Almost shot pepsi out my nose, hilarious! I'm not sure how it binds the companies hands either, I'd be interested to learn about it. I think the general idea of the RLA was that the status quo would be maintained for a short period while a new contract was put in place. What the RLA is doing now (preventing a new contract and maintaining old contracts for 3-5 years) I don't believe was the intent of the law. I guess it's just another example of law of unintended consequences.

Interestingly, I've recently talked to some non-airline friends and acqaintances about union/RLA issues and the overarching feeling of Americans towards unions is bad. Might not be able to get any traction on changing the RLA because the public only sees benefit in the law.