Been following this little saga for awhile, and have some very general impressions as an outsider. It seems the USAPA guys want to hide behind a mountain of red technical legalese tape...and the more obfuscation of the central issue with peripheral legal matters, the better. It doesn't take a Supreme Court rocket surgeon or a Chief Justice of brain science to imagine the issue of ripeness would be satisfied if USAPA came to the sli table with an east/west DOH list to present to the APA and/or arbitrators....presented as if the Nic never existed, as if the USAir east pilots had been allowed to be the sole and final arbiters of their own seniority in their merger with AWA! ie. Delusional...the mighty, sacrosanct "principle" of the DOH list...the highly advantageous list they've dreamed about through any and all contemplated mergers (4 in counting) with larger, more viable carriers...UAL twice, DAL once, and now AA. (Ok, maybe I'm being too harsh...the stories I've heard can't all be true...I'm sure there were many senior captains who weren't on the verge of ordering up their 747 or 777 manuals, and not all of the old USAir furloughees may have been unrealistic enough to contemplate being recalled into the left seat of a widebody as a result of a DOH merger with a larger carrier...lol)
You are practically guaranteed there will be no negotiated sli between USAPA and APA...it will go to arbitration. Thus you are practically guaranteed there will be a real JCBA done before the sli...There may be weeping and gnashing of teeth by USAPA and possibly elements from the fAWA guys in the west, but a JCBA will be done by APA with or without the input of USAir pilots...(but a JCBA to your distinct advantage, as it seems the APA will have parlayed a normally draconian bankruptcy contract through several convolutions into an "industry standard" contract at the end of the term...good on you guys!) Then the real fun begins, I would be surprised if APA would even negotiate sli without the Nic....and...I would imagine the arbitrators would look upon a non-Nic list presented by USAPA with somewhat of a...shall we say...jaundiced eye.
Another general point...the further an sli gets from maintaining status and category...ie "effective maintenance of premerger relative seniority, vis a vis equipment held"... The more of a mess an integration becomes. DOH is the classic demographic that pilots latch on to if it gives a distinct advantage for that group...it is to be expected and is human nature. But the principle of "first hired" becomes a much less "lofty" or "fair" principle when it just so happens to..."coincidently" result in a windfall. DOH, unlike the classic "get out of jail free" card, -is not an "instant widebody left seat" card under any scenario...even in the far-fetched scenario of an awarded DOH list, there would be long and sturdy career-duration fences keeping you from enjoying that anticipated windfall....best keep your expectations reasonable...expect to have roughly the same career path you would have without the merger...slanted in favor of maintaining current equities vice future (however mathematically certain..ie "retirements") equities.
And by way softening my apparent stance on the USAPA pilots...I'm sure the vast majority of you are good guys, with no expectations of windfalls...It may be that the merger with the much larger APA group will mitigate the anticipated effects of the Nic list, and cooler heads will prevail and you will go with it....I have only resorted to the previous extreme characterizations because I have heard them by way of "industry reputation"...however invalid or inaccurate they may be....much like the Delta pilots being known as "clones" or the Northwest guys being known as...I don't know..what was it...Sky Nazis?....no wait that might have been American....wait, what were the United guys? Good luck to you all.
