The power given the company under the RLA clearly gives them the upper hand and the ability to stall for a long long LONG time. Our management has shown over and over that a bunch of Harvard MBAs well versed in running a ULCC airline are barely able to follow our CBA (some would say they willfully violate it when it suits them), but the RLA forces labor through the grievance process, (even expedited arbitration is painfully slow - although we finally won one the other day!).

They unilaterally reinterpret our CBA and we grieve it. We step a mm out of line, the company gets a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) in civil court - not an arbitrator - to stop us from behaving badly, and can take out their anger on the union's bank account. Ask any of the APA pilots who took matters into their own hands, violating a TRO in the process, during the American Airlines sick-out of February 1999.

The anecdote I've heard from someone who was close to the case was that, after the pilots defied Judge Parker's TRO, Judge Parker asked an APA rep what their assets were, and assessed an award essentially equal to that amount. "At the conclusion of the hearing, the district court announced its decision from the bench to award $45,507,280.00 in compensatory damages attributable to the defendants' conduct."

AMERICAN AIRLINES INC v. Allied Pilots Association, Richard T. Lavoy, and Brian A. Mayhew, Defendants?Appellants. | FindLaw

It's stressful being on this side of the RLA, but it must be followed. We talk about "unity"; we need to walk the walk behind our union leaders. Be ready to strike, but now is the time to do our jobs and wait for eventual release for self help.