It’s not stacked against labor. It is designed to draw out the negotiating process to minimize the chances of an interruption of commerce. In that sense, it’s tilted toward the flying public. If it’s tilted against either side, it’s tilted against the less patient and less informed side. That side is usually labor in the airline industry. So, in that way, yes it’s tilted against labor. But it’s not the RLA that does the tilting, it’s labor itself that tilts the RLA against labor.

The RLA doesn’t neuter our ability to strike. How does it do that? There’s only one body within the United States that can prevent labor from striking and if it does so, it occurs completely outside the bounds of the RLA and after the RLA has completely exhausted itself. It has never used that power to avert an airline strike. It’s a rare occurrence and has only happened so far within the confines of the railroad industry.

Here’s a good primer on the RLA, written by a NMB mediator.