other things going against you are plenty of industry arbitrations, mostly by FA's, and industry common practices of removing from service a few seats to get under FAA limits and then need fewer fight attendants...

IE - taking a few seats out of service to get a 155 seat jet to only 149 seats and then needing one less FA... althoigh they typically remove the seat, not just MEL it.... how do you have a permanent MEL? do they fix it, then put it back out oif service on some type of schedule?