The title of this thread raised my curiosity as I have never heard of any ATC walkout affecting only a single specific airline. If the other airlines operated normally or near normally - that day , then it is definitively not an ATC walkout, even less a "massive" one as the first poster of this thread indicated.

Chiefttp

The overwhelming majority of SWA pilots aren’t minorities or women though…

CNBC interview with Gary Kelly:

- cited ATC delays and specifically noted 7-hr ground stop at KMCO on Friday

- highlighted negative impact of SWA’s route structure; i.e., planes/crews out of position

- avoided answering question about SWA labor issues other than denying labor issues had anything to do with recent cancelations

- does not support corporations imposing vaccine mandates but Biden EO forces compliance as a federal contractor

- cited religious/medical exemption as only pathway to avoiding vaccine mandate

A friend of a friend at SWA indicated that something like 1800 flights had to be cancelled and it was due to the pilots taking their annual leave before the deadline of the mandate in November, when they would tender their resignations. Not enough crew to cover the gaps. As to how accurate who knows.

That is one of about 6 things that happened over the weekend.

Pilots were flying extra
 

https://www.npr.org/2021/10/12/10453...t-cancelations

Southwest pilots' union explains flight cancellations : NPR

“So you know, our data is coming in from the weekend, and what we saw, as well as Southwest, was our pilot sick time was right in line with the same sort of meltdown issues during the summer. So that was right where it needs to be. And then our pilot pickup rate, meaning the extra time they're flying, picking up on their off days, was extremely elevated.”

I found this YouTube article by Juan on the Blancolirio channel, very interesting and another side to the situation

A couple days ago, Boeing announced a vaccine mandate in accordance with Pres. Biden's directive that all employee's of any federal contractors must be vaccinated. Compliance date is Dec. 8.
I just went by the Boeing Everett and there is a big protest against the mandate going on (appeared to be mainly Machinists).

1- Southwest is a point-to-point airline. When crews and/or equipment get out of position they are much more prone to cascading failures.
2-Spirit had the same thing happen a couple of months ago, ditto, no vaccine mandate.
3- Lots of “friend-of-a-friend” commentary on here. Only one person I can see who actually flies for SW, and he is saying wtf are you talking about.
4- OTOH, there was that SW pilot with the hot mic incident at SFO, going on about ‘rolling coal’ and ‘the libs’, so…:}

Pilot Carefully Weighs Whether He Would Be Better Off By Getting Vaccine Or By Losing Job And Dying. - The Onion

When push comes to shove very few employees in any company will choose unemployment over a tiny needle.

Unvaccinated Workers Say They’d Rather Quit Than Get a Shot, but Data Suggest Otherwise - The actual number who resign rather than get the vaccine is much smaller than the survey data suggest

For companies that have mandated vaccinations the real amount who leave their jobs willingly or forcibly over vaccine refusal is no more than about 1%.

Whilst there are a lot of loud mouthed “heroes” who proclaim they’ll never be forced to get a vaccine, in reality they chicken out when it’s time to make a decision and choose to get a vaccine and keep their jobs. Delta’s mandatory vaccination policy hasn’t caused any mass resignations, and I can’t see how Southwest will be any different:

Delta Air Says New Covid Policy Is Boosting Worker Vaccinations

Disappointing too see another tread degenerate into polarising politics. I miss the day of nuance. I am quite happy with being an early adopter of the vaccine, however I find no need to ridicule those that did not. Grow up people.

Southwest has ditched their vaccine mandate so the pilot hidden strike has worked.

Think history has made ATCO's cautious about walking out.....