Airline Unions Shifting More to Job Actions Instead of `Full-Blown Strikes,’ Panelists Say

Airline unions are increasingly likely to employ non-traditional job actions such as slowdowns and intermittent work stoppages to gain leverage in bargaining with employers rather than systemwide strikes, both management and labor attorneys said March 13.

The main reason for the shift is that traditional strikes conducted at major U.S. airlines in recent decades often had devastating consequences for both sides, according to panelists speaking on the issue at a meeting of the American Bar Association’s Railway and Airline Labor Law Committee in New Orleans.

Under the Railway Labor Act, once the parties in a major labor dispute have exhausted ...