BA Boeing Co

By Susan Carey 

The union that represents more than 8,000 Southwest Airlines Co. pilots sued the airline Monday in federal court in Dallas, alleging that its plan to introduce a new aircraft type into its fleet next year would be illegal unless the parties first negotiate rates of pay, pilot bidding and flying hours for the new Boeing Co. 737 jetliners.

The Southwest Airlines Pilots' Association has been in contract talks with the Dallas-based discount carrier since March 2012 on a labor agreement to succeed one that opened for renewal that year. The two sides entered federal mediation in late 2014, and the pilots voted against a tentative deal last November. Since then, the typically cooperative union has picketed outside the airline's headquarters and in Las Vegas, and is planning to rally outside Southwest's annual meeting Wednesday in Chicago.

The union maintains that its contract or any side letters agreed to between it and Southwest must be in place to facilitate the flying of a new aircraft type by the pilots. Southwest is the launch customer of Boeing's new 737-800 MAX plane, which has a more efficient engine than the regular 737-800s already in the fleet. The new aircraft are supposed to start arriving in March.

The union said Southwest intends to put the new plane into service before an agreement with the pilots that would spell out the operating rules and that Southwest now says there is no need to negotiate the terms of work beforehand.

Southwest said it is aware of the lawsuit and thinks it is unnecessary and premature, a spokeswoman said. The company won't operate the new planes until sometime in 2017, "making any disagreement between Southwest and Swapa theoretical at this point," particularly because the parties are in contract negotiations and could resolve any items regarding the new planes through that process before the aircraft enters service.

If a new contract isn't reached by then, she said, the company thinks it has the right to fly the aircraft under the current contract. She said that if the union disagrees, it must use the grievance-arbitration process, not initiate legal action.

Separately, the union won a lawsuit on Saturday in federal court in Chicago when a judge ordered the city of Chicago to allow the union to post advertisements at the city's Midway Airport protesting the union's lack of a new contract. The ad shows a pilot holding a sign that reads: "Shareholder returns: $3.1 billion. Pilot Raises: $0." Midway is one of Southwest's busiest airports.

The Southwest spokeswoman said the company doesn't have a position on the billboard issue between the union and the city of Chicago.

Write to Susan Carey at susan.carey@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 16, 2016 16:54 ET (20:54 GMT)

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