Southwest workers ask airline 'where's the love'? =20 =20 =20 =20 Friday February 14, 3:03 PM EST=20 By Jon Herskovitz DALLAS, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Southwest Airlines (LUV) flight attendants delivered a Valentine's Day volley at the carrier's main airport on Friday with a protest saying management has lost its loving feeling in asking them to work longer hours. About 40 flight attendants at the profitable low-fare carrier handed out candy and sang love songs from a past generation at Love Field in Dallas as they protested against what they said were management calls for a longer working day. "We are out here today because our company has suggested that our flight attendants should be working a longer duty day, with shorter rest periods and no breaks," said Thom McDaniel, president of the Transport Workers Union Local 556, which represents about 7,500 flight attendants at the airline. =20 McDaniel said airline management has suggested raising the duty day to 13 hours from 10.5 hours. He said that unlike their counterparts at other airlines, Southwest flight attendants have extra work such as cleaning the plane on the ground between flights. Visitors to the airport were given chocolates and Valentine's day cards by flight attendants, who held signs reading "Southwest, keep that luv'n feeling" in their mild-mannered protest punning on the company's stock symbol, LUV. Flight attendants serenaded passengers in the terminals with versions of the songs "Love Will Keep Us Together" and "You've Lost That Loving Feeling". They may take their protest to other airports served by the carrier, union officials said. The airline, which prides itself on good relations between management and labor, has been in talks with the flight attendants' union for about nine months on a new contract. "The contract talks have been going well. It has been cordial," said airline spokesman Ed Stewart. "Both sides are trying to hammer out a win-win contract." Low-cost carrier Southwest bucked the trend in the money-losing U.S. airline industry when it reported last month its 30th consecutive year of profits. The airline said it could not guarantee a profit in the first quarter of 2003 as war with Iraq looms and demand for air travel continues to slump. For the full year 2002, Southwest earned $241.0 million or 30 cents a share on nearly flat revenue of $5.5 billion at a time when its bigger rivals cannot seem to post a profit for love nor money. U.S. carriers have collectively lost more that $7 billion in each of the last two years, and 2003 also looks bleak with a possible war in Iraq fanning fears of continued slow demand. Two big airlines, United Airlines parent UAL Corp. (UAL) and US Airways Group (UAWGQ) have filed for bankruptcy, while several unions at major carriers have been asked to accept wage cuts in order to keep their airlines flying. Flight attendants said they have been a part of the reason why the airline has remained profitable because they do more tasks than colleagues at other airlines, while working on more flights in the average work day. "We love our company and we want to make sure that it remains profitable," union leader McDaniel said.=20 =A92003 Reuters Limited.=20