Southwest flight attendants join CEO no-confidence vote

Southwest flight attendants joined pilots and mechanics in calling for the ouster of the discount carrier’s top executives after a computer system failure snarled flights. Leaders of Transport Workers Union Local 556 approved the resolution Tuesday, union President Audrey Stone said in an interview. The airline’s pilots and mechanics unions announced similar votes on Monday calling for the replacement of CEO Gary Kelly and COO Mike Van de Ven. The TWU represents 14,500 Southwest employees. The unions have criticised Kelly for spending billions on stock buybacks instead of plowing the money into updates of the airline’s aging computer system and focusing too much on cost controls. The TWU vote brings the number of full-time, active Southwest employees represented by unions backing the no-confidence statement to more than 24,000, the company said. The carrier has about 52,300 workers. All three of the labor groups are in contract talks with the Dallas-based airline. Kelly and Van de Ven “have failed to recognize and adequately fix the operational failures that continue to plague our airline,” a union statement said. “Our flight attendants, along with other front-line employees, end up bearing the brunt of these failures.” Southwest reiterated a statement issued Monday saying the no-confidence votes were an effort to pressure the airline into meeting demands during contract talks, a spokesman said.<br/>