Originally Posted by
Pineapple Guy
Furthermore, while we may have become "too big to fail", we have also become "too big to strike". I don't see ANY President ever permitting another nationwide strike by a carrier of our size. The deck is stacked as deeply against labor as I've ever seen it in my 20+ years in the industry. As a result, we have virtually no tools left. We should be expending our resources on changing the RLA so as to level the playing field, but I don't see much movement in that direction. Instead, again as DALPA recognizes, our best hope is to have a wildly profitable company, as that is the best chance that they will throw us a few morsels come contract time.
True - I think there are two major reasons why there won't be a strike at DAL or like you say, any other airline other than very small carriers.
First is on the management side: If a union at the airline is getting close to a strike, management will go to the NMB or the President and say, "you can't possibly let the union strike. If they strike, we'll have to stop flying and we'll lose $xxx million a day. We're so highly leveraged that after two days, we'll have to shut down. That will cost thousands of jobs in these states. Do you want dozens of Congressman and Senators calling you telling you to get the strike stopped?" This is doubly so for the major airlines.
Second is on the union's side. The union members (pilots, FAs, mechanics, etc) are highly leveraged as well. What I mean, is that for many of us, our income is very close to our outgoing bills. Mortgage, second mortgage, credit cards, car payments, boat payments, etc mean that most of us cannot take a week much less a month without income. Because of that - most union members will vote yes on the first contract that comes up. Sure - it might not have the raises and work rules they want, but there is no leeway in their budget to weather a strike.