⁍ The union representing Southwest Airlines’ flight attendants rejected management’s call for negotiated pay cuts to avoid furloughs.

---

⁍ The union wants to ensure that no stone has been left unturned, noting that flight attendant concessions may not have a large material impact on Southwest’s daily cash burn.

---

⁍ About 32% of Southwest’s flight attendants have already agreed to voluntary departure or leave packages to help reduce the company’s payroll costs.

---

– Southwest Airlines is asking pilots and flight attendants to take pay cuts as the airline struggles with a multi-billion-dollar revenue shortfall caused by the H1N1 virus, the Wall Street Journal reports. The airline has asked pilots to take a 5% pay cut, and flight attendants to take 10% cuts. But the unions representing pilots and flight attendants are balking at the cuts, saying they won’t make them until the airline gets $25 billion in federal aid to prevent layoffs and furloughs over the next few years, Reuters reports. The Journal notes that Southwest is the only major US airline to have asked pilots to take a pay cut. The airline is burning through millions of dollars every day as demand hovers around 30% of 2019 levels. The union representing Southwest’s pilots said on Tuesday it had tentatively agreed to meet and discuss cost savings if a second COVID-19 relief package does not pass in Washington. But TWU Local 556 President Lyn Montgomery said that before ‘cracking open the contracts that took us decades to obtain,’ the union wants to ensure that no stone has been left unturned, noting that flight attendant concessions may not have a large material impact on Southwest’s daily cash burn. About 32% of Southwest’s flight attendants have already agreed to voluntary departure or leave packages to help reduce the company’s payroll costs. The union representing Southwest’s pilots said on Tuesday it had tentatively agreed to meet and discuss cost savings if a second COVID-19 relief package does not pass in Washington.