ABSTRACT
The aviation industry has a major impact on the US economy contributing more than $1.6 trillion in annual economic activity and supporting over 11 million direct and indirect jobs. Labor relations in the airlines are regulated under a special federal law applicable only to them and to the railroads—the Railway Labor Act. Most important, the status quo—specifically, prohibition against unions striking or carriers unilaterally changing pay, rules, or working conditions—is preserved throughout the long and involved collective bargaining process. In the early years of the airline industry, during its air mail service phase and into the early years of the New Deal of the 1930s, airlines, like railroads, were viewed as common carriers vested with a public interest—a kind of private-public utility to be regulated by means of the control of predatory competition, market entry, wages, and fares.
