First off, welcome to all of my VX brothers and sisters! For the next couple of years, it's going to be a rough but exciting ride to say the least.
None of us are going to solve the SLI issue on a forum but it is a good place to vent and share ideas. More importantly, none of us really have a say on how it's going to go down. The best thing that we can do is let our reps know what each of us think and even then, it's only going to go so far.
It's going to be a tug of war, no doubt. Each side is going to try and get the best deal possible. I just hope that each side also realizes that going to arbitration will be bad joo joo. We all need to step back and not bite off more than we can chew. Everyone needs to know their limitations and not abuse the windfall, if you happen to be on that side of the fence. Pilots at Alaska really have very little to gain compared to VX pilots. People can say all they want about "what if jetBlue won the bid" etc. but did you ever think that Alaska management would standby idly while jetBlue tried to dominate the west coast? Alaska Airlines may be small but they had the money, as we saw, to buy an arsenal of their own even if this acquisition didn't work out. They may lack in the "vision/outlook" department but they are very good at reacting to a bad situation.
If you are less than 6 years at AS (especially the ex-furloughed folks), the outlook isn't very bright in my opinion. I expect the junior folks on both sides to jump ship to the big 3 and/or FedEx, if given the opportunity. Interesting times indeed.