Originally Posted by
sailingfun
The RLA is not going anywhere. As I pointed out in another post i made here there was a recent union attempt to move Fedex out from under the RLA. It was crushed. Airline managements have fought any attempts at changing or amending it tooth and nail. There have been attempts. There are always feelers out trying to gauge support in Congress. Getting both houses to amend the law and the president to sign it so airline pilots can enjoy higher wages is not easy. It may never happen. Congress wants lower fares and in general is anti union, even the democrats. The talk pro union for votes but they don't walk the walk.
I asked this very question of one of the ALPA people who works directly with congress. He said they could not even get anyone to even introduce a bill to amend the act let alone get it out of committee and to the floor for a vote. No politician wants to be know as the guy who gave those damn unions all that power leading to a national strike.
The current system of associations is not a union. From my experience and the discussions here there is also a lack of understanding how a real union would work. Relying on the associations and the government has worked so well that pilots can now work 20 percent more hours to and have less than 50 percent of the purchasing power than their fathers did prior to deregulation. If our Founding Fathers had had the same backbone as today's pilots, we would be saluting the Union Jack. In the next month you will see two pilot groups surrender to management tyranny and move the profession another step backwards. Please prove me wrong AA and CAL/UAL pilots.