Federal Court Says Southwest Airlines Must Face Lawsuit From Pilots’ Union

The lawsuit alleged that the airline disciplined these employees as they became a part of the union which includes over 9,000 pilots

A federal court in the US on Monday ruled that Southwest Airlines must face a lawsuit that accused the carrier of illegally intimidating pilots who participated in the pilots union. The lawsuit alleged that the airline disciplined these employees as they became a part of the union which includes over 9,000 pilots.

Reuters reported that the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals in a 3-0 decision ruled that the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association pleaded that the Dallas-based airline had ‘anti-union animus’ to allow the conflict to proceed in federal court.

A lower court judge earlier ruled the dispute as minor and said it belonged in arbitration. The case began after Southwest decided to remove Timothy Roebling from his position as a ‘check pilot’, a special group of about 300 pilots who work closely with management and are involved in training other pilots.

Southwest stated that Roebling used a vulgarity and said this justified the disciplinary action taken against him, however, the union claimed that this stemmed from his decision to participate in the union’s check pilot committee.

In the New Orleans-based appeals court panel, Chief Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod agreed with the earlier ruling that this was a minor dispute under the federal Railway Labor Act. However, she noted that these allegations against Southwest that it intimidated check pilots for associating with the union and Roebling’s boss threatened to strip him of his qualifications made the case different. 

The judget wrote that these allegations ‘sufficiently support the union’s claim that Southwest intended to weaken or destroy the operational capacity of the union’. Issuing a statement, Southwest said that it didn’t agreed with the court’s decision and noted, “We are evaluating our options”.