Well it kind of is, because ALPA policy and precedent came in part out of those mergers... an arbitrator will be required to reference that to inform his decision making. The arbitrator's job isn't to do whatever HE thinks is fair, it's to apply the union policy to which we are all party, as best as he can interpret that.

Also this is the actually the last of the old skool legacy airline mergers, the notable difference being that only one side has WB's (of course ALPA policy revolves around WB's ).

With one caveat: AS side stands to wind up at significant seniority/fence disadvantage (nature of WB vs. NB SLI)... maybe we should ensure that the JCBA has some goodies in it for us specifically, in addition to industry-standard WB rates?