NWA v AFA
My guess, and my guess only..... it is an election year, and the more-blue-than-red-leaning TWU and APFA leadership are probably burning up the phones, and calling in whatever favors they can to try and get someone on their side.....
<sarcasm>
Next thing you know, there will be an Executive Order coming out which
says the NMB gets to decide what happens in a S1113 ruling
</sarcasm>
Seriously, this is a bit unprecedented from what I can tell. I don't recall another situation where the NMB got involved in an airline or railroad bankruptcy.
Before the unprecedented actions of the US 2nd Court of Appeals in the matter of, LINK PROVIDED:
NWA v AFA, it was held as a matter of simple interpretation that the , "status -quo" requirement of the RLA was sacrosanct.
The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals defined their interpretation of the conflict between the need for a business to reorganize under the protection of the bankruptcy code as paramount to the RLA requirement of status-quo between negotiating parties under the RLA.
Congress makes the laws: they have passed both the Bankruptcy Code and the Railway Labor Act.
In neither of those codes, does Congress relinquish their authority to inerpret their intent.
The 2nd Circuit, in NWA v AFA, only rendered their opinion of how the two conflicting codes were to be reconciled.
The Legislative Branch of Government, through the NMB, has the specific authority to govern the relationships between employers covered by the RLA and employee representatives as Constitutionally authorized by Congress.
This could become another hot button for the Supreme Court in an election year; which, IMHO, I beleive the rational for the decision lies.
But, IMHO: it works for me and my people by throwing a potential monkey-wrench into both the political and judiciary machinery, which has successfully mangled labor and the taxpayer, during a period in which neither the politicians or labor leaders can hide their positions from the workers and taxpayers.
