I believe what has been lost in this discussion and chest thumping is how JP and the sCAL management ignored the fact they were no longer living in the CAL vacuum any more.
<<Bingo>>
IT is true the CAL pilots had a legit grievance and they were entitled to compensation for it, but both sides forgot the contract now included nearly 7,000 other pilots. It was this failure which the Neutral ruled on, not the legitimacy of the CAL grievance.
<<Yes, and no. There's no way it was worth 40M. >>
The PS would have been satisfactory had there not been sUAL pilots and the TPA involved and that is why it was wrong.
Personally I'm more than Okay with the monetary award. It had nothing to do with me, nor did it effect me directly. What steamed me was either the ignorance of the two parties or the possibility of intentional disregard for a legal and binding contract between parties.
None of us will know what manipulations the two were up too,
<<Actually, I think the case could be made that the Blue team knew exactly what was going on and that't why they made such a big stink about it, and why they pushed so hard to get the negotiation clock started. The two against one negotiations were killing the blue side and ultimately ruined a great opportunity for BOTH sides to get a decent contract. >>
but what we all know is the neutral decided, after reviewing all the data, that UAL Management had violated its agreement with its pilot employees. Additionally the grievance proceedings, via their willingness to take back the funds, also demonstrated they, UAL Management, is more than willing to encourage division between the two pilot groups represented by ALPA.