Originally Posted by
9kBud
You really owe it to yourself and all other professional pilots to read up on the RLA. It may cause a lot of grief to us at times, but if it weren't for the RLA, we'd be back in the stone age as far as work rules are concerned.
I don't think he lives or works in the US.
The RLA is in real need of reform as are our bankruptcy codes, particularly the 1113c.
The RLA has been used in recent years not so much as a method of resolving major disputes, but rather a tool to prolong negotiations for years after a contract amendable date.
The 1113c process in bankruptcy, which was originally intended to prevent arbitrary airline contract rejection by management, has morphed into a tool to reject contracts and then through the RLA prevent strikes after a contract is rejected.
Prior to the 1113c process, management could reject a contract and workers could strike. Today, the 1113c allows management to reject a contract with a minimum of effort and then the RLA kicks in to prevent a strike. In essence, airline employees are stripped of their RLA protections through the 1113c process while management maintains their RLA protections to prevent strikes.