'They Are Just Mocking Pete Buttigieg': Southwest Promotes Executives After Historic Meltdown

[cbabe]

https://www.commondreams.org/news/southwest-promotes-executives

'They Are Just Mocking Pete Buttigieg': Southwest Promotes Executives After Historic Meltdown

"That's the behavior of a company with no intention of changing course from management decisions that seek to enrich shareholders while leaving consumers holding the bag."

JAKE JOHNSON
Jan 11, 2023

After canceling nearly 17,000 flights around the Christmas holiday—the worst customer service meltdown in the history of the U.S. airline industry—Southwest announced this week that it is promoting several of its executives, a move that watchdogs decried as a slap in the face of the travelers impacted by the company's incompetence and greed.

In a press release, Southwest said it is elevating five executives across different departments at the company, including network operations control and communications. The announcement came just over a week after the Southwest pilots' union published a scathing letter calling the corporation's management a "headquarters-centric cult" that has "eroded our company from within."

While Southwest said the new leadership changes "represent phase two of the organizational structure work that began in September 2022," critics argued the decision to go ahead with the promotions following the holiday debacle shows a total disregard for customers and U.S. regulators, who have been accused of doing far too little to crack down on industry abuses.

"Southwest thought its executives deserved a promotion after leaving thousands of its consumers in the lurch in the middle of peak holiday season travel," Liz Zelnick, director of the Economic Security and Corporate Power program at Accountable.US, said in a statement Tuesday. "That's the behavior of a company with no intention of changing course from management decisions that seek to enrich shareholders while leaving consumers holding the bag. We hope that Congress investigates their failures and holds their executives accountable."

…more…

[Jim__]

1. Only consumers who choose to fly Southwest are left holding the bag.

Consumers can make Southwest pay a severe penalty. I hope they do.

[MiniMe]

4. Only if they have gotten their bags back

[TheRealNorth]

2. Why are there some people promoting the idea that it somehow is Pete Buttigieg's fault....

For a private business's fuck-up.

Sounds like some people are scared of Pete Buttigieg and are looking for anything that they can use to fling poo.

[multigraincracker]

3. Southwest Airlines Spent $5.6 Billion on Shareholder Gifts in Years Ahead of Mass Cancellation Crisi

https://www.commondreams.org/news/southwest-airlines-shareholder-gifts


"Southwest Airlines made a risky gamble that mass layoffs and spending billions of dollars on handouts to investors rather than fixing infrastructure would pay off with record profits," said one watchdog. "The airline lost that bet badly.”

"Southwest Airlines made a risky gamble that mass layoffs and spending billions of dollars on handouts to investors rather than fixing infrastructure would pay off with record profits," said one watchdog. "The airline lost that bet badly.”
"Southwest Airlines made a risky gamble that mass layoffs and spending billions of dollars on handouts to investors rather than fixing infrastructure would pay off with record profits," Kyle Herrig, the president of Accountable.US, said in a statement. "The airline lost that bet badly and now it's their customers left paying the price including the thousands stranded in the middle of holiday season travel."

Need to tax stock buy backs at 100%..

[Maraya1969]

5. "Mass layoffs" and "Handouts" does not record profits.

It sounds so stupid. Maybe they were just trying to line their own packets.

[multigraincracker]

6. Almost all of CEO compensation comes in

stocks shares. The ones that came up with all of those buy backs.

Now it looks like Apple has done the same thing and I look for bad news about their products.

[TheRealNorth]

7. That's because capital gains gets taxed at a lower rate than income tax....

Something that we should have fixed long ago.