I'm all for doing what needs to be done in order to secure a proper contract. What I'm saying is that it doesn't mean we can brake the law in order to get what we deserve. At Xj we could have so many times broken the law and conducted job actions. Instead we actually helped the company achieve some of the best operating results over the course of those years. By doing that, we never gave the company any opportunity to legitimately say we were conducting job actions. They couldn't go down that road, because we didn't let them. We took THAT leverage away from them. The ultimate show of force was when we passed the 30 day mark in the cooling off period and we didn't go on strike. The company was shut down for TWO DAYS. We held the trigger in that gun and the company knew it. The legal right to strike was the ultimate leverage on our part. It never would have been granted had we not taken the high road. It may have taken a long time, but we got it. Only then did mgmt negotiate. It might be tempting to be all radical, but it won't get you a contract any sooner.

I agree, having leverage like bus drivers, ATC controllers, auto workers etc would be great. But we don't... we get the railway labor act. Like it or not, that's what we've got to deal with.