What Is the Railway Labor Act and How Does It Work?

The Railway Labor Act is the federal statute that governs labor relations for railroad and airline workers, replacing the rules that apply to most other private-sector employees with a longer, mediation-heavy process built to keep the national transportation system running. It requires both sides to work through mandatory bargaining, federal mediation, and cooling-off periods before anyone can strike or lock out employees, and it locks working conditions in place the entire time.¹

Who Is Covered

The Act reaches two industries. It applies to “carriers” by railroad, meaning any railroad under the jurisdiction of the Surface Transportation Board and any company owned or controlled by a rail carrier that performs services connected to transporting property by rail.² In 1936, Congress extended coverage to air carriers and everyone working for them, recognizing that commercial aviation had become part of the same national network.³

An “employee” under the Act is anyone in the service of a covered carrier who performs work classified as that of an employee or subordinate official by Surface Transportation Board orders.² The line between “subordinate official” and upper management matters, because workers on the management side of that line lose the Act’s protections.

A few operations fall outside the statute. Street railways, interurban electric lines, and suburban electric railways generally do not qualify unless they run as part of a broader railroad system, and companies engaged purely in coal mining and supplying coal to carriers are also carved out.²

Why the RLA Replaces the NLRA

People covered by the Railway Labor Act are specifically excluded from the National Labor Relations Act, which governs most other private-sector workers.⁴ Rail and airline employees organize, bargain, and resolve disputes under an entirely separate framework. Union elections run through a different agency. Contract negotiations follow a different timeline. Strikes are far harder to reach legally, and states cannot pass right-to-work laws that override union security agreements. If you work for a railroad or an airline, the rules you’re operating under look almost nothing like the ones your neighbor in another industry knows.

The Right to Organize and How Unions Get Certified

The Act contains some of the strongest anti-interference protections in federal labor law. Employees have the right to organize and bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and neither side can interfere with the other’s selection. A carrier cannot question an employee’s right to join a union, spend company funds to support or undermine a labor organization, coerce union membership decisions, or deduct dues without proper authorization.⁵ Willful violations carry criminal penalties, not just civil ones, which is a far harsher statutory threat than the NLRA imposes for equivalent employer conduct.

Representation elections are run by the National Mediation Board, the independent federal agency the Act created for railroad and airline labor relations.³ To trigger an election, a union must gather signed authorization cards from at least 50 percent of the workers in the relevant craft or class.⁶ One structural difference from NLRB elections is significant: NMB elections cover the entire carrier system, not individual worksites. A vote to unionize flight attendants at an airline covers every flight attendant that airline employs nationwide.

Major Disputes vs. Minor Disputes

Every dispute under the Act falls into one of two categories, and the classification controls everything about how the fight gets resolved. Major disputes involve the creation or modification of collective bargaining agreement terms: pay, work rules, general working conditions. Minor disputes involve interpreting or enforcing rights already established in an existing agreement.

A fight over what the next contract should say about overtime is a major dispute. A fight over whether management violated the overtime clause already in the contract is a minor one. Major disputes move through a bargaining and mediation process that can last indefinitely and eventually open the door to strikes and lockouts. Minor disputes go to grievance procedures and binding arbitration, with no right to strike at any point. Federal courts regularly sort out which category a dispute belongs to when the parties disagree.

How Major Disputes Move Through the System

Section 6 Notice and Direct Bargaining

A major dispute begins when one side serves a written notice, commonly called a Section 6 notice, signaling an intent to change the existing agreement. The Act requires at least 30 days’ written notice before proposed changes take effect, and the parties must agree on a time and place for bargaining within 10 days of receiving the notice.⁷ Both sides have a statutory duty to exert every reasonable effort to reach an agreement.⁵

From the moment the notice is served, a strict status quo requirement locks in. The carrier cannot unilaterally change pay, rules, or working conditions, and the union cannot call a strike. Federal courts can enforce the status quo through injunctions without requiring the usual showing of irreparable harm.⁸ A carrier that jumps the gun can be pulled into court quickly and forced to reverse course.

National Mediation Board Intervention

If direct bargaining fails, either party can request the National Mediation Board’s services, or the Board can step in on its own if it finds a labor emergency exists.⁹ There is no statutory time limit on how long mediation can last. The NMB controls the pace, and the parties cannot move to the next stage until the Board decides mediation has run its course. Weeks, months, or longer are all possible.

