At Southwest Airlines' maintenance bases around the country, mechanics and their union leaders have alleged a breakdown in trust and communication they say has degraded the company’s safety culture.

The concerns, documented in public statements and a 2017 Federal Aviation Administration investigation into whistleblower complaints, come at a time when relations between Southwest and its mechanics’ union are already strained by a five-year battle over a new contract that has included pickets, radio attack ads, multiple lawsuits, and, in February, a call to oust the executive overseeing maintenance.

The FAA report, issued in October, didn’t result in action against Southwest, but cited a “culture of fear and retribution” that has put mechanics and their supervisors at odds.

The tensions have taken on heightened relevance as Southwest’s maintenance operation is in the spotlight following an April 17 accident that resulted in the first onboard passenger fatality in the Dallas-based carrier's 47-year history.

Southwest and the mechanics’ union struck an agreement in principle last month that would see broad raises and tens of millions of dollars in back pay, with a vote on a final agreement expected this summer.

But a new contract and higher pay rates won’t solve the union’s concerns about what its leaders describe as a weakened safety culture brought on by “hostility, retaliation and unethical behavior” by maintenance supervisors.

“These safety issues are going to continue to stay there, they’re not going to magically disappear,” said Bret Oestreich, president of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association that represents 2,400 Southwest workers. “[Workers] just do not trust management.”

Southwest said Thursday it takes safety seriously and encourages the reporting of concerns by its employees.

“The perspective of Southwest employees is the most important contribution toward operating safely; intimidation or bullying of any kind is not tolerated,” the company said in a prepared statement. “We are confident that our workplace climate promotes safety each and every day.”

The follow-up investigation to Southwest Flight 1380 has focused on a cracked fan blade that broke off from the engine and caused severe damage to the wing and fuselage. A passenger onboard died from injuries suffered when she was partially sucked out of the plane after a window blew out.

In response, federal regulators have called for more frequent inspections of similar engine types, but haven’t raised any specific concerns about how Southwest maintains its fleet of more than 700 aircraft.

On Thursday, the National Transportation Safety Board said the fan blade involved in the Flight 1380 accident had passed seven inspections since late 2012, but none involved the enhanced scanning techniques mandated since the incident.

'Under scrutiny'

Concerns raised by mechanics to federal regulators through the whistleblower program last year didn’t involve fan blades. The federal whistleblower program is meant to address employee allegations of retaliation or discharge when they report potential safety violations.

Several workers outlined a variety of instances where they felt pressured by management not to write up issues discovered outside of their assigned tasks and feared retaliation when they did, according to the October 2017 FAA report. Examples dated back to 2012 and included mechanics reporting loose aircraft seats, holes in a cargo bin floor panel and damage to a wing flap.

The FAA report found only one violation among the 14 items reported — involving an aircraft that left the maintenance shop after an engine change with a pry bar on its wing — and Southwest took action to correct issues flagged by mechanics.

The FAA findings did not result in any actions against Southwest and no aircraft were found to be unairworthy. But it describes an atmosphere where mechanics felt supervisors wanted to avoid documenting issues that could keep an aircraft out of service longer. From the supervisors’ point of view, mechanics were going out of their assigned scope of work to write up issues that may not impact operations, the FAA report said.

Some employees even turned to photographing issues they found in case they faced pushback from supervisors, the FAA said.

“The motivation behind management questioning [mechanics] and inspectors when they discover anything outside the scope of a maintenance task ... appears as a tool used to influence a relaxing of standards, to look the other way, or to gain a degree of approval through a leniency of standards,” the report said.

In a November report on a separate whistleblower complaint, all but two of the 16 mechanics interviewed by the FAA said they felt pressured and “under scrutiny” by supervisors, which contributed to a lack of trust that could lead to a “degraded level of safety.” The FAA did not find any violations stemming from that complaint.

Contract battle

Tensions between the union and Southwest management reached a boiling point in February as the two sides prepared for another round of negotiations. The union called for the ouster of Landon Nitschke, Southwest’s vice president of maintenance operations, citing pressure on mechanics to “subordinate safe maintenance practices to the airline’s objective of on-time performance.”

At the time, Mike Van de Ven, the company’s chief operating officer, defended Southwest’s maintenance leadership and decried the claims as a negotiation tactic.

A little more than a month later, the two sides announced they had reached an agreement in principle, setting the stage for a contract that would last through 2023.

It faces an uncertain road to passage, with the union’s leadership refusing to endorse the terms of the agreement, arguing workers deserve a better compensation package.

Southwest said the offer would give mechanics industry-leading pay and annual raises in line with past contracts. The contract also doesn’t change rules about the scope of work that’s done by Southwest’s in-house mechanics, an issue that has been a consistent sticking point as the union raises concerns about further outsourcing of maintenance work.

“In our industry, contract negotiations are a normal course of business and I’m pleased we have reached an agreement in principle with our mechanics,” the company’s Vice President of Labor Relations Russell McCrady said in a prepared statement. “Our mechanics are a skilled group who take great pride in their profession and their company and would not allow negotiations to impact the quality of their work.”

The union is in the process of finalizing the contract language and will then spend several weeks presenting the deal at maintenance bases around the country. A vote is expected to be complete by the summer’s end.

Regardless of the outcome, there will still be work to be done repairing the relationship between Southwest and its mechanics.

“It’s not just the safety culture degradation. It’s the regular culture,” Oestreich said.