Southwest Air extends job cuts to workers at San Jose and 3 other US airports
By Mary Schlangenstein | Bloomberg
Southwest Airlines Co. is eliminating 120 more jobs at four airports, extending a round of cutbacks that included the carrier’s first ever involuntary layoffs.
The positions — including airport ground workers and people who stock planes with food and beverages — are being eliminated because of overstaffing at airports in Baltimore, Los Angeles and San Jose and Burbank, California, Southwest said in a statement Thursday. The employees will have a chance to move to other jobs “if they choose,” the airline said.
In February, Southwest disclosed it was cutting 1,750 jobs in its leadership ranks. That followed last year’s suspension of most hiring and shifting of some pilot and flight attendant jobs.
Southwest earlier this month said it will begin charging passengers for most checked luggage, ending its hallmark free-bag policy that had been in place since its founding more than five decades ago, the latest in a broad series of changes that followed a pressure campaign by activist shareholder Elliott Investment Management.
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