In my 29 years at United Airlines there has never been a pay raise or bonus paid to pilots that was not contractual. This management, (CAL Management) apparently felt that since their pilots were part of the same workforce they deserved to share in the profit sharing. And in fact, paid them a profit sharing check without regard to whether they had a contract or not. While you can't argue with the generosity of Management, You can point to a lack of language in their CBA that was negotiated prior to the merger AND you can point to the TPA which was signed before the merger was finalized, language that specifically forbids unequal treatment so as not to show favoritism for one group against the other. Each labor group had a contract and until the merger that is what each group worked under.