Shame. I hope that is the overwhelming sensation that Alaska pilots are feeling right now. You should be ashamed that you had the perfect storm of leverage and time tables to bargain for serious improvements to your contract, but because you had a lack of foresight and hardwired a mandatory arbitration clause into your CBA, you've lost all ability to control your own futures.

You should be ashamed that you thought anything good could come from forced arbitration. It's a ploy that suckers agree to in America these days. The game is always rigged in the company's favor.

You should be ashamed that your union leadership has had a revolving door with management. It's crippled your union's ability to advocate for its pilots for years. Your MEC or LEC members don't want to jeopardize their friendships with BT or BM, and rocking the boat certainly won't help their personal goals. That culture needs to change.

You should be ashamed that the arbitration panel actually cited the history of the ALK pilot group of willingly taking it up the ass as precedence to deny any of the ALPA proposals.

So when the 100 seat RJ announcement happens next spring, I hope you're ashamed... and then resolved to never feel that way again.