Background Information

Airline management is buying high-priced lobbyists in Washington, D.C., in an attempt to:

• Take away our right to strike if management refuses to agree to a reasonable contract or stonewalls in negotiations.

• Allow management to refuse to negotiate in good faith with us.

• Eliminate your democratic right to vote on new contracts.

Management intends to accomplish this by getting Congress to change the Railway Labor Act -- the law that governs airline labor negotiations.

The airlines have begun a very expensive campaign to sell their plan in Washington. Under this scheme, if contract negotiations break down and it is determined that no agreement can be reached, our right to strike would be eliminated. Instead, an arbitrator would be appointed by the government to pick either the airline’s last offer or the union’s last offer as the contract that is implemented. The arbitrator will be forced to consider the airline’s profitability and needs of its shareholders in making his decision. The needs of workers will come last.

The airlines’ plan is being pitched by a front group called CESTA (Communities for Economic Strength Through Aviation). Their plan eliminates all incentive for management to negotiate with us. Management will wait to get to the end of the process, declare an impasse, and present its low-ball offer to the arbitrator, who will then compare it to the union’s last offer. Since the arbitrator must consider the needs of the shareholders and the airline’s profitability, this all but ensures the arbitrator will pick management’s contract to be implemented. Workers will not get to vote on whether or not the deal picked by the arbitrator is satisfactory.

Send your CEO a letter demanding the airline oppose this campaign to take away our rights.

Additional background

Although the Railway Labor Act is not perfect, and even though collective bargaining under the law can be drawn-out and frustrating for everyone involved, good-faith collective bargaining and compliance with existing contract language on management's part would significantly improve airline labor relations. Changing existing laws would make negotiations virtually meaningless since management wouldn’t have any motivation to reach an agreement.

The current process promotes collective bargaining, and is successful in 99 percent of all cases. The RLA is successful because it requires several stages of negotiations to occur before any work stoppage can happen. Each stage of the process is designed to avoid an interruption in flying, while putting pressure on all parties to reach agreement while talks are in progress.

The proposed changes would take away our right to strike and to vote on an agreement. As a result, the changes proposed would make bad worker/management relationships worse because employees would no longer have any means to protect themselves against a vicious management that fails to negotiate in good faith.

Current negotiations at airlines that are in financial trouble show that, when properly motivated, management can engage in constructive relationships with employees. Southwest Airlines, the airline that’s considered to have the best labor relations overall, says the law should not be changed. Southwest management knows how effective it is to work in partnership with employees.

But management at other carriers only seem to be interested in good relationships when negotiating for concessions. Heavy-handed government regulations that take over the negotiations process will ensure that management continues this destructive trend.

Senators John McCain, Trent Lott, and Conrad Burns introduced legislation on this issue in 2002’s 107th Congress, but failed to gain support in the Democratic-controlled Senate. To date, no legislation on this issue has been introduced in 2003’s 108th Congress. But McCain and Lott, who now heads the Senate aviation subcommittee, have openly said passing a binding arbitration bill is a top priority, and the Republican Congress is inclined to support it. That’s why all aviation workers must band together to actively fight to keep our rights.