USA320Pilot said:
The new GE deal requires major cost cuts to be approved no later than December 17, which is the same day the S.1113© hearing ends. This all but requires Judge Mitchell to "impose" contract modifications from the bench that day. Furthermore, the company's motion further requires the parties to abide by the RLA, which will also be court ordered and thus would prevent "self help" in the near-term, if not forever.
Actually, if I'm not mistaken, the GE deal requires that the deal itself be approved by December 17, and that major cost cuts be approved by Jan. 14.
I don't expect Mitchell will abrogate any union contracts until after he's back from his holiday vacation in 2005. Because the guy is probably smart enough to know what union members will do if he makes that ruling.
USA320pilot, your insistence that a strike will be prohibited is, of course, speculation. By all accounts, it's a gray area in the law, as this situation has never happened. I expect the judge to spend a great deal of time researching the law on that very issue.
Whether the judge ultimately rules that a strike is legal or not, I think the odds are high that union members will strike regardless. Will Mitchell order thousands of people arrested for contempt of court? At that point, would it even matter to the survival of the airline?
I've not seen you once address, or even acknowledge, those possibilities. As an outsider, to me, the situation looks quite dire.