Hundreds More Southwest Flights Canceled Monday After Brutal Weekend as Pilots Fight Covid Vax Mandate

Hundreds more Southwest flights were canceled Monday morning after a brutal weekend of service disruptions as pilots fight the Covid vaccine mandate.

Nearly 2,000 Southwest flights were canceled over the weekend and the cancelations continued into Monday morning.

Southwest Airlines canceled hundreds more flights Monday following a weekend of major service disruptions. Have you, or anyone you know, been affected by Southwest Airlines' flight cancellations? https://t.co/1GjCbTI67W

— KATV News (@KATVNews) October 11, 2021

By Monday morning 365 Southwest flights were canceled and more than 600 were delayed.

Thousands of angry passengers were stranded due to the cancelations and Southwest went into damage control mode.

Southwest claimed the flights were canceled due to bad weather in Florida and air traffic control issues although their competitors in the region have reported far less cancelations.

Employees are on strike over the Covid vaccine mandate and the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association is fighting the tyranny in court.

Bloomberg reported:

Southwest Airlines Co. pilots asked a court to temporarily block the company from carrying out federally mandated coronavirus vaccinations until an existing lawsuit over alleged U.S. labor law violations is resolved.

The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association’s filing Friday also asked for an immediate hearing on the request before a federal court in Dallas, claiming the carrier has continued to take unilateral actions that violate terms of the Railway Labor Act, which governs airline-union relations. Those steps include the Covid-19 vaccination requirement.

“The new vaccine mandate unlawfully imposes new conditions of employment and the new policy threatens termination of any pilot not fully vaccinated by December 8, 2021,” the legal filing said. “Southwest Airlines’ additional new and unilateral modification of the parties’ collective bargaining agreement is in clear violation of the RLA.”

Southwest set the deadline on Oct. 4 under a federal vaccination mandate for employees of companies holding contracts with the U.S. government. Workers can seek medical or religious exemptions. The union represents 9,000 Southwest pilots.