It has been indicated by the fifth circuit in a prior case that a union may similarly be able to resort to self-help under the RLA prior to the exhaustion of remedies. In United Industrial Workers of Seafarers v. Board of Trustees,59 the carrier unilaterally changed working conditions by consumating a lease of its elevator facilities in violation of the status quo provisions of section 6, resulting in the layoff of thirty-four workers. The union members then picketed, but were enjoined by the state court. Thereafter, the district court issued an injunction enjoining the carrier from availing itself of the state court injunction. The fifth circuit affirmed, stating that if the union is to be enjoined from picketing in the future, it must be enjoined under the RLA and not under a state statute; and it must be enjoined in a federal, not state, court. In its discussion of section 6, the court stated that at the time the state court injunction was issued, the carrier itself was -in violation of the Act and "[t] he cases suggest that at that time, under the Act, the Union had the right to strike; that right continues until the Act is complied with by the Carrier, and thereafter ceases during and until exhaustion of the procedures set up by the Act." 60 Furthermore, the court noted that "f the carrier refuses to follow the procedures of the Act, or if those procedures are followed to an impasse, the Union may strike."'" Apparently the only obligation on the part of the union before it may strike if the carrier is in noncompliance with the Act is that it must do everything it can to exhaust all the procedures of the Act. The court reasoned that "[t]he Union's right to bargain, guaranteed by the Act ... and presently enforced by this Court, would be illusory without a right to strike when bargaining has run its course if the Carrier continues to refuse to bargain."
