San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Honoring Herb — and sending a message
Herb Kelleher is still a beloved presence at Southwest Airlines, two years after his death.
The flight attendants on my Southwest flight from Orlando, Fla., to Austin on Jan. 3 all wore a simple button with a face on it that I didn’t recognize immediately.
When I asked one attendant about the pin, she smiled.
“It’s Herb Kelleher, our founder,” she explained.
Co-founder, technically.
The buttons recalled a simpler time at the airline, when Southwest Airlines was making big profits and employees were secure in their jobs and part of a large, happy family.
The airline has been no-frills since its first flight in 1971. No real food — other than snack bags — and no first-class section or airport lounges.
What made the airline stand out were its employees. Flight attendants were always friendly, telling jokes. They seemed to be having a good time. Unlike almost every other major airline in the world, Southwest had never laid off employees.
Then COVID-19 hit, and the airline is losing money for the first time. Chairman and CEO Gary Kelly shook employee morale last year with a threat of furloughs unless employees took a 10 percent pay cut.
Southwest is still no-frills, but the employees aren’t joking so much anymore. Some flight attendants even seem a little cranky.
Remembering the spirit Kelleher brought to Southwest may be a good thing for the airline.
My flight came two years to the date of Kelleher’s death at the age of 87 on Jan. 3, 2019. Kelleher, who served as CEO and president of Southwest for 20 years, stepped down as company chairman more than a decade ago.
Yet he remained active as chairman emeritus, keeping an office at Southwest headquarters in Dallas and making appearances at company reward dinners.
And employees still loved him. The flight attendant said simply, “Herb was someone very special.”
He was known for his antics, a rarity among CEOs. He dressed up as Elvis Presley and once settled a business dispute with a public arm-wrestling contest.
But what endeared him to employees went beyond his colorful character.
When Kelleher, a San Antonio lawyer, helped start Southwest, he put employees first, customers second and shareholders third. If employees were treated right, they’d pass on good feelings to customers, he said, and happy customers led to the profits that investors were looking for.
My flight attendant said Kelleher’s commitment to employees deserved to be remembered. I
couldn’t help wondering aloud whether the buttons, while honoring Kelleher, were also symbolic of workers’ feelings toward the current management.
The flight attendant said she had no ill feeling toward Kelly. He is a businessman, helping Southwest navigate troubled times during a pandemic. But he isn’t Herb, the people person, she noted.
Kelleher was certainly a businessman, too, and a billionaire at that. Southwest made him rich. And it was easy to avoid layoffs, since the low-cost, low-fare airline that Kelleher pioneered was so profitable.
After my flight, I sought out
Lyn Montgomery, president of Transport Workers Union Local 556, Southwest flight attendants’ Dallas-based chapter. She’s been a flight attendant for 27 years.
She confirmed the buttons worn by many of Southwest’s flight attendants had the dual purpose of honoring Kelleher while expressing frustration at current management, including Kelly.
“People feel the culture is
slipping away,” she said.
The threat of layoffs only aggravated the situation, she said.
Kelly has rescinded the threat, thanks to the federal government. Congress passed a federal stimulus act in late December that will give Southwest a portion of the
$15 billion in new airline grants as long as the carrier keeps employees on the payroll until March 31.
Top executives of United Airlines have already told thousands of laid-off employees who have been recalled because of the stimulus they most likely will be out of work again in April.
But Kelly announced there would be no furloughs or pay cuts in 2021 because of the aid.
You might think Southwest employees would be pleased their positions appear to be safe for now.
They are. But they are still upset that Kelly threatened their jobs if they didn’t agree to wage concessions, particularly because Southwest is in the best financial shape among major U.S. airlines.
Southwest had $15 billion in cash on hand, more than any other airline, as revenue collapsed
during the pandemic. Analysts say the airline could pay off its $13 billion debt and still have $2 billion left over.
Southwest spokesman Chris Mainz said Kelly “has been as open, honest and transparent as any leader could possibly be managing through this crisis.”
Kelly worked with and for Kelleher for more than three decades — probably more than any other person at the airline. “He has fully embraced Herb’s love for our people and has put them first in every decision he has made since becoming CEO,” Mainz said.
That may be, but Montgomery said she will be fighting to get back to the days when it was more apparent that Southwest employees were part of one big, happy team.
Kelly has been CEO since
2004. Perhaps someday Southwest flight attendants will think of him fondly.
But for now, Herb Kelleher is the CEO whose photo they wear near their hearts.