Southwest Chairman Gary Kelly’s current actions show maybe he doesn’t really care so much about Southwest’s reputation after all.
In the first paragraph in his bio at Southwest Airlines, Chairman of the Board Gary Kelly mentions how the airline he leads is successful, in part because it is one of the most admired companies in the world.
Gary Kelly serves as the Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at Southwest Airlines. Under Gary’s leadership, Southwest has grown to become the nation’s largest airline in terms of originating domestic passengers carried and is a mainstay on Fortune magazine’s list of the most admired companies in the world, ranking 14th in 2021.
But lately, Kelly’s actions show that maybe he doesn’t care about Southwest’s reputation after all. Kelly mandated that all his employees get the COVID-19 vaccine as a matter of employment. Clearly, this was not a popular move amongst his employees, which someone who leads a most admired company would consider.
Then when Governor Abbott of Texas banned any mandate for Texas companies, Chairman Kelly decided not to comply with the order and as a result, ignore his employee’s concerns.
Chairman Kelly appears to have decided to comply with Biden’s Executive Order requiring vaccines of government employees. Biden’s other Executive Order for companies with over 100 employees doesn’t state that vaccines are mandatory. This Order states the following:
Section 1. Policy. This order promotes economy and efficiency in Federal procurement by ensuring that the parties that contract with the Federal Government provide adequate COVID-19 safeguards to their workers performing on or in connection with a Federal Government contract or contract-like instrument as described in section 5(a) of this order. These safeguards will decrease the spread of COVID-19, which will decrease worker absence, reduce labor costs, and improve the efficiency of contractors and subcontractors at sites where they are performing work for the Federal Government. Accordingly, ensuring that Federal contractors and subcontractors are adequately protected from COVID-19 will bolster economy and efficiency in Federal procurement.
[and this:]
(d) Nothing in this order shall excuse noncompliance with any applicable State law or municipal ordinance establishing more protective safety protocols than those established under this order or with any more protective Federal law, regulation, or agency instructions for contractor or subcontractor employees working at a Federal building or a federally controlled workplace.
We recently received a communication from a Southwest Airlines’ employee who believes Kelly doesn’t care about his employees’ concerns.
The only thing that Gary Kelly changed was if employee applications were not decided on by the Nov 24th date they we are still able to work and get paid until it is decided on. Before, it was going to be leave without pay until it was decided on.
Notice how quiet Gary Kelly is? You and other outlets are making him very happy by making him look reasonable and sympathetic to his employees when the exact opposite is true! There is a saying at SWA,..NEVER MAKE THE NEWS. Why? Because it probably is not good news.
He wont even tell us exactly how many people out of the 60,000 employees are not vaccinated so it must be alot. The strategy he is putting in place IS to make us think he will not fire us in the mean time we are told everyday:
“Hey everyone, we are getting ready to hire 5,000 more people,..give us your best recommendations, friends and family to apply!!! Yeah,..to replace ME.
He rubs our face in it! No,..he is NOT a good guy! Please stop making him look like a hero.
