It wasn't my line of reasoning; it was theirs. They are salary. They get paid the same sitting around or working their tails off.
Do the math on that. The lawyers at ALPA National make out quite well already. Migliore lead the charge to not mess with the RLA.
Three hours of legal fear mongering. It worked, the proposal never left committee.


As for somebody else's question on what could get worse? Well, imaging management being able to re-commit every CBA violation they lost previously to try again and get new interpretations. Imagine the status-quo cases all happening again to get the new interpretations.

Personally, I think it's worth doing. The arguments are almost all in our favor. When the RLA was written you couldn't tell a PanAm pilot to take these concessions or we'll outsource the flying to TWA. In other words, the RLA never envisioned the outsourced business model used in Regional and ACMI segments of the industry. Unlike the railroad status-quo for some reason the airline status-quo doesn't prevent base closure, or equipment transfer and outsourcing while in section 6 negotiations.... which management can not do to the railway workers. They can't close stations or outsource to subcontractors during contract talks. I think that one change would make huge differences. With the modern social media influencers and ease of generating public awareness, I think the lawyers stuck in yesterdays world are wrong, and the time to fix the RLA is now.

Seriously, the RLA never envisioned a time where places called regional airlines were nothing more than staffing companies, flying somebody else routes, in somebody else's planes, using somebody else's gates, carrying somebody else's passengers on somebody else's tickets. These shell companies are nothing more than staffing and training companies. If it were not for them having an "Air Carrier Certificate" they wouldn't be airlines at all. A few do own/lease their own planes, but not most.

There is risk in trying to modify the RLA though, that is undisputable.