Hostages? With DAL/UAL/AAL all hiring like nobody's business, and apparent stagnation on the horizon at SWA, I would think that would blow up in their faces pretty quickly.... but then again, it would be an easy way to get rid of unwanted "baggage" so that could easily be in the plans.
Ahhh, the good old days. seemed like every week you would show up for a trip and somebody was getting fired or disciplined. Mostly senior guys but we did have a couple of FO's that like to stir things up. It just made everybody that much angrier and made the pilot group do there own "job action". Writing up airplanes left in right(especially in the Caribbean), slow taxi(made ATL controllers nuts), running all three engines ALL the time. Sick call "spikage" as management would call it after every meeting with the NC. Fatigue calls. Running the wind shield wipers with no rain. Ahh yes. That was actually fun. Then came the unicorns and rainbows of SWA. Boy, did that come and go quickly!
I think the hostage taking would be the line in the sand at SWA. If they do that they have really changed the culture forever. Hopefully they skip that chapter in the playbook.