Originally Posted by flapshalfspeed

However, lawyers and arbitrators do not read contracts from the perspective of ordinary humans like us, and while something such as this seems readily obvious to an average Joe, they've decided that "base pay" means "the lowest paying jet equipment category that has ever been operated by Mesa since the CBA was signed."

Because it is not explicitly stated to the contrary, the arbitrator determined that equipment-specific payrates are only effective in an operational sense--i.e. those are the rates you get when actually flying that specific aircraft.