How could it be any worse? You've got 26 year old amateurs doing it now. The pilot's job is to tell the negotiators what they want. The negotiators pursue that. The pilots decide to accept or reject what the negotiators came up with. If it's rejected, the negotiators are usually replaced unless its very close. Why not begin the entire process with a group that is more experienced. There is no point in making the same mistakes that ASA/Expressjet made just very recently ie negotiating more years then the length of the contract itself (and then in the end trashing the entire process and settling for an extension only).