ABC interviewed Southwest's Gary Kelly on what went wrong with Southwest's recent fiasco of about 2,300 canceled flights in just three days. Southwest was hit hardest and blamed the weather and other external constraints, avoiding any responsibility on their part for the matter. A slap in the face to its customers and its workers. A look at the weather indicated that was unlikely to be the case since the skies were clear nationwide.
He also blamed FAA ground stops in Florida, quarantines, absent employees, and the pandemic in the struggles they've been facing. He told ABC, "Unfortunately, it just takes a couple of days to get things back on track."
Many are attributing the delays to strikes by pilots who are oftentimes veterans and other employees, however, Gary Kelly insists this is not the case. People from within are coming forward to tell a different story though.
Gary Kelly also said, "The vaccine mandate obviously is controversial, and it's not anything that I wish for our company. This is a government mandate, it's a presidential order and we're doing our best to comply with that, according to the deadlines that have been set. We're not going to fire any employees over this. We are urging all of our employees to get vaccinated. If they can't get vaccinated we're urging them to seek accommodation."
Not firing employees doesn't necessarily indicate that the employees will still be working. The employee could still be technically employed but be placed on indefinite leave which can be as devastating as losing one's job in my opinion.
It is unclear if medical and religious exemptions will be honored, although Southwest is accepting the requests. A whistleblower has come forward as reported by the DC Patriot and the article states, "According to the Southwest employee, regardless of what you do, it’s very rare for an exemption to be accepted. They even went as far as to explain to us there’s an online procedure where you have no choice but to check a box giving Southwest Airlines permission to talk to your healthcare provider. A complete and total violation of HIPPA."
This form of over-reach is tyrannical and irrelevant towards somebody's religious or medical exemption and could be considered unlawful. In some states, the extent of somebody's belief can not be attested to in the court of law when making decisions on grounds of freedom of religion. To be required to give full access to your healthcare provider is a huge violation of privacy and one should consult with legal counsel before disclosing protected information.
Despite the recent ban in Texas against all vaccine mandates, Southwest, which is based in Texas still is putting undue pressure on its employees to get vaccinated or, "seek accommodation." This arm-twisting is being demonstrated by big businesses worldwide as workers are being forced out as they make the difficult decision to avoid taking an experimental medicine and refuse to fold or be coerced into doing so by their employers.
US Congressman Paul Gosar pointed out another issue on Twitter:
Will Southwest and other companies be held accountable or will the trend of being above the law be displayed again by the justice system as essential industries begin to collapse?
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