Coronavirus: Thread

[grarpamp]

Southwest Pilots Union Sues To Block Airline's Vaccination Mandate

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-09/southwest-air-pilots-seek-to-block-covid-vaccination-mandate

In what appears to be one of the first cases of a union pushing back
against the new COVID vaccination requirements handed down by the
Biden Administration, a union representing pilots at Southwest
Airlines is suing to stop the vaccine requirement from being forced
until a lawsuit is resolved.

Bloomberg reports that the union representing Southwest's pilots has
asked a court to grant a temporary stay against the federal
vaccination rules until an ongoing lawsuit over what they allege are
violations of US labor laws is resolved.

In a court filing on Friday, the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association
also asked for an immediate hearing on the request before a federal
court in Dallas, claiming the carrier has continued to take unilateral
actions that violate terms of the Railway Labor Act, which governs
relations between airlines and employee unions. The "unilateral
action" in question is the company's attempt (at the Biden
Administration's direction) to force workers to either get the jab, or
be fired or sent on unpaid leave, Bloomberg reports.

    "The new vaccine mandate unlawfully imposes new conditions of
employment and the new policy threatens termination of any pilot not
fully vaccinated by December 8, 2021," the legal filing said.
"Southwest Airlines’ additional new and unilateral modification of the
parties’ collective bargaining agreement is in clear violation of the
RLA."

According to the guidelines set out by President Biden (and
"voluntarily" embraced by most of the major airlines), Southwest has a
deadline of Oct. 4 under the federal mandate for employees to get
jabbed or have an approved medical or religious exemption. SW is
affected by the mandate because it has contracts with the federal
government (like many large businesses).

The union represents 9,000 pilots at the airline, and a strike could
easily disrupt American air travel (remember the air traffic
controllers strike in the 1980s?)

For whatever reason, the airline isn't backing down, insisting that
the vaccination mandate (which airline CEOs have gone on TV to defend)
isn't an issue subject to labor-management negotiation, and that
anybody who refuses the jab without an exemption will be fired.

“The airline disagrees with SWAPA’s claims that any Covid-related
changes over the past several months require negotiation,” Southwest
said in an emailed statement. The carrier is committed to working with
its unions “as we continue navigating the challenges presented by the
ongoing pandemic.”

Unfortunately for the Southwest, the vaccine mandate isn't the only
COVID-related policy that the pilots have taken issue with.

    Other policies the union seeks to block include Southwest’s Covid
quarantine rules for pilots and an infectious disease control policy
that it says significantly altered work conditions, rules and rates of
pay, until the two sides negotiate a resolution to alleged contract
violations outlined in its original Aug. 30 lawsuit. The changes
violate a “status quo” provision of the RLA by not maintaining terms
of an existing contract during negotiations, the lawsuit claimed.

Pilots are also uniquely at risk because (as a growing number of
Nordic countries impose new restrictions on mRNA vaccines, and amid
skepticism about whether vaccines are really worth it for the young
and healthy) an adverse reaction to the vaccine could cost them their
pilots' license.

    Pilots are at a unique risk because adverse reactions to a vaccine
could affect their ability to pass periodic medical examinations
required to maintain their license. The union wants to negotiate,
among other things, how such instances would be covered by long-term
disability policies.

Understandably, before agreeing to all these restrictions, the union
wants to make sure any pilot affected in this manner receive
disability.