DEVELOPING: Southwest Employees Will Protest COVID Vaccination Mandate on Monday?

Will Southwest’s troubles get worse next week?

Jack Posobiec — a One America News Network (OANN) personality — tweeted Tuesday night that a Southwest employee allegedly gave him this information:

LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD

Please join your Southwest Cohearts, vaccinated or not, in exercising your first amendment right to a peaceful protest of the recent COVID-19 vaccination mandate {sic, bold theirs)

MONDAY
OCT 18
8:30 AM

All who believe in medical freedom are welcome to gather outside Southwest Airlines Headquarters entrance at the intersection of Denton drive and Love Field drive.

Please invite others and bring signs stating:
“Terminate the mandate”
“Freedom not force”
“No jabs for jobs”

Just got passed this flyer from a Southwest employee #FreedomFlu pic.twitter.com/Q5gXGhxoma

— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) October 13, 2021

But is this protest a way to raise attention for other issues (some) Southwest employees apparently have? Was the information from someone actually affiliated with Southwest employees? Is this protest even legit?

Or is there more to the story? The Wall Street Journal writes:

The [Southwest Airlines Pilots Association] raised alarms over the summer that pilots were being stretched thin by frequent reassignments that have led to longer workdays and extended trips. Without changes, problems like this weekend’s could crop up again, union president Capt. Casey Murray said in an interview Monday.

“We’re going to see it next weekend or the holidays or whenever a thunderstorm pops up in Mexico,” he said.

Yikes. So the Southwest pilot’s union is basically saying (as I interpret it) that until its concerns are remedied, excessive flight cancellations and delays won’t go away. (After all, weekends pop up every five days.) Consider, too, that Southwest’s most recent problems took place on a holiday weekend: Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

That’s nothing compared to the havoc that could happen around Thanksgiving. Or Christmas. (Or an upcoming “holiday” falling on a weekend: Halloween.)

As someone who flies Southwest several times a year, I’m a little spooked about the weather. Will thunderstorms in Mexico mess up my flight from Minneapolis to Chicago Midway? (I guess it could depend on the aircraft’s schedule that day, but…)

Staffing problems, and the added burden for workers that companies do have, are an increasingly common challenge across industries from restaurants to manufacturing and healthcare. Asking workers to stay late and pick up extra shifts risks staff burnout and resignations, companies have said.

In interviews, some Southwest pilots have said the constant prospect of being rerouted and uncertainty about the length of their trips could be contributing to pilots’ reluctance to pick up extra flights. The union said Monday evening that pilots did cover the majority of the trips that were left open due to staffing issues over the weekend.

It seems protesting COVID vaccine mandates is all the rage these days. Are Southwest pilots using COVID vaccinations as some trojan horse for negotiations with the airline of love? Has the COVID vaccine turned into some bargaining chip for airline employees?

Story developing…