Originally Posted by
flyguy81
1. Amendable Oct 2007. Started negotiating in April. TA ratified Nov 2015.
2. My memory isn’t that great. Went through multiple mediators though.
3. Don’t know the date for that either. Over 99% voted to strike. Nothing happened.
4. Not that I can recall.
5. Not that I recall.
Bedford and Heller were the idiots who “successfully” argued that a 100 seat airplane didn’t have 100 seats because they didn’t intend to sell a ticket for the last seat. Therefore it didn’t exist.
They took the seat back off and made it a coffee table. All to avoid paying pilots a higher pay rate.
And then refused to pay pilots the same pay for Dash -8 aircraft with the same number of seats as the ERJ. Because it was had props.
And also refused to hold vacancy bids for new aircraft/bases because senior people bid it and it would cost training events. It was cheaper to displace people around and call it a “displacement vacancy”. Whatever the hell that is...wasn’t defined anywhere in the CBA.
Trying to get anything done with those morons is like arguing with Bill Clinton on what the definition of “is” is.
Okay, from what I can gather about the case of Republic's negotiations and mediation beginning in June 2007, a couple of things stand out. First, it sounds like the Teamsters, who represented the pilots of Republic Airways Holdings (RAH),
waited four years from the opening of negotiations to file for mediation with the NMB in June 2011:
The Airlines are regional air carriers based in Indianapolis and are wholly-owned subsidiaries of Republic Airways Holdings, Inc. ("RAH"). The Union represents the pilots employed by the Airlines. The Airlines and the Union are parties to a collective bargaining agreement dated October 17, 2003, and have been engaged in collective bargaining since June 6, 2007. The parties have been in mediated negotiations with the National Mediation Board since June 2, 2011.
Maybe there was a reason at the time (like the economic collapse) that made sense to wait that long. In general, though, delaying the filing for mediation is a major mistake in the RLA game. Filing for mediation is, in the eyes of the NMB and the courts, when the clock starts ticking. Therefore, in that context, the process did not last seven years. It lasted a little over four years.
From a 1989 RLA case:
...in considering whether the time a case has been in mediation evinces patent official bad faith, a court must compare the time in mediation with the time in mediation in all other RLA disputes.
Notice the courts do not consider "time in negotiation and in mediation". They consider only "time in mediation". When it comes to this important legal test, time spent negotiating prior to entering mediation is essentially worthless.
Notice that RAH's "time in mediation", not "time in negotiation and mediation", was roughly about the same amount of time as it seems many other airlines spend in mediation. That's when the Teamsters got an agreement for its pilots.
Both the NMB and airline management groups with their paid assassins like FordHarrison know this. They realize that when "time in mediation" begins to approach that threshold identified by the courts ("time in mediation in all other RLA disputes"), that the potential for a release from mediation begins to become more and more likely. That creates pressure on them. I would contend that it's no coincidence that RAH got their new CBA at the point in time that they did (about four years in mediation).
Most pilot groups do not seem to realize this and instead prefer to believe that the RLA favors management. Self-defeating. Again, the RLA favors the more informed side.
Since the parties are required to negotiate in good faith ("exert every reasonable effort to make and maintain agreements"), we cannot simply file for mediation immediately upon commencing negotiations. We have to give it the "good ol' college try" before filing for mediation. This will obviously vary depending on the circumstances, but in my opinion, time spent in direct negotiations shouldn't last less than a couple of months and, under no circumstances, should it go on for more than a year.
This idea motivated the NMB to make the following statement in their 2010 "Dunlop II" report:
Collective bargaining under the RLA is a two-step process which begins with direct negotiations and generally moves into the mediation phase. One problem noted is that a party may prematurely file for mediation. This may be motivated by a desire to “get on the clock” to establish an early start date in order to more persuasively argue later for a release.
Furthermore, RAH management appears to have known how to play the game against the pilots. In March 2012, RAH filed a lawsuit against the Teamsters for an illegal job action that was ultimately dismissed. From the sounds of it, the lawsuit was bogus (the union had put up a web site attempting to discourage aspirants from applying to RAH airlines citing the poor work conditions). But that's not the point.
The point is the lawsuit was evidence that RAH management knew how to play the RLA game better than the pilots. When a lawsuit is filed during mediation in a RLA dispute, it effectively stops the clock on the mediation timer. From the same 1989 RLA case above:
Nevertheless, a few points are clear. First, in evaluating whether there has been patent official bad faith by virtue of the time a dispute has been in mediation, a court may not consider the time after a complaint has been filed. See Machinists, 425 F.2d at 542 ("Litigation time does not count as mediation time."). Thus, the District Court erroneously included the time after the complaint was filed in considering the time the dispute had been in mediation. The trial court stated that the dispute had been in mediation "for well over one thousand days," nearly three years. The time in mediation properly considered, however, was approximately two years. Thus, the District Court's determination that the dispute had been in mediation an "unusually long period of time," was based on an incorrect assessment.
The above is why it's extremely important not to engage in anything that resembles or could be construed as an illegal work action. It gives management an excuse to file a suit which, in turn, draws out the clock. As a 1970 RLA case explained, "resort to the courts may only prolong the duration of the statutory procedures."
This is why all of the talk about op's slow-downs, sick campaigns, increasing maintenance write-ups, etc are evidence of not knowing how to play the game. The only thing they accomplish is shooting ourselves in the foot by giving management an excuse to file a suit and draw out the clock.
Finally, the other thing I would say about the timing of RAH's negotiations and mediation is that they began right as the second greatest economic collapse in US history began. Most of the period of the combined negotiations and mediation were conducted under the specter of that enormous economic cloud. That certainly had an impact.