OK . . .

I admit I can't let it go . . .

No. You have the logic wrong. The Nic Award caused USA to withdraw from ALPA so ALPA rewrote the rules taking out the word "windfall" and adding the word "longevity". The intent was to enhance the place of a furloughed pilot such that a new hire at one company would not displace a 17 year furloughee which is what happened in the Nic Award.

So . . . the Nic Award drove the change in the ALPA poliicy and THAT NEW policy is controlling the CAL/UAL arbs so in that regard the Nic Award is driving this decision as well and to say that the new policy allows the arbs to proportion the Category/Status, Longevity, and Career Expectations down to 1% if they want shows that you are totally misunderstanding the nature of the beast. ALPA spent months and years developing that policy if you think the arbs will choose some concern outside of those 3 to focus on then I fear your are in for a rude awakening. It is very, very simple:

Stovepiped category and class sorted by ratios or longevity and fences on the 787 and 747.

It's not Rocket Science.