Csx Transportation, Inc. v. United Transportation Union

IRVING R. KAUFMAN, Circuit Judge:

Congress enacted the Railway Labor Act (the “RLA”) in 1926 to bring stability to the fractious world of labor-management relations in the railroad industry. That stability has largely been achieved because of procedures that replace unilateral actions by management and crippling strikes by labor with mandatory bargaining in cases where relations between the parties change. It is not always clear, however, what sorts of changes in carrier-union relations require appropriate bargaining. Today, we are asked to decide whether a sale by a railroad of some of its…