The March 31st deadline was imposed by the latest ASA (Airline Service Agreement) with NWA. Basically it says if we can't get our ducks in a roll by the end of March, they can take away 15 RJs away... But NWA has put so much flying to 9E there's really no way that's gonna happen, unless they can pick up the flying themselves...

MEC = Master Executive Council. Basically it's the Congress of an airline union. The LEC (Local Executive Council) votes in the guys in MEC, and therefore represents all the little guys within the airline. The general population eligible union pilots votes in the LEC guys. We have 3 LECs councils, one for each base we have, i.e. MSP, DTW and MEM. Hope it make sense.