It was not reaching.

A splinter group of loose cannon UAL pilots originally (and independently) planned the White House demonstration despite being told specifically not to as it had not been coordinated or approved by anybody within the ALPA structure. One of the ringleaders claims he was told that if he went ahead he could face Article 8 charges from ALPA.

Being consistent, they went blazing ahead anyway and were recruiting pilots to march over on the UAL pilots forum. This is when the "warning" email went out to all UAL and CAL pilots. After some sense was knocked into them about marching in uniform in front of 1600 Penn they pulled the plug.

But....there was still a paid permit ($500) from the Park Service sitting there.

As one thing lead to another, an actual ALPA approved and coordinated "on message" demonstration was very quickly cobbled together that would permit the pilots to march in uniform without fear of repercussions from United or Art 8 charges from ALPA.

I don't know why the ball was dropped in coordinating between UAL and CAL ALPA, but the UAL pilots were only notified over the weekend that there was a demonstration on Monday. Yikes.

IMHO, if it was such a great idea the whole thing should have been delayed (even if it meant requiring a new permit) so pilots from both sides would have had much greater advance notice. It started as a knee jerk READY-FIRE-AIM operation and it ended as one.