Southwest Airlines has been rocked by on-the-ground turbulence after canceling more than 2,000 flights since Friday, Oct. 8. Many passengers were left stranded, and videos circulated the internet of passengers who grew outraged with how the airline chose to handle the situation and the way, or lack thereof, they accommodated their delayed passengers. Southwest Airlines and the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association have since denied the swirling rumor that there was a “sick-out” performed by airline employees as their way to strike against the COVID-19 vaccine mandate. However, the coincidental timing of events makes it almost effortless to question what is really going on behind closed doors-especially when no other airline seemed to have a major disruption due to weather.

Timeline of events leading up to the Southwest calamity:

Although this media platform primarily focuses on biomedical and health research during COVID times the topics we address expand to follow the pandemic’s social, economic, and political fallout. TrialSite provides a chronology of events to help the reader better understand the situation”

Sept. 9 

President Joe Biden addresses the nation saying, ”We’ve been patient but our patience is wearing thin and your refusal has cost all of us.” He then issues several executive orders such as Executive Order 14042 for federal contractors and Executive Order 14043 for federal employees. Biden announced that the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) would be issuing an emergency rule that requires all private-sector employers with 100 or more employees to require their employees to get vaccinated for COVID-19 or submit to weekly COVID-19 testing. If a covered employer fails to comply with emergency rules, it could result in enforcement action and fines from OSHA. Take note that there is no mentioning of private-sector employers with over 100 employees in Executive Order 14042 or Executive Order 14043, OSHA is who Biden wants to enforce this. As of Oct. 12, OSHA has not yet released such action to enforce an ETS. An ETS measure has only been declared 10 times in their 50-year history and courts have thrown out or halted four and partially blocked one. The last ETS was issued by OSHA in June 2020 on healthcare workplace rules to slow the spread of COVID-19, but before that, the last ETS issued by OSHA was 38 years ago. David Michaels, who ran OSHA for seven years said that OSHA can “impose heavy fines, publicize to workers that they can complain if their employer is not complying, and they can do spot inspections,” told by NBC News.

Oct. 4 

Southwest Airlines announces that all 56,000 employees need to get vaccinated by Nov. 24 or face termination.

Oct. 8

The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association makes a filing with the courts and requests an immediate hearing before a federal court in Dallas, claiming that Southwest Airlines has continued to violate terms of the Railway Labor Act, which makes rulings over airline-union relations, and that includes a COVID-19 vaccine requirement. “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, told by Bloomberg. “Southwest Airlines’ additional new and unilateral modification of the parties’ collective bargaining agreement is in clear violation of the RLA.”

Oct. 9  

Southwest cancels 808 flights (24% of their flight schedule) and delays 1,154 flights (35% of their flight schedule).

Southwest announces on Twitter that, “ATC issues and disruptive weather have resulted in a high volume of cancellations throughout the weekend while we work to recover our operation.”

Oct. 10 

Southwest cancels 1,007 flights (27% of their flight schedule) and delays 120 flights (3% of their flight schedule)
FAA announces on Twitter that there have been no FAA air traffic staffing shortages reported since Friday, contradicting Southwest Airlines’ initial statement that placed partial blame on air traffic control staffing shortages.

Oct. 11  

Southwest cancels 435 flights (12% of their flight schedule) and delays 1,558 flights (43% of their flight schedule).
Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) issues an executive order issuing a ban on vaccine mandates for private businesses with over 100 employees. Southwest is based in Dallas, Texas.

Oct. 12 

Southwest cancels 93 flights (2% of their flight schedule) and delays 1060 flights (31% of their flight schedule) as of late evening.
Southwest issues a written statement that the president’s executive order “supersedes any state mandate or law,” and that they are required to adhere to it despite Abbott’s action “to remain compliant as a federal contractor.” As a reminder, there was no such issuance of this in the President’s executive orders from Sept. 9. He placed this on OSHA’s shoulders.
President of Southwest Airlines Pilot Association Capt. Casey Murray is interviewed on CBS News and denied that the weekend disruption was caused by vaccine mandate or pilots calling out. Capt. Murray blames it “Squarely on Southwest, I point to how they manage the network and how their I.T. also supports that network,” Capt. Murray said. “Once a little hiccup occurs due to the internal processes, our pilots aren’t getting to where they need to be. We’ve been sounding this alarm for about four years and have seen very little approach to correcting it.”
Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly is interviewed on ABC News: Good Morning America and backtracks on several previous statements, admitting that there were no air traffic control shortages and that no employees will be terminated from the vaccine mandate.

Airline employees dish out the truth on social media

Although airline and union leaders have denied the claims of a sick-out, many airline employees have taken to social media claiming the exact opposite.

“Pilots are using their sick time before they are terminated on Nov. 24 due to the (vaccine) mandate,” said a Facebook post.

“I work for TSA and was briefed this morning that our southwests delays were from ‘staffing issues,'” said TikTok user aquarissssun.

“A lot of misinformation in comments. I’m ATC. We didn’t walk out. SWA does have a lot of pilots taking sick leave for mandates though. News won’t share,” said TikTok user shelbysmith0317.

American Political Columnist Benny Johnson shared on Twitter a picture of an alleged Southwest Airplane with a Gadsen flag with the words “Don’t tread on me” hanging out the window of the cockpit. The Gadsen flag was named after Christopher Gadsen, the man who designed the flag in 1775 during the American Revolution.

“This photo was just sent to me of a grounded Southwest plane flying a Gadsden flag out of the cockpit,” Johnson’s Tweet said. “The Hero Pilots at Southwest and other Airlines deserve our support. True patriots worthy of the American Freedom Fighter tradition. Don’t Tread On Me. God Bless Them.”

Can Southwest Save Face?

For an airline that has taken years to build an outstanding reputation, it’s mind-boggling to see it be tarnished so quickly and what seems like overnight. The Dallas-based airline has been long read about in graduate-level textbooks as a golden example of servant leadership, a style of leadership that can be carried out by the leader serving the employee and unlocking their sense of purpose instead of issuing orders. This has been proven effective in several studies and businesses who leveraged this leadership style saw their performance skyrocket. 

“Southwest treats its employees well by backing the decisions of individual employees as well as providing everyone with quality benefits,” business.com reported. “For example, the company offers a 401(k) plan and match contributions dollar for dollar up to 9.3% of the employee’s eligible earnings. They also offer a Profits Sharing plan and Employee Stock Purchase plan, as well as health and wellbeing rewards and quality medical, vision and dental coverage.”

Kelly even contributed an article titled Why leadership is only ever about people to the World Economic Forum in 2015 and spoke of the characteristic traits of a good leader. 

“I think it goes without saying, leaders must have courage,” Kelly wrote in the article. “It’s very hard to be a leader. It’s a lot easier to be a follower. It’s a lot easier to let someone else own the problem or make the decision. It’s a lot harder to stand up, speak up and be accountable.”

Has Kelly apologized for the catastrophic events? Absolutely, but anytime you use a “but” in the sentence, it negates whatever was said before it, and although the President likely added fuel to Southwest’s weekend failure, Kelly isn’t holding himself accountable when apologizing then deflecting and shifting the blame onto the president. If there is really more behind this Southwest story, Kelly should take his own advice and not let someone else own the problem. It just might be the only way to save himself from this meltdown.

After all, the truth doesn’t cost anything but a lie could cost him everything. 