SWA moves reservations center and plans on hiring 322 agents

gizmo_sc

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Mar 19, 2006
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SWA is hiring 322 new agents for its new reservations center in SAT.

see link:

http://www.fox5vegas.com/story/17113597/southwest-airlines-announces-new-location-for-san-antonio-call-center
 
Technicality... they're adding at SAT, but I wouldn't say that they'll be hiring. It's possible they might be planning to consolidate from either the existing Airtran centers or perhaps close down one of the other five call centers...
 
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Dallas-based Southwest Airlines Co. already is hiring for a 322-position expansion at its San Antonio customer service center, which is scheduled to move to a larger location by June.
Starting pay, set by union contract, is $12 an hour, or nearly $25,000 per year, although pay scales are flexible depending on schedules and overtime, said Bob Montgomery, Southwest Airlines vice president of airport affairs.
Details of the airline's expansion in San Antonio were announced Thursday after the City Council approved an incentives package aimed at retaining 478 positions at the customer service center and adding 322 workers

If this is not HIRING , I don't know what SWA is doing. If you ADD 322 workers to a location it must be HIRING.


Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/article/Southwest-now-hiring-for-service-center-3392757.php#ixzz1od2zuMNm
 
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Oh here is another post from : http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2012/03/southwest-airlines-to-relocate.html

The city said the deal comes with a four-part promise from Southwest to:

(1) retain its Customer Support and Services Center and 478 existing jobs in San Antonio;
[sub](2) add 322 new jobs;[/sub]

(3) invests approximately $4 million; and

(4) locates and retains a total of 800 jobs for at least 10 years.

SWA is adding 322 jobs to it's SAT reservations office.
 
If you ADD 322 workers to a location it must be HIRING.
I guess during this transition period from 2 separate carriers to 1 carrier you're technically right. But if it's just moving 322 FL employees to a WN site as WN employees, no new people are added to the overall payroll. "Hiring" a FL employee from the Atlanta or other FL site is different than keeping all the FL employees plus hiring off the street for these SAT positions.

Jim
 
I guess during this transition period from 2 separate carriers to 1 carrier you're technically right. But if it's just moving 322 FL employees to a WN site as WN employees, no new people are added to the overall payroll. "Hiring" a FL employee from the Atlanta or other FL site is different than keeping all the FL employees plus hiring off the street for these SAT positions.

Jim

Good god, are you people not reading the articles? And just replying to the posts?
There are several articles out there about this subject. Man, SWA announces it's hiring and, as ausual, the regular SWA bashers out there want to try and knock the good news down. There was one article from SAT that addressed the minimum start wage set by the city for new hires, and the assistance SWA will recieve for hiring new employees in SAT off the street, and I think it had a minimum they had to hire and maintain to continue to recieve such benefits for 10 years into the future. SAT would not have given the ancenatives package it offered if SWA was simply "transfering" new hires from another city, SAT was looking out for their very own citizens in it's own city, not someone elses. C'mon guys read all the articles. SWA is hiring in SAT. And a starting wage of 12 bucks an hour will go pretty darn far in SAT still... This is good news guys. I bet some of the AA mechanics will apply (the ones knowing they are going to be laid off soon) to get their foot in the door and take advantage of the internal hiring for the mechanics positions first over external hiring...
 
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Hey thanks swamt..... you are right so many readers on this site and others read what they want to and are so fast to pop off a reply of their armchair CEO comments. You are right if I had not copied in the link from the local SAT paper that indicated that SWA was hiring 322 it would have been different. At this point there have been no announcements that WN was closing any FL call centers. As long as there is a need for FL to keep the international on their side of the SOC FL will staff their call centers. GK has said a new reservations program is years away.

If one bothered to read the SAT link about the new center, SWA is leasing a former KMART building with state aid and it is scheduled to open in fall of 2012. I was with US Airways when they went thru a huge hiring spree at the INT center in Winston Salem NC. Growing pains is not easy.
 
Hey thanks swamt..... you are right so many readers on this site and others read what they want to and are so fast to pop off a reply of their armchair CEO comments.

And some put much emphasis on the media's choice of words like those reporters are never wrong...

Go re-read my post - "if it's just moving 322 FL employees to a WN site as WN employees". Notice that little IF in there? Now find where I said that absolutely no one was being hired off the street...

Jim
 
And some put much emphasis on the media's choice of words like those reporters are never wrong...

Exactly my point. If they're hiring, great.

The point still stands that call center work is quite portable, and it wouldn't surprise me to see WN consolidating work from the smaller FL centers into one of the larger ones, especially if they've got high turnover (typical in a non-union call center). For each head attritted out at FL, add one at WN...
 

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