Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Independent Federation of Flight Attendants

Background

An airline and its flight attendants’ union negotiated a new contract and the union went on a 72-day strike. The airline hired and trained thousands of replacements, continued to employ attendants who never left, and told workers that anyone who worked during the strike (called “crossovers”) would keep the jobs they held when the strike ended. The union offered to return most strikers unconditionally, the airline accepted but refused to displace crossovers, and the parties litigated over whether the law required the airline to lay off crossovers to reinstate more senior strikers.

Reasoning

The central question was whether the Railway Labor Act (RLA) requires employers to displace junior crossovers to make room for senior full-term strikers. The Court examined prior labor-law decisions under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) but declined to extend rules that invalidated some employer practices in other contexts. The majority held that the RLA does not forbid the airline’s crossover policy once the parties exhausted the RLA bargaining procedures. The Court emphasized that applying seniority rules uniformly to all working employees was lawful and reversed the Court of Appeals. The practical winner in this decision was the airline.

Real world impact

After this ruling, employers in the airline and railroad context may lawfully keep crossovers and trained replacements without being forced by the RLA to displace them for returning strikers. The decision makes it harder for striking employees to reclaim positions occupied by crossovers, though unions and employers remain free to reach agreements that provide different outcomes.

Dissents or concurrances

Dissents argued the opposite: two Justices said such discrimination against full-term strikers undermines the right to strike and would either forbid the practice or require a remand so the airline must prove the policy was truly necessary for continued operations.