In my opinion, the one thing most (all?) of the MECs did wrong was to be so afraid of "the judge(s)" that they agreed to very conciliatory contracts.

With a rejected contract, they might have ended up with the same, or perhaps even worse contracts then were agreed to, but a message would have been sent to management that when things turned around, and history has shown over and over that it will, the pilots will be hell-bent on recouping their losses. Instead, a weak backbone was exhibited.

If I was Glen Tilton of UAL, I would be laughing out loud at the UAL-MEC’s FIN program!

9/11 gave managements a very big hammer in negotiations – actions by the union leadership increased the size and weight of the hammer.

JMHO.