No, it turns out it's the second.

The first was Pinnacle/Mesaba/Colgan where the arbitrator sorted the pilots by status and category (using the stovepipe method) into several groups (CRJ900 CA, CRJ200 CA, Turboprop CA, CRJ900 FO, ect.) and then sorted each group by DOH to protect....wait for it...longevity. He specifically said it wouldn't be fair to put pilots hired later senior to those hired earlier when using the current ALPA merger policy.

And yes, the arbitrator (Bloch) knows something about using different polices because as head arbitrator for DAL/NWA he signed off on a totally different methodology and dismissed the NWA proposal to use DOH because it did not reflect the policy at the time.

The award is an interesting read to say the least, and IMHO, is one of several driving forces behind the strategies being used by CAL and UAL.