But it would remove their own private internal whipsaw. To their credit they haven't used it overtly and probably have no intention of doing so in the near-term but the very fact that it exists will serve to dampen each pilot group's enthusiasm for seeking unilateral improvements.

There's not going to be a merger unless the pilots merge lists first. After that happens, they might as well get rid of the duplicate overhead and merge the operations. If you're a HQ type for ASA/XJT, you should be paying careful attention to any talk of pilot list merging and maybe be keeping an eye on SGU real-estate.