Throwing my alternate theory hat on:

1. Company's Blatant Disregard for the Contract: remember that our employer is first and foremost a business. Two things they care about, profit and sustainability. They are going to do whatever they think is necessary at the time, then will worry about potential consequences (grievances, arbitration, etc), at a later date. Seems to have been their MO lately. Remember, as Uncle Jetdoc has said, if an airline manager's lips are moving, they are lying. If you look at it from that perspective, its not hard to understand why they are maneuvering the way they are.

2. Vacation buybacks-apparently they are worried about staffing during the holidays (sustainability). It's unfortunate we have gotten to this point, and yes, bad long term strategic planning is the reason we are here. I suspect that things will stabilize for the short term, and when we get staffing levels back to where they need to be again, we will see what happens.

3. This is probably where we need to get a solid answer from the company in regards to the LOA: one of the things I d personally like to see changed in our next contract negotiations is the wording when it comes to "Operational Necessity", or least getting it clearly defined so that way we know when it truly is, versus someone is being lazy in crew planning. The ambiguity of that term means they can do it on a whim and throw the blame on ON whenever they want. Also, in regards to LCR-they were keeping the buffers high during the holiday months. Fall break is around the corner, with Thanksgiving and Christmas expect this to be the norm for the next three months until we are out of the holiday season.

4. Again, back to point 1: sustainability and profit-maintaining a right seat qualified Captain ensures that they can staff airplanes if they get into dire straights. Again they have mentioned that they are looking for volunteers right now. I do hope our fellow Captains just keep driving on and moving forward than volunteering for such a program. As a point of fact-the Company has made good on their upgrade promises for the time being, something like 8-12 a month? Maybe not enough to keep up with attrition, but that is a hard number to forecast.

***Definitely not management-just trying to throw a different perspective out there for alternate theories.