Employment Law | Expert Legal Commentary
January 21, 2010
Lindsay v. APFA: Employees Have No Private Cause of Action under the RLA
Lindsay v. Association of Professional Flight Attendants
By
Jeremy J. Gray of Zuber & Taillieu LLP
The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has held that two provisions of the Railway Labor Act (“RLA”), 45 U.S.C. section 152, do not provide a private cause of action that would enable unhappy employees to overturn reworked agreements entered into by their union. In Lindsay v. Association of Professional Flight Attendants, 581 F.3d 47 (2nd Cir. 2009), the Circuit Court affirmed a district court order and stated that the first and seventh provisions of the RLA do not enable individual flight attendants to challenge the validity of a restructured agreement entered into between their union, American Airlines, and its parent company. The Court also found that the RLA preempted the flight attendants’ state law claims.
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About the Author
Jeremy J. Gray is a Partner of Zuber & Taillieu LLP, focusing on employment law.
Image Credit: ©iStockphoto.com/carlosphotos