Word: southwest
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...high morale and good customer service, in large part through careful recruitment and training. The airline received 200,000 resumes last year but hired only 6,000 workers--making it more selective than Harvard. "Attitude is critical; skills are not," says Lorraine Grubbs-West, director at the People Department. (Southwest doesn't use the word employee.) Byron Woods, 22, a customer-service-agent trainee at Southwest, isn't much bothered that he is getting only half the $18 an hour he once made at United. That airline, he says, "trained me for eight hours on how to use the computer...
When the union that represents Southwest's pilots told members to reject the company's contract offer, Southwest pilots rebelled. "The industry--and the economy--is going to hell, and I'm supposed to vote against?" scoffed veteran pilot Tracy Price. "The union was out of touch. I took the raise." Two-thirds of the pilots voted in September to accept management's offer. They voted the union leadership out of office last week, in large part because of its unrealistic stance on wages...
More than other airlines, Southwest compensates its workers in ways other than base pay. It contributes 15% of its pre-tax income to a profit-sharing plan. Immediately after Sept. 11, 2001, Southwest management assured its workers and unions that no one would be laid...
...airline has enjoyed big savings by never having the type of defined-benefit pension plan that is proving so troublesome for other carriers. Pension plans at eight major airlines are underfunded to the tune of $12 billion. Southwest was, however, the first major airline to establish an employee stock-ownership plan without asking for wage concessions...
Still, some workers at Southwest are demanding a raise. The flight attendants' base pay of $23 an hour for a six-year veteran trails the pay at other carriers by as much as $15. They have just started negotiations on a new contract, which union president McDaniel vows will include "industry leading" wages. Entry-level mechanics at Southwest had long been paid slightly less than the industry average--a factor that moved the mechanics union to force the company before a federal mediator. On Oct. 11, the mechanics accepted the company's second contract offer. But one mechanic warned...