[QUOTE=Lewbronski;3590604]1) As far as I know, formally asking the NMB for a proffer of arbitration is not a required step in the RLA process (like one party filing for mediation) nor in the SWAPA constitution (like a SAV). Unions do write letters to the NMB requesting that it proffer arbitration. Here's a copy of a letter the attorney for the BMWED and SMART-MD, two of the unions involved in the national coalition of railroad unions labor dispute last year, wrote asking the NMB to proffer arbitration in their case. The letter was written in February of last year. The NMB ended up proffering arbitration in June. Since it's not required either by the RLA nor by the SWAPA constitution, I don't know that it impacts leverage very much.

2) Yes, the RLA and the NLRA (which the courts have mostly accepted as pertaining to RLA cases in terms of the requirements of good faith bargaining) require that both sides "exert every reasonable effort to make and maintain agreements." However, "reasonable" does not mean that our contractual demands have to be constrained by what the company perceives as "industry standard" or really, by any other measure other than what our economic strength as a labor group can obtain. I wrote a very long post on this recently called "Unreasonable to seek better than narrow body?" Check it out. A few pertinent quotes from RLA cases:

It may not be required but there’s no chance you’re ending mediated talks without a formal request to do so. The request to proffer arbitration letter that you provided seems extremely short and I’m a bit surprised they were released with just that document. There has to be more than just that. F9 document was 40ish pages long with a ton of documents attached and spanned the 3 years of negotiations to that point. After the request was made nothing for months. Not even a statement. It became clear we were not getting released. It had to be one of the strongest arguments for release in the history of airline mediation. We are talking about bill franke here. Leverage was definitely a problem when that happened.

The good news is now you’re not dealing with the same nmb bod.









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