cut out for them. 

Today on the show, we asked Casey to give us his thoughts on where SWAPA has been, where it is now, and where we’re going in 2021 and beyond. 

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Today’s SWAPA number is 10. According to the CDC’s latest guidance, that’s how many days are needed to quarantine after a COVID exposure. Since this new change has some very real effects on our Pilots, we decided to bring back SWAPA Vice President Mike Santoro to give us an update on what to expect if you have been exposed, how you might expect to be contacted, and how the process moves forward.

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Today on the show we are going to talk to NC Member Jody Reven about what WARN Notices mean to our Pilots and what they can expect from SWAPA in the coming weeks. 

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Today's SWAPA Number is 6,433. That's the number of pilots who subscribed to SWAPA's Line Tuner service. It's just one of the many tools and reports our SRC offers to the membership. 

On today's episode, we talked to SRC chair Scott Plyler, committee member Dan O'Connor and staff analyst Meagan Nelan about the different products their committee puts out every month to help our pilots improve their productivity, increase their pay and build a schedule that's best for their own personal quality of life.

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Today’s SWAPA Number is 943,971 that’s the increase in passenger counts at TSA checkpoints since the lowest point in April of 2020. While passenger counts are still well below average, it definitely shows that the demand for travel is increasing. 

On today’s episode, we talked to Economic Financial Analysis & Industry Research Committee Chair Erich Schnitzler and member Greg Auld about that increase in demand as well as SWA’s 3rd quarter financial earnings and the impacts it has on our negotiations.


Get the show notes at swapa.org/news/podcast.

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The month of November is open enrollment for SWA’s medical benefits and it also happens to be when the window is open for the Non-qualified plans. 

In this episode we spoke with SWAPA’s Benefits Chair Brent Weisner about SWA’s medical plans and what changes our Pilots can expect. 

And in the second half we talked with SWAPA’s Director of Retirement, Mike Haynes about the non-qual plan window and got a primer on all of the plans and how they work together. 

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Today's SWAPA Number is 23. That's the number of days the Company has decided all labor groups have to negotiate a 10% pay concession or face the threat of furloughs. On October 8th, VP of Labor Relations, Russell McCrady, issued a memo to all union members setting a November 1st deadline to complete negotiations. In the same letter and repeated again during a Company town hall event last week, Labor Relations claim that Southwest unions, including SWAPA, have had more then six months to prepare. Today on the show we're going to cover some highlights from our NC's virtual meeting held on October 15th so you can hear directly from our negotiators and see that 23 days really is the window we've been given and what SWAPA's response to it is.

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Today’s SWAPA Number is 15. As in 15D: The section of our CBA that deals with investigations and discipline. Unfortunately, there has been a noticeable uptick in the number of 15D meetings over the last year or so and today we are going to talk to some SWAPA SME’s who have to deal with these types of things on a regular basis. We sat down with DAL rep Matt Wright, MDW rep Laurin Toriello, and SWAPA attorney Stella Dulanya to talk with us about what types of discipline cases they are seeing, how to keep out of the Chief Pilots Office, and what to do should you find yourself in that situation.

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