Here is what I heard from a friend in class who asked the CAL MEC rep the very same question about longevity. Take it for what you will:

"Upgrading 1437 pilots conceivably to much higher pay scales eats into the pie of what the contract costs the company. The company and union pull and shove about how many dollars they want to allocate to various areas of the contract. The union writes contracts to favor the majority in order to effect passage."

Ok so according to this the gist of the this CAL Rep's explanation about their view of how longevity fits in to the TA I get from this that longevity does not a favor a large voting block therefore it doesn't have the "bite grip" on the pie unlike issues more senior pilots are interested in.

Many of the 1437 will not even be on property to vote, roughly only 380-400. You juxtapose that against the interests of the senior folks who VASTLY outnumber the furloughees I see it as a tough sell.

Yes it's the right thing to, it's the honorable thing to do and so on and so forth....but folks reality check time (and I hope I am so VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY WRONG!). The furloughees are out of sight and out of mind of the senior folk. The most you'll get is about what you usually get from pilots in general who are still on property:

Hollow platitudes.