Some of the top guys in the union played down word of a new TA when I asked them about it. "Main points agreed upon" means "the easy, non-contentious stuff is agreed upon."

Anyone who has been through a long, drawn-out contract negotiation knows that--until sections on compensation and scheduling are closed and cleaned--you're not really "close to a TA" at all.

From my sources, the company isn't budging on scheduling--stuff like how they set buffers and criteria for swaps/drops/line enhancement. Until that section is closed, I'll be surprised if it's finished in my lifetime (sans some sort of pressure from our codeshare overlords).