Originally Posted by
kspilot
So in determining the ability and impact of ‘self-help’ on interstate commerce they don't indirectly control wages in your opinion? When the Spirit pilot group gets essentially told that the companies give was reasonable enough to kick a determination on self help down the road indefinitely even though it is significantly less than other carriers compensation packages are worth the NMB isn't basically concluding, on their own, what someone there is worth? And if the NMB didn't exist and wasn't currently preventing self help at both ULCCs would both groups would be paid what they are in SEP of 2017? When the disparity in total compensation at F9 vs someone flying the same plane on the same route is as it stands today I can't help but believe the RLA and NMB are being used to much as a tool by management.
The NMB is a political institution, created to protect corporations under the guise of protecting interstate commerce. It's entire purpose is to act as a roadblock to labor self-help and in turn give corporations the upper hand in negotiations. Think about how much political power the railroads had in 1926. We have to play their 1926 game, where the management group can do nearly anything (that in comparison would be considered a work action if it were the labor side) and we have to do everything status quo with a fake smile, despite management doing everything they can to get a rise out of us. It's the only means we have of getting to self-help.
You'd think ALPA had amassed enough size to take on making amendments to the RLA, such as time limits on mediation. Someone once told me that ALPA was afraid to open the RLA to amendments in fear that it could become worse than it presently exists; but I disagree.