{"id":30359,"date":"2025-10-30T16:09:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T16:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/30359\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T16:09:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T16:09:07","slug":"oakland-city-council-kills-lawsuit-against-southwest-airlines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/30359\/","title":{"rendered":"Oakland City Council kills lawsuit against Southwest Airlines"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year, the Oakland City Attorney sued<\/a> Southwest Airlines for allegedly depriving some of its thousands of workers of paid sick leave. Last week, without explanation, the Oakland City Council quietly killed the lawsuit during a closed-session meeting.<\/p>\n

A memo<\/a> from the closed-session meeting outlined the case history but offered no reason for why councilmembers directed the City Attorney to dismiss the case against the Oakland airport\u2019s biggest carrier without settlement.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Councilmembers Ken Houston, Kevin Jenkins, Noel Gallo, Janani Ramachandran, and Charlene Wang voted in favor of ending the litigation. Councilmember Zac Unger voted against it. Councilmembers Carroll Fife and Rowena Brown were absent and didn\u2019t vote.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the city filed a request in Alameda County Superior Court to dismiss the case without prejudice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a statement to The Oaklandside, City Attorney Ryan Richardson said, \u201cWhile this certainly isn\u2019t the outcome our office anticipated when the Council approved this lawsuit last year, we fully respect the Council\u2019s authority under the City Charter to direct us to dismiss it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as the reasons any Councilmember voted the way they did, it\u2019s not my place to speak on their behalf,\u201d Richardson said. \u201cWhat I can say is that I\u2019m deeply grateful to the workers who came forward with concerns about sick-leave compliance, to the dedicated staff at Oakland\u2019s Department of Workplace and Employment Standards for their thorough investigation, and to the attorneys in our office who committed months of hard work to this case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oakland is one of many big cities that has its own labor laws<\/a> employers must follow, including rules around the minimum wage and sick leave. Oakland voters approved the sick leave rules in 2014.<\/p>\n

The Oaklandside reached out multiple times to each councilmember seeking an interview about this decision. Houston said he made the motion to dismiss the lawsuit because \u201cthis has been going on too long.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEnough is enough, I\u2019m done, I\u2019m tired,\u201d said Houston, who added that he\u2019s been asking the city to drop this lawsuit since he took office in January, noting that the underlying case has been going on for seven years and the worker complaints are only \u201callegations.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Houston said he was also concerned about Southwest rerouting flights<\/a> away from Oakland, although he added that this wasn\u2019t the reason he pushed to end the litigation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Houston said he plans to chat with Southwest representatives in the next couple of weeks to \u201cbreak bread with them.\u201d The council\u2019s decision, he said, lets other companies in Oakland know that the city\u2019s new leadership \u201cwants to make partnerships\u201d with businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you do what\u2019s right, it\u2019s gonna be okay, and if you don\u2019t, we\u2019ll put down the hammer,\u201d Houston. \u201cYou have new leadership that\u2019s gonna stand up for the people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wang told The Oaklandside she voted to dismiss the suit partly because it\u2019s been going on for years, but also because \u201cunfortunately, our Southwest inbound traffic has taken a really significant hit.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it wasn\u2019t about the merits of the suit,\u201d Wang said. \u201cThis wasn\u2019t an easy vote for me. But I also wanted to hear out my colleagues who had the most at stake given the jobs and the economic activity in their districts.\u201d <\/p>\n

Wang said she supports some of the affirmative litigation the City Attorney has done, but stressed that it\u2019s important for the city to focus on cases where there\u2019s direct benefits to the city, given Oakland\u2019s limited financial and staffing resources. She also said the possibility of Southwest leaving the city came up during the council\u2019s discussion, which was something else that Oakland\u2019s leaders have to consider. <\/p>\n

\u201cObviously they\u2019re a flawed employer,\u201d Wang said. \u201cBut is it better to have a flawed employer no employer?\u201d <\/p>\n

Jenkins, through his chief of staff, told The Oaklandside he had no comment to make about his vote. None of the other councilmembers responded to our questions.<\/p>\n

Houston added that he spoke with representatives from the Port, whom he didn\u2019t identify. \u201cThey were happy that it was solved, and they were very concerned on how long it\u2019s been going on,\u201d Houston said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We reached out to Port Commissioners, but none responded to our interview requests. Airport spokesperson Kaley Skantz said the Port was not party to the city\u2019s lawsuit or any actions taken during the council\u2019s closed session deliberations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to one former City Hall insider, some Oakland officials had previously considered trying to settle the lawsuit by having Southwest agree to make economic development commitments to Oakland, including investments in the airport modernization project<\/a>. It\u2019s unclear if that proposal was ever brought forward. The insider, who asked not to be named, also claimed that Southwest repeatedly contacted Oakland officials about the lawsuit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A Southwest spokesperson declined to answer questions, citing ongoing litigation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The company previously said<\/a> that assertions about Oakland employees being forced to work while sick or take unpaid absences were unfounded. The company promised it would vigorously defend itself against \u201cthese frivolous claims\u201d in court.<\/p>\n

Oakland fought Southwest for years over alleged labor law violations<\/p>\n

The city initiated its lawsuit against Southwest in September 2024, accusing the airline of violating multiple local laws, including the city\u2019s Minimum Wage and Sick Leave Ordinance, as well as state labor law. The complaint<\/a> accused Southwest of denying some of its 3,000 workers in Oakland the right to use earned paid sick leave and retaliating against workers who tried to use their time-off benefits.<\/p>\n

In a 2024 FAQ<\/a>, then-City Attorney Barbara Parker explained that Oakland started receiving complaints from Oakland employees about Southwest in 2017. According to the FAQ, Southwest had a policy of zeroing out unused sick leave its employees had accumulated each year, and failed to ensure employees were accruing paid sick leave at the rate prescribed by city law. The city came to a settlement with Southwest in 2020, but Oakland subsequently received more complaints from employees about new and different violations.<\/p>\n

Among its demands, the city wanted Southwest to become fully compliant with Oakland and California paid sick leave laws; offer restitution, damages, and penalties to affected employees; and pay enforcement costs and penalties to the city.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the City Attorney\u2019s Office told The Oaklandside that as far as they are aware, Southwest\u2019s alleged violations of the 2020 settlement have not been remedied.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The City Attorney was actively pursuing the litigation as recently as two weeks ago, when it filed a motion in Alameda County Superior Court to compel Southwest to turn over records as part of discovery. According to that motion, Southwest has produced a total of two documents in addition to a limited set of documents it had previously shared with the city in its 2020 settlement. The city was also seeking financial sanctions against Southwest for impeding Oakland from being able to resolve the litigation.<\/p>\n

Southwest is also embroiled in litigation with the union that represents many of its workers, Transport Workers Union Local 555. Earlier this year, the airline accused the union of violating the federal Railway Labor Act, a statute that governs labor agreements between unions and \u201ccommon carriers by air,\u201d which includes Southwest.<\/p>\n

In the lawsuit with Oakland, Southwest filed what\u2019s called a cross-complaint, basically a counter-lawsuit that\u2019s part of the same case. In the cross-complaint, Southwest alleged that the Transport Workers Union Local 555 failed to maintain its collective bargaining agreement with the company by encouraging the city to investigate worker complaints. The airline also accused the union of providing the City Attorney with incorrect or misleading information, and noted that the union\u2019s then president, Abilio Villaverde, provided a quote<\/a> for the City Attorney to use in the press release announcing the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

The union filed a motion to strike Southwest\u2019s cross-complaint. Tony Slavings, president for Transport Workers Union Local 555, declined to comment on the case. An attorney representing the union also did not respond to an inquiry.<\/p>\n

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