Originally Posted by
rickair7777
ALPA doesn't strictly prohibit staple, but in extreme case the rules might allow something that looks similar. NK is not there yet by a long shot, right now it looks like NB on NB with (I assume) similar longevity distribution so more like a zipper.
While career expectations count, that's hard to quantify as far as the company finances and future prospects, so it probably doesn't get weighted much. We're learning this stuff over at AS.
Any furloughed pilots will be effectively stapeled. In UAL/CAL the furloughees caused 1998 UAL hires to be merged with 2006 CAL hires and most of the 1998 hires had never even been furloughed. Furloughing drags down the active flying pilots lower on the status and category list, so any furlough at either airline will have a devastating effect on the SLI, even if they are furloughed just a few days before the Merger is Completed (independent of merger announcement date)