DALLAS (AP) — Southwest Airlines Co. is suing a major union and its leaders, charging that they did nothing to stop mechanics from boycotting overtime assignments.
Dallas-based Southwest, the nation’s fourth-biggest airline, says it relies on mechanics’ working consistent overtime hours to keep up with maintenance work, and that a boycott has driven up costs by forcing it to bring in outside workers.
The lawsuit comes as the airline and the union remain locked in contract negotiations that have dragged on for more than four years despite the help of a federal labor mediator.
Southwest said in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Dallas that the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association and eight union officers failed to prevent workers from banding together to decline overtime work this month. The company said there was a 75 percent drop in union workers’ signing up for overtime shifts last weekend.