A national seniority list would make us all individual contract employees with a minimum salary negotiated by the union. This is exactly how the Directors Guild of America or any other national seniority list works. Thus we would have to compete with each other for work vs having individual groups bargain collectively. A complete disaster if you ask me.

No, a much better system would be ALPA National becoming a professional standards society like the American Medical Association, and each individual company has its own independent union for collective bargaining. This eliminates the inherent conflict of interest within the organization during the downturns in the industry. It also greatly reduces dues, corruption, and wasteful spending.

Also, longevity based pay is a better method of compensation, I'm not convinced it reduces the number of jobs at an airline. Airline staffing usually revolves around management incompetence.