On the contrary, the UAL half of the New United tried exactly those tactics in 2008, in an attempt to force Tilton & Pals to reopen a concessionary contract two years before the exchange of Section 6 openers. Guess what happened? An injunction by a federal district court, followed by an even more damaging appeal order by the Sixth Circuit. I remind you that we're still under that restraining order. Damages awarded for violating an order of the federal judiciary could cripple the union's attempt to continue even basic functions such as pilot representation at system boards and day-to-day contract enforcement.

The most recent AA situation you cited happened within the auspices of a bankruptcy proceeding, when ostensibly American wanted to present a ratified pilot contract to creditors as part of a bankruptcy emergence plan. Please take a look at what the American pilots achieved by their work-to-rules campaign. Their bankruptcy "contract" lags both the Delta book and the proposed UAL TA by large margins, as one would expect in a reorganization proceeding. The fact of the matter is that AA's pilots got the shaft, but by staging their little work-to-rules campaign, it made the medicine go down easier. Now that illegal labor action can go down in the annals of pilot lore as another time when "we showed 'em!"

United is not (yet) in bankruptcy. It's in Section 6 negotiations. Any kind of shenanigans along the lines of what you propose are a violation of the legally mandated status quo. Before, we were discussing a legal strike. Now you seem to be pushing a very dangerous, law-breaking, scenario while ALPA is still in the horns of an injunction. This is one path, if we go down it, where there seems to be little prospect of either material or moral victory.