No, I'm implying that the RLA isn't an impediment to good contracts.

Answer me this: How many customers does mainline have? How many customers does your regional have? How do you think that influences regional airline contracts?

Except that courts have held that any change from status quo qualifies as an illegal job action.

What you've laid out is the result of airline bankruptcies, not the RLA. Companies are still subject to market forces, and in the post 9/11 environment an over supply of pilots and treacherous business environment (how many airlines closed down or have disappeared since then?) doesn't do much to prop up pilot salaries.

So yeah, you want to propose an airline strike in an environment where a lot of guys are already on the street? Pretty sure management will take that deal all day long and twice on Sundays.

Here's one for you: under the RLA the NMB has held that representation must be system-wide for each craft or category of employee. What if management got rid of that little tidbit. How would you like separate contracts and seniority list for each base or type within a single carrier? If you think there's a whipsaw now......

I get that most of you stopped learning about the RLA the moment someone told you that you can't strike without a release from the NMB, and while that is an impediment to self help you've got to put that in context of the entire deal. For example while we can strike without release, the company can't arbitrarily change working conditions nor lock us out and hire replacements. I will grant you that in the current pilot shortage environment the latter is unlikely, but have we always been in a shortage? Will we always have a shortage?

There is much to be said for the devil we know, vs the devil we don't, the latter being influenced by the lobbying arm of F&H.

 

Thanks, tool, obviously wrote it wrong

 

That's why you leave the union out of it. There's nobody to sue. The union is a detriment to getting things done. Everytime your company violates your contract they do so with impunity. You can exact the same pressure they do if you are strong enough as pilots.

 

Except that the courts have held that the union has an affirmative duty to stop a slow down, and can impose damages that are the obligation of the union.

American took the APA to court in 1999 and won 45 million after AMR was able to have an injunction issued against an illegal sickout.

 

Railroad labor is not even included in the RLA Amy more. Where have you been? Look at the west cost ports that were under the RLA a few years ago that went on strike.... Where they all rounded up and arrested? Pilots are idiots for believing that the RLA has power over them. If the union had any power at all they would hold a strike vote and go on strike, but they will arrest everyone.

 

Then everyone will have just quit en masse. Company finds new pilots all at the bottom of the payscale.

 

The last attempt to amend the RLA was not labor-friendly:

"Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) introduced a bill (S. 1327) to change the way airline labor disputes on major carriers are resolved. McCain’s bill would replace the right to strike with baseball-style interest arbitration under which neutral arbitrators would choose the best final offer from labor or management."

--Journal of Transportation Law, Logistics, & Policy, (Spring, 2003)

 

They simply couldn't show that the union did enough to stop it. They needed to be more aggressive. Wink wink nod nod.

What if there was no union, then what....

 

Europe goes on strike every other weekend, and there is nothing better about their airline jobs.

 

This is America. We can have anything we want if the right pressure is applied. But you have to be a willing participant and not just talk out both sides of your face (not you personally).