The legislation states several times that the two groups being merged have to be represented "collectively." Although just semantics we at jetblue are not represented "collectively", in fact the company sees us as 2300 independent contractors. They are in court right now on another matter specifically stating that we are not represented "collectively." So what happens if a merger happens. Well with out ALPA some here at jetblue would say we are covered by McCaskill-Bond right? Then the other company's union lawyer will say, "Hey your own company is in court arguing you aren't represented "collectively" so McCaskill-Bond doesn't apply. Off to arbitration it goes and each JB pilot will have to come up with money on their own to hire a Lawyer and fight for a fair integration. That's not a risk I am willing to take. An independent union would be nice but it was voted down last time, it would be very costly to start, and for every Southwest success story there is a FedEx or Airtran whose in house unions were voted out fairly quickly. BTW SWAPA was almost fully funded by SWA management when it was founded, does anyone think that JetBlue's management would do the same?

All this is IF a merger might happen. But IF I get in a car accident I have insurance, IF I get sick I have Insurance. I simply look at my yes vote as insurance on my future.