Arbitration Offer and the 30-Day Cooling-Off Period

When the NMB concludes further mediation won’t produce an agreement, it urges both sides to submit to binding arbitration.¹⁰ In practice, one or both sides almost always decline. Unions worry about losing leverage; carriers dislike handing contract terms to a third party.

When arbitration is rejected, the NMB notifies both parties in writing that its efforts have failed. That notice starts a 30-day cooling-off period during which the status quo still holds.⁹ Only after those 30 days expire, and only if no Presidential Emergency Board has been created in the meantime, can the parties act.

Presidential Emergency Boards

If the NMB determines a dispute threatens to substantially interrupt interstate commerce and deprive part of the country of essential transportation service, it must notify the President, who then has discretion to create a Presidential Emergency Board.¹¹ Members must have no financial or other interest in any labor organization or carrier.¹²

A PEB adds roughly 60 more days to the freeze. The board has 30 days to investigate and submit a report with non-binding settlement recommendations. After the report, another 30-day cooling-off period runs so the parties can consider those recommendations.¹³ Throughout the 60 days, neither side can change working conditions, strike, or lock out employees.¹¹

If no settlement follows, Congress can intervene directly. Legislators have passed special laws imposing contract terms to end railroad disputes, bypassing collective bargaining entirely and settling the dispute by statute. This is the nuclear option of the framework.

When Strikes and Lockouts Become Legal

Once every required stage is exhausted, and no emergency board intervenes, the parties are finally free to act. Unions can strike. Carriers can lock out employees and unilaterally change terms and conditions of employment. Both sides can use the full range of economic pressure the law spent months preventing.

Self-help in these industries carries enormous consequences, which is precisely why the RLA makes reaching this point so difficult. A rail shutdown can freeze billions of dollars in freight traffic within days. An airline strike can strand hundreds of thousands of travelers. That leverage cuts both ways, and the threat of reaching self-help often produces settlements long before anyone walks off the job.

How Grievances and Minor Disputes Get Resolved

Minor disputes arise from everyday workplace disagreements. An employee claims she was passed over for promotion in violation of seniority rules. A crew argues management is misinterpreting overtime provisions. These must first be handled through internal grievance procedures, working up through the carrier’s chain of authority.⁵

If the internal process fails, railroad employees take their claims to the National Railroad Adjustment Board, which issues final and binding decisions enforceable in federal district court.¹⁴ Airlines follow a parallel track: carriers and their unions must establish system boards of adjustment to handle grievances and contract-interpretation disputes.¹⁵

Because minor disputes are subject to mandatory arbitration under both tracks, employees cannot strike over grievances. The adjustment board process is the exclusive remedy, and federal courts have consistently declined to hear minor-dispute claims that haven’t gone through arbitration first. Workers give up the right to strike over contract interpretation and get a binding forum that can order reinstatement and back pay when the carrier is wrong.

Union Shop Agreements and Right-to-Work Laws

The Act permits carriers and unions to negotiate union shop agreements requiring all employees in a craft or class to join the union within 60 days of being hired or within 60 days of the agreement taking effect, whichever comes later.⁵ An employee can only be required to pay standard dues, initiation fees, and assessments as a condition of membership. The union cannot condition membership on paying fines or penalties, or deny membership on terms different from those applied to other members.

This is where the RLA departs sharply from the NLRA. The union shop authorization explicitly overrides “any other statute or law” of the United States or any state, which means state right-to-work laws do not apply to railroad and airline workers covered by the Act.⁵ If you work for a railroad or airline operating under a union shop agreement, you’re required to join regardless of which state you’re based in.

Carriers can also deduct union dues directly from wages, but only after the employee provides written authorization. That authorization is revocable in writing after one year or when the applicable collective bargaining agreement expires, whichever comes first.⁵

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 45 USC 151a – General Purposes
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 45 USC 151 – Definitions
3
National Mediation Board. Mission and Organization
4
National Labor Relations Board. Jurisdictional Standards
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 45 USC 152 – General Duties
6
National Mediation Board. Overview and FAQ
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 45 USC 156 – Procedure in Changing Rates of Pay, Rules, and Working Conditions
8
Justia Law. International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers v US Airways Inc
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 45 USC 155 – Functions of Mediation Board
10
National Mediation Board. Mediation Overview and FAQ
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 45 USC 160 – Emergency Board
12
eCFR. 29 CFR 1202.11 – Emergency Boards
13
National Mediation Board. Presidential Emergency Boards
14
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 45 USC 153 – National Railroad Adjustment Board
15
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 45 USC 184 – System, Group, or Regional Boards of Adjustment