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It's May 2004 in Dallas.

The head of Southwest Airlines Flight Attendance Union has been summoned to a small conference room at the company's Lovefield headquarters.

The room is filled with cigarette smoke, so it doesn't take a second for the union head to figure out who he's meeting with.

Along with the airline's president Colleen Barrett, Herb Caller is puffing away in the room.

Hacking through the haze, the union head takes a seat at the table.

Herb, what are you doing here? Well, I'm negotiating new contract for your union. You are. Herb, we haven't been negotiating in weeks.

Management walked out, shut everything down. I thought we were going to have to go on strike. Well, you're not.

Tell me how we got here, and then we'll sit at this table and we're going to hammer out an agreement.

The head of the union looks at Herb wide-eyed.

For the last 16 months, the union has been negotiating a new contract with a team of Southwest attorneys and the man who replaced Herb as CEO three years earlier, Jim Parker.

But the negotiations have been a disaster. Jim scoffed at most of the union's demands, and Southwest flight attendants picketed across the country.

In response, Jim walked away from the bargaining table. Now he's threatening to bring in a federal mediator to solve the dispute, and that's got the union head fuming.

Well, Herb, it's always nice to see you, but where's Jim? He's going to come back in here, right? You'll let me some more? No, Jim won't be negotiating. I'm handling this now.

And all the lawyers? The mediator? We'll bring those guys in later. We don't need them. I trust you. You've always been honest with me.

So we're going to solve our differences the way families do. Well, Herb, I'd like that. Then let's make a deal.

What is the biggest problem you're having? Well, we're working hundreds of unpaid hours every year. You know how productive we have to be.

Southwest flight attendants probably work 23 unpaid hours a month, much more than any other airline. Well, if that's the case, I can see why you're angry.

But it's not just the hours, Herb. Just imagine in your head a workforce forced to work five days a week, but all you get paid for three and a half, and they have to sing and dance and have smiles on their face the entire time.

Yeah, I understand where you're coming from. And to show that I admire, value, and love our flight attendants.

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