"...if the 12 had not put their feet down?"


You're not the only one trotting out this flawed logic. You cannot have it both ways.

On August 2nd, Malone informed the MEC that he was stuck, and needed re-direction. On August 12th, the Delusional Dozen decided to halt deliberations and issue a manifesto through Roger Goodwin. These twelve, led by Bill Bartels, decided to double down and engage in regressive bargaining.

It. Didn't. Work. The regressive direction resulted in the NMB moving on to other cases with higher probabilities of success. See Negotiator's Notepad 16-13. Remember "no further meetings are scheduled at this time?" We would still be there, and the comprehensive proposals exchanged on August 2nd would still be out there for everyone to see, and the answer would still be hanging somewhere in the middle, as our new PWA clearly demonstrates.

We spent three weeks looking over this cliff, our negotiators' hands tied behind their backs, and the banner towing over empty baseball stadiums notwithstanding, and the membership figured out that Bill Bartels wasn't taking his foot off the gas. They started to contact their reps, wondering what the hell was wrong with them.

The MEC spent the third week of September taking a long look at the polling data. It became clear to Bill that he was getting into unpopular territory with the membership. Everyone knew that the resolution was sitting somewhere in the middle ground between the proposals, and everyone knew that about 82 percent of the membership wanted a solid deal more than they wanted to go down the alternate path. Bill knew it too, and so the "twelve" turned out to be maybe five.

Their "tough stance" turned out to be nothing when the membership put a laser dot on them. They gave Malone what he needed to cut a deal, and salvaged their political ambitions for another day.