Facing vehement union opposition to its proposed reform of the Railway Labor Act (RLA) of 1926, Communities for Economic Strength Through Aviation (CESTA) has had to step back and reassess its goals and methods, John Meenan, executive vice president of the Air Transport Association (ATA), told CRAN.

The fundamental issues raised by CESTA are still important and need to be addressed, but a more conciliatory approach is needed to appease CESTA's main detractors -- the labor unions representing airline workers, Meenan said. "We need to work collectively with labor to get at the heart of the problem," he said.

ATA, a trade organization representing the main U.S. airlines, started CESTA as a separate advocacy group with the goal of reforming the RLA, which governs airline labor relations. CESTA's view is that the law is antiquated, and instead of solving problems, it makes them worse by causing acrimonious open-ended negotiations, service disruptions, strikes and agreements that financially weaken airlines.

While CESTA and RLA reform were a top priority of most carriers going into this year (CRAN, Jan. 6), the issue has quietly faded to the back burner.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who took up the mantle of RLA reform during the 107^th Congress by introducing the Airline Labor Dispute Resolution Act in 2001, seems to be in hibernation on the issue. That bill died in committee, and many in the airline industry hoped Sen. McCain would reintroduce it in some form this year. After scheduling one hearing early this year on RLA reform, he has taken no action and has been mum on what he plans to do.

Meanwhile, unions ranging from the Air Line Pilots Association to the AFL-CIO banded together to oppose CESTA's efforts to reform RLA, and their tactics have slowed the momentum of the initiative. The unions fought CESTA's efforts largely because they thought the proposed reforms would remove the ability of workers to strike. Instead, the workers would have had to submit to a system of compulsory or binding arbitration to settle disagreements over wages, benefits and work rules. CESTA's proposed RLA reforms also were designed to ensure that management would maintain the upper hand in negotiations, the unions charged.

Meenan told CRAN that the fundamental goals of CESTA and the issue of RLA reform are a "live entity" and are not going away. But he conceded, "There may be different ways to approach it."

CESTA is in the process of forming a new agenda, but nothing final has been completed. Also, the coalition has no timeframe for when it might be ready to reopen the debate on the issue.

"There are many ways to solve most problems and this is one of them." Meenan said. "We need to regroup and reassess."

"It is clear that all of these issue have long been a concern to the carriers, government and the employees of the industry, and we all want to get on with solving them," Meenan said.

>>Contact: Brian Keeter, CESTA, 202-585-2216, Web: http://www.cestacoalition.org; the Air Line Pilot's Association, 703-689-2270.<<