Originally Posted by
Lewbronski
Dude, bro, man...
I think you're missing the point. The idea is you demonstrate a resolve to your respective company that you will strike if need be. No one wants to strike. The fact that Spirit got a 40% pay raise without having to go further in the RLA process suggests that perhaps their company knew that their pilots would take it all the way if they had to.
Notice that their company wrapped up their agreement at about the two-year point in mediation. After two years in mediation, assuming their union had bargained in good faith and been available and willing to meet, they would have begun to met the minimum time requirement that the federal courts would maybe begin to consider taking action if petitioned to do so and if they found the NMB was acting in a patently arbitrary and unreasonable manner.
And nobody said the federal courts "have to release you". Where did you get that idea? Why did you put that in quotes? Who were you quoting? The courts don't ever have to do anything. There are no guarantees in court.
No, the courts do not have to release you. However, they do have the power to do so if they determine the NMB is acting in bad faith. Again, read the opinion of the judge in the case I cited. The RLA was not meant to completely strip labor of its right to ever strike. It was meant to slow the drive toward a strike down so that the chance of an interruption of interstate commerce is minimized.
Please read what I wrote and don't put words in my mouth.
You said multiple times in the previous posts that if you "play the game right" you'll get released.
You also like bringing up that 40% pay raise. Great, high percentage. Still keeps their pay around the bottom of the industry. And they had to GIVE UP work rules to get that. If their pilots were doing so well, they wouldn't have had to give up anything, especially in this environment.
And just to be clear, under the RLA the union does not have a "right" to strike. It has to be given permission. Rights aren't something you only accomplish by authorization. There may be an ability there somewhere, but it's not a right.
You use examples of unions that were not released and where union leadership (in the case of Spirit) went on record saying "this is all we'll get because they won't release us" as examples of where the company thinking they'd be released got them a contract.
I'm not really sure what you're trying to accomplish, but you came across to me as being demeaning to the Alaska pilot group while at the same time making this process into a sure thing for labor.