Angel 8
Perhaps both--Federal supersedes state law in general but a state could have specific laws (or more restrictive laws) which could apply. Now a CBA erases many potential traps (but can't erase some of the legal protections and usually acknowledges this within the document itself), but not all and some items are subject to a third party interpretation. GTC had a well worded response in the general case; there have been some specific things that have happened which might muddy the waters even more (at least as far as the company might be concerned--not going to go into them) but it is a real can o' worms. A better strategy would be work out some sort of arrangement in the mean time (which most US carriers have done--along with force reduction packages--within the contexts of their particular CBAs for the very reasons delineated in the thread).