The protections you quote are for 5 years and cease if the retirement age is raised to 65. The top 517 were hired before any of the AWA pilots and got exactly what their longevity gave them. There was no gift there.

You are the one that stated, its only what you bring. An FE, brings and FE slot and shouldn't go ahead of a single FO, no matter how long he has been around. You won't admit, but that is where your logic takes you. Likewise if UAL were to merger with Airtran tomorrow, every 73 Captain Airtran has should be slotted senior to any 737 or A320 FO at UAL, even if they have only been there 4 years vs 8 or 10 or more at UAL. If the Airtran pilot in the future then holds a wide body position first and through the benefit of likely being younger forever blocks the UAL pilot from, so be it, right? That is what you are advocating whether you want to admit it or not. I hope we get a good look at it. If I were a pilot working in younger pilot group, I wouldn't negotiate one iota in a merger with the other pilot group, because the worse case scenario is you end up with DOH, which is fair.

Fortuantely I have a personal business, so if this entire profession goes down in flames it won't hurt my feelings. I'll be the first to tell every whiner I fly with, that when principles and unionism loose out, this is what you get and so take a good look in the mirror. The word scab will cease to exist in my vocabulary because in this great capitalistic environment amongst pilots that ALPA just seem to love, it is only about what you can get, when you can get just like all the other non-union shclubs out their working in the professional world. ALPA is hypocrisy at it's best, and it will reap what it sows.