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Southwest and the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association,
which represents some 2,400 mechanics at the low-cost carrier,
have been in contract negotiations since 2012.
In a lawsuit filed in Texas, Southwest asked a federal judge to
order a halt to what it called an unlawful job action by the
union.
AMFA did not immediately return a request for comment.
Tensions escalated when the union claimed on Feb. 11 that
Southwest was not negotiating in good faith, according to the
lawsuit.
Southwest said soon after it began experiencing "an uptick on
cosmetic and other minor maintenance write-ups," leading to an
unprecedented number of aircraft out of service and forcing the
airline to delay or cancel hundreds of flights.
For example, it said the number of write-ups for minor interior
systems such as a missing row number on an airline that does not
assign seats spiked almost 400 percent to 500 percent after
talks broke down.
"It quickly became clear as these unusual write-ups spread
across Southwest's stations that something coordinated was
beginning to occur," the airline said in the lawsuit.
In addition to the cost and revenue loss for canceled flights,
Southwest said experience showed that passengers whose flights
were canceled could end up traveling on other airlines rather
than re-booking with Southwest.
The union has disputed the notion that the maintenance issues
were driven by the labor dispute, one of the biggest to hit a
top-four U.S. airline in more than a decade.
(Reporting by Tracy Rucinski; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
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