Southwest Airlines Union argued for modernization of scheduling systems.

[usonian]

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/31/opinion/southwest-airlines-computers.html
If you have problems, https://archive.ph/5vXIZ
Southwest's Meltdown Was Avoidable, but It Would've Cost 'Em (NYT)

I found this part to be interesting. The union urged that the system be fixed.
Emphasis mine.

Lyn Montgomery, president of Southwest’s flight attendants’ union, told me that currently, when hiccups or weather events happen, the employees have to go through a burdensome, arduous process to get things sorted, because Southwest hadn’t sufficiently modernized its crew scheduling systems. For example, if a crew from Buffalo doesn’t arrive in Baltimore because their flight was canceled, the employees have had to manually call in to let the company know where they actually are, and get hotels arranged for them.

Lyn told me that employees had sent in screenshots that showed their being left on hold on the phone for three, six, seven, eight, 12 hours, and even one of 17 hours, just to let the company know their whereabouts and get hotel rooms arranged.

And why can’t the crews simply notify the company of their actual whereabouts via an app or a website, and even get their hotel assignments that way? John Brant, vice president for product strategy at Arcos, a company that sells work force management software to airlines and other companies, told me that that’s how it works for many other airlines. But that’s yet another layer of software that has to be written and integrated into whatever software the airline uses for scheduling personnel.

Throughout the past year, the flight attendants’ union picketed in front of various airports as part of their contract negotiations. One protest sign they carried? A placard declaring, “Another Victim of SWA’s Outdated Technology,” with a graphic showing a stuck software progress bar. A few months ago, in September, they put the same sign lamenting the company’s outdated technology on the side of a truck and drove it in circles around Love Field (Southwest’s core airport) in Dallas as well as the nearby Southwest headquarters. In March, in its open letter (PDF FILE) to the company, the union even placed updating the creaking scheduling technology above its demands for increased pay.

Snipped from the open letter:


Says management:

[Timewas]

1. Yes

They went from a good airline and one of the few actually making a profit with reasonably happy staff to the underdog and major loser.
All based on greed...

[crickets]

2. K&R for visibility.

[FlyingPiggy]

3. They seem to have gone downhill for some time.

I used to fly them years ago but I haven’t for the past 5-7 yrs for one reason or another (most likely being they weren’t the most competitive). But after this fiasco, I will actively stay away. I’m really getting turned off by businesses that are so blinded by their profits, they can’t be bothered to put money into their company or product. No thanks. I’ll take my $ elsewhere.