Originally Posted by iaflyer

That's the thing about negotiations under the RLA. The union doesn't get to decide when they've had enough, the National Mediation Board (NMB) decides. Unfortunately from what I've heard, the NMB got annoyed at APA and their shooting for the moon strategy, so they basically put them into "Timeout" and told them to figure what they really wanted before they talked to the company again.

The NMB board will let a union strike, theoretically, but (a) under Bush administration that wasn't going to happen and (b) the NMB has to believe both sides are presenting a reasonable offer and are actually trying to talk. It seems that they decided the APA wasn't acting in good faith.