They had nogotiated the contract that had the acquisition/merger language long before the industry had truly skyrocketed. I believe that was around the time of our 2012 contract, you know the one the union described as a “Home Run” and Ed described as cost neutral.

The Alaska pilot group didn’t want things to drag out in a similar fashion as the Repulic(regional) negotiations, which took 8+ years. The didn’t want a replete of US Air/ America West.

I do understand their thought process.