What did SOUTHWEST do with its $7 billion tax payer funded bailout? Follow the money.

A $7 billion tax payer funded bailout. An airline CEO making millions. Thousands of Southwest Airline passengers left stranded.

What’s the connection? How did Southwest use the billions it got from the Federal Government? Who profits from airline execs cutting costs to boost their profits? Who suffers from flight cancellations? What political donations does the Southwestern PAC make? What can be done to curb corporate greed?

How do corporations get away with taking hard earned tax payer bailouts, and then using that money to enrich their execs and investors? How does lobbying and political donations help them get away exploiting their customers? Something to think about while you are stranded at an airport because your flight was just cancelled… Follow the money with this map.

Follow the money

Share this CORPORATE GREED map freely with this link

What led to the holiday meltdown?

“For more than a decade, leadership shortcomings in adapting, innovating, and safeguarding our operations have led to repeated system disruptions, countless disappointed passengers, and millions in lost profits,” said the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA). Instead of investing more heavily in such critical upgrades, Southwest pumped billions of dollars into stock buybacks in the years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic. – Salon

Exec compensation tied to cutting costs

Jordan took over as chief executive in February, receiving a generous compensation package that could amount to $9 million for the year. Earlier this month, just weeks before the airline began canceling thousands of flights per day, Jordan announced that the company would reinstate its quarterly dividend, which was suspended at the beginning of the pandemic. – Salon

Source: Salary

Hold Airlines accountable

The airline industry is in crisis, breaking records for canceled and delayed flights and lost baggage. Complaints to the Department of Transportation (DOT) are up 321% from the same period in 2019. Despite airlines canceling roughly $10 billion in flights during Covid, they have refused to refund money to consumers, despite a legal mandate to do so from the DOT. This flouting of the law has created an unstable environment for travel, with no legal recourse for customers and thus few incentives for airlines to offer reliable service. This plan from the AEL explains the root cause and offers a simple legislative fix to address the problem. – American Economic Liberties

TakeAway: Curb corporate greed that benefits from tax payer handouts and then exploits its cutomers.

Deepak
DemLabs

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Reposted from Democracy Labs with Permission