Did commerce come to a stop today? Did hundreds of thousands of people get stranded? No. The effect of the UAW strike will be minimal. The Big 3 automakers will ship a few less units and their revenue will be a little less. Big deal. The world will go on.

A major airline strike would cripple commerce and the economy. You saw how bad it was when Southwest melted down. That was only a percentage of their flights, and only for a couple days. Imagine all the flights being cancelled if one of the big 3 for many days or weeks… That is why the RLA exists.