Look it was a bad deal because there was not a lot of ground work. People who said it was a bad deal and we are screwing FDX pilots with vague language and extremely loopy tax rules were called proponents of hystaria and blown off.
Hey, I agree with that statement 110%. I'm still shocked that the advice of the pilots over there - including one living in Gold Coast - was ignored, on both sides of the table.
It's just that a lot of us thought it was this deal or zero deal. And that we could work to bump it up later - which we did. That was, indeed, a rational position back then.