Originally Posted by
deltajuliet
The shortest and easiest answer is that under the Railway Labor Act striking is very, very hard to do and a strike can be vetoed by the government before it ever starts. It almost always is.
Allegiant pilots tried to strike earlier this year but were told they couldn't, even when the company blatantly disregarded NMB instructions as a middle finger to negotiations and pilots. The justification is that airlines are essential to national commerce and us greedy pilots would shut down the national transportation system at every opportunity for our own selfish benefit. Now consider: that was just Allegiant. If they won't let pilots stop a few flights from Missoula, Montana to Mesa, Arizona, imagine how resounding the NO would be to United pilots trying to strike, or somebody operating United's regional feed as de facto essential air service. Remember, half of all airline flights are flown by regionals now. Without the ability to strike - and management knows we can't - we have absolutely no leverage to negotiate or to even stop management from dragging out negotiations indefinitely.
I've read as much as I could find online about the RLA and efforts by ALPA relating to it. This thread also shed very little light on the subject.
http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/un...epeal-rla.html
If ALPA has done anything to repeal or amend the RLA, would you please tell us about it or reference where we could find more about it?
Just to be clear, in your analysis you are not differentiating between striking caused by being released into self help by NMB vs. what Allegiant tried to do and strike based on an upset of "Status Quo" which was shot down by a Federal Judge and not a NMB Mediator.
In any event, it is likely in my opinion that something very shady must have went down to get that ruling as it would likely be clear to an "ordinary person" once explained that changing bidding systems and the way schedules are awarded clearly shocks the conscience.