Technically true, but the application gets complex. Much like Judges have not only the authority, but the obligation, to vacate obviously aggregious convictions, awards and indictments, they almost never do. Doing so attracts a lot of scrutiny, and by doing nothing, they always get to carry on with their jobs and lifestyles unimpeded. So there's enormous pressure to just let things slide and, hey, who cares anyway because they can appeal in a decade or two anyway, so the system works, right?

When was the last time national withheld signature? The last I can remember was CCAir in the early 2000's. There have been many, many deals that effect other airlines. Argueably, all new contracts and LOA's do. Therefore, anything concessionary in any way, is concessionary for all one way or the other.

Yet ALPA almost always allows concessions to go through when a pilot group votes for them for whatever reason. Wether its mainline concessions that kick off a cascading round of competitive concessions for all others, regional vs regional "predatory bargaining" for growth (or even for existing flying) or new CBA's for arbitrage/Ponzi scheme start ups, almost everything is signed off on, almost all the time anyway.

Yet if everything that meets the criteria wasn't signed off on, ALPA would quickly shatter into a million pieces anyway because the piot groups who ratify those agreements do so for their own individual motives. Imagine if whoever was first after 9-11 (USAir?) wasn't allowed to sign concessions. The "greater good" would have been served in theory, but they probably would have instantly went independant and done whatever it took to survive anyway. For the regionals, there was/still is just enough represenative arbitrage (IBT and non-union shops) in direct conflice with ALPA anyway, so ALPA witholding signature on a predatory marketshare grab would just see those shops grow even more during such times.

The only thing that would mitigate that would be one or two tiers of NSL's, ratified by all pilot groups including the most healthy at the time, and somehow binding on all airlines despite the costs it would inflict on them.

What's the answer? I don't know. As a first step I've always been in favor of eliminating the punitive "first year pay" (and sometumes second year too) being dramatically lower than the yearly steps when compared to 3rd year pay. We've come a long way towards remedying that. Hotels, uniforms and other things have taken some of the sting out of starting over. However its likely not enough to stop another in-distress airline from negotiating whatever they need to survive.