I'll provide a little history. Back when everything was done on the Unix system known as Unimatic, everyone's calendar was viewable by everyone. All you had to do was type in the person and the month.

Fast forward to May 1985. UAL strike. Many of the Scabs, yes, strike breakers are called SCABS, moved to work in the training center and management pilot jobs. They were being protected by upper management, read, Dick Ferris.

What also accompanied this protection was crew desk abuse. The management pilots, and SCAB check airman were being given choice assignments and schedules that blatantly violated the contract. Yes, good ALPA pilots were monitoring SCAB schedules. Thus was born the blocked calendars. If you can't see the schedule and good deals given by the crew desk and your SCAB buddies, you can't grieve it.

Ever since then, some have blocked their calendars for good reasons--few good reasons, others, because they are SCABS and are trying to cheat everyone else, well....because they are SCABS. It makes transparency much harder by not being able to see the schedules.

Now, having said that, I think today we have it much better. Most of the trip trading is controlled by the computer to avoid just such abuse and is much more contractually compliant. But, abuse is still happening by those who have friends in certain places and watch aircraft maintenance movements and cargo trips. Or--pay into a trading group to give heads up on upcoming sick calls. These scams abrogate seniority and cheat everyone involved, and violates the contract. Past practice is a thing when it comes to grievance and contract negotiations. So by cheating the system we all suffer. One way to avoid such abuse is to have some very sharp pilots watching the schedules. You never know who is watching!