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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Labor judge faults FAA chief Stephen Dickson in Delta retaliation case

A U.S. Labor Department judge says Stephen Dickson, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration, helped Delta Air Lines retaliate against a pilot who raised safety concerns while he was an executive with the airline.

An administrative law judge for the department ruled that Dickson and other Delta executives steered a human-resources procedure so the pilot would undergo a psychiatric evaluation that independent doctors deemed unwarranted.

Delta said Monday that it plans to appeal the ruling. The pilot, Karlene Pet- itt, sued Atlanta-based Delta in a Labor Department administrative proceeding in 2016.

In the decision dated last week, administrative law judge Scott Morris agreed with Petitt that Delta ordered the psychiatric review to punish her.

Southwest avoids layoffs with aid

Southwest Airlines Inc. said it would rescind plans to cut jobs and wages next year, now that new federal payroll support has been approved, averting what would have been the first worker layoffs in the carrier’s history.

U.S. airlines will receive $15 billion to pay workers as part of the package President Donald Trump signed into law Sunday night.

The measure funds employee wages through March 31.

Southwest Airlines could receive $2 billion from the package, Bloomberg Intelligence estimated last week.

The pandemic forced Southwest to take “actions that we’ve never even considered before in order to save our Company,” Chief Executive Officer Gary Kelly wrote in a memo to employees late Sunday. “Thankfully, as a result of this crucial aid, we can breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that we will not be forced to follow through with those steps.”From wire reports