Originally Posted by
ForeverFO
I have... and the notion tickles my endorphins and other happy-brain chemistry nodes, but so do notions like a national seniority list, an industry-wide strike or week off, and other pie in the sky schemes to improve our profession. In the end, the RLA iron fist crushes all. Re-writing or elimination of the RLA, allowing strikes under more circumstances, simply isn't going to happen.
A strike works when there is a legitimate economic leverage. AA pilots are still bitter about our 1997 strike, which lasted about 15 minutes and was shut down by the courts and Clinton's PEB, because of the "irreparable economic damage" done by the APA.
In contract, the earlier UPS strike cause MUCH more chaos and economic damage, yet was allowed to run its course. The only conclusion we could come to was that "our" judge$ and court$ were $omehow motivated to intervene.
It should be noted that the 97 UPS strike was a NLRB governed strike and NOT a RLA strike. No permission was required to strike and the standards for intervention by the government are tougher . Don't attempt to compare the two . The pilots at UPS honored the picket and did not fly, this was and is negotiated in the IPA/UPS contract.