I didn’t omit that point. My post was responding to errors in a RLA educational piece in our union publication, the RP. My post focused on errors that were made in that piece about PEB’s. It was not intended to be an all-encompassing takedown of those who suggest unions have no teeth under the RLA.

To address your point, though, yes, Congress can enact legislation to block a strike. The term that’s used for such an action is a “post-PEB congressional intervention.”

In the case of the recent railroad union dispute, in the last week of their PEB, two Republican senators, Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Richard Burr of NC, did introduce a resolution that would force the railroad workers to accept the PEB’s proposed settlement and prohibit them from striking.

However, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont objected to their resolution, forcing it to meet a 60-vote threshold for passage in the Senate. Senator Sanders explained, “Rail workers have a right to strike for reliable schedules. They have a right to strike for paid sick days. They have a right to strike for safe working conditions. Rail workers have a right to strike for decent benefits.”

In response, Senator Burr asserted, “This is in Senator Schumer’s hands. He’s the majority leader. . . . Here is the promise I’ll make to Senator Schumer. If you bring it to the floor, I’ll produce 48 Republican votes for it. That means Dems only need to produce 12 people to support it to keep the American people from a $2 billion a day negative impact on them.”

Senator Wicker urged President Biden to make clear that he supported the proposed PEB settlement. He added, President Biden should “exercise the presidential leadership that is needed at this point to persuade his friends in the four holdout unions that this is what needs to be done. . . . It’s really up to the Democratic leader and the president of the United States.”

President Biden never did comply with Senator Burr’s request.

In the end, by removing the Republican pressure of a threat of a congressional intervention from the table, Senator Sanders enabled President Biden to work with the rail companies to secure for the unions the sick days that the PEB had declined to recommend as part of its settlement and for which the unions were refusing to capitulate over.

So, no, it was not the case that, as you imply, that both the Democrats and Republicans attempted to intervene in the railroad unions’ dispute. The actual fact of the matter is that the GOP did attempt to intervene. But Bernie Sanders, an Independent who caucuses with the Democrats, blocked them. Sen Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader did not deliver the Republicans the twelve Senate votes they needed to override Senator Sanders’ objection. That gave President Biden the latitude he needed to affect the negotiations between the unions and railroad management so as to secure sick days for the unions.

Further, and more generally, the recent railroad unions dispute proves why the threat of a congressional intervention is not the RLA-as-leverage killer that people like you attempt to portray it as. While Congress can intervene, senators and representatives are loathe to actually come out and state that they will intervene or propose legislation to do so until very late in the game. In this most recent case, for example, Senators Burr and Wicker didn’t introduce their resolution until day 56 of the 60-day PEB process.

Even if some or many members of Congress do announce an intention to intervene, that doesn’t mean, as we saw in the railroad unions’ episode, that they will have the votes to pass any legislation or that the President will sign it into law if they do.

All of that boils down to the fact that there will always be so much uncertainty around whether or not Congress will intervene that unions still retain tremendous leverage in the face of a possible congressional intervention.

Especially in the case of an impending airline strike, if there’s a chance of a particular airline going on strike in X days or Y weeks, news stories will circulate reporting on that risk. Airline unions can help to amplify that risk in the public’s mind with picketing and press relations. Even if some members of Congress are suggesting that an intervention may occur to head off a possible strike, passengers will still book away from that airline so as to avoid the possibility of their travel plans being spoiled if Congress doesn’t intervene and a strike actually does end up occurring.

A congressional intervention can occur but to insinuate that it therefore removes leverage from unions under the RLA is a Chicken Little way to neuter yourself because a congressional intervention, if it occurs at all, will never be a certainty until very late in the game, after or almost after the near entirety of the RLA process has been played out to exhaustion.

It’s like refusing to ever eat a big, juicy hamburger because some scientist asserted you would definitely get cancer from eating charbroiled red meat or refusing to buy a gun because some scaremonger cited some study saying your home is actually less safe with a firearm in the house.