Merging?
I have been reading the many threads concerning mergers past, present, and potential. It seems to me that every pilot has a conflicting idea of what a fair integration of the two pilot groups is. It seems to me that a "fair" integration would be to make a new seniority list based on the Date of Hire. In exemplia: Airline A is the buyer, Airline B is the acquired. The most senior captain at A was hired at the company on January 1st 1980. The most senior captain at B was hired on December 31st 1979. In my model, the captain from B would be the new senior pilot at A. Now lets say that the captain from A is on the 777, and has been since his airline bought the 777 fleet. Captain B has only been on the 777 for one year. In this proposed model, Captain B would be junior to Captain A, on equipment, but senior to the company. Does that make sense? Is this a feasible model? How is it done in the real world, and why does it never seem to be fair?
I suppose it comes down to the fact that "fair" is arbitrary. So, what is the "right" thing to be done in these instances?
Does anybody have any better ideas?