Republican (sorta) President, Republican controlled Senate, Conservative SCOTUS, and you think it's going to get *easier* to strike...

Uh, ok.

The RLA has been around since since 1926. There are PLENTY of Dem administrations that could have changed it, had it been their desire to do so. The theory is that railroads (and airlines) are too essential and/or too big to be allowed to fail. The only leverage anyone has to force change is to create a situation where the RLA is a demonstrable failure. At that point, it becomes in the NMB’s interest to increase the pressure on the management side, since squeezing the labor side is just making it disappear.

It wouldn't completely shock me if they spend more time actually negotiating this time with the expectation that the negotiating team will fold. I expect your negotiating team to hold the line. Industry Standard or bust.

Yeah look this isn't a political pursefight, I don't harbor any illusions about the Democratic party being genuinely pro-labor, but the Republican party is *explicitly* anti-labor. In *neither* case is it going to become easier to strike.

The irony now is that there are many more air cargo carriers and trucking companies than when the RLA was enacted. Is that really still the case of too big to fail. Just playing devils advocate here: Is Atlas really too big to fail? With other ACMI carriers around, FDX, UPS, etc what would really happen if Atlas did fail?

I'm not advocating that. I am a former Atlas pilot and have friends still there trying to leave. I'm hoping they all get somewhere before management hands them their new amalgamated contract.

Ha ha. Good one. You should try:

-Solidarity
-Thinking outside the box
-Playing chess

Wow you’re truly on a roll now. Keep them coming

Can someone at Atlas explain how you are ending up in arbitration? Under the RLA both sides must agree to enter arbitration.

From the ABA primer on the RLA:


3. Mediation.
At any time in the direct bargaining process under section 6, EITHER party can invoke the mediation services of the National Mediation Board under section 5 of the Act. Mediation is usually invoked as the parties approach the final or most difficult issues. Invocation of mediation is often used as a delay tactic by a party less interested in early agreement. From that point on, the parties continue to bargain, albeit in the presence of an NMB mediator. The mediation is indefinite, sometimes more than a year. The National Mediation Board decides, in its sole discretion, when the parties will be released from mediation. Litigation to compel the Board to release the parties from mediation has been uniformly unsuccessful

I fully understand mediation. Mediation is however a totally different animal from arbitration. Virtually all airline contracts end up in mediation. Very few end up in arbitration.