A federal judge in Texas on Tuesday threw out a request brought by a union that represents Southwest Airlines pilots to block the company from carrying out its COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA), which has some 9,000 members, filed a lawsuit earlier this month to prevent the carrier from mandating that its workers get vaccinated against COVID-19 by Dec. 8 under federal rules, barring religious or medical exemptions. The union had argued that the carrier had illegally changed work rules instead of negotiating with pilots, and in doing so, violated a federal labor law—the Railway Labor Act, which governs airline-labor relations and its collective bargaining agreement. In dismissing the union’s request to temporarily block the company mandate, U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn wrote that the COVID-19 vaccination requirement for Southwest employees would “likewise improve the safety of air transportation, efficiency of Southwest’s operations.” The mandate would also …