It's interesting how quickly a few have jumped in to shout "JCBA first!"
Always being the contrarian when other pilots tell me what I should think (rather than points I should consider), I subscribe to the idea that most of the seniority list decisions have been made by now.
You can rest assured that the CAL team, under the leadership of Captain Brucia, has made some strong arguments for years of service. Brucia, who wrote, "...
where I differ with my fellow members of the Board is in the area of credit that should be given to a pilot based on date of hire and the pilot's resulting length of service", will cause a bit of a dilemma for the junior CAL pilots.
Conversely, the comparatively inexperienced UAL NC will bring a strong argument that the wide body slots are somehow worth "more" or need to be fenced. They will also tend to want to dampen the effect of note e., and amplify point c, the portions of ALPA's new merger policy that mandates:
a. Preserve jobs.
b. Avoid windfalls to either group at the expense of the other.
c. Maintain or improve pre-merger pay and standard of living.
d. Maintain or improve pre-merger pilot status.
e. Minimize detrimental changes to career expectations.
So? The list may not be completely finalized, but it is real close and will be sat on until a JCBA is announced. Why? Because national can't afford another decertification over SLI. The list will be bad news for someone. If that news is held until all the other cards are played first, the chances of ALPA national being able to ride through the resulting waves will be much better than if they announce SLI now and a grass roots decertification effort gets underway before anything else is done.
National and anyone that thinks they want to leave the cockpit for a job inside the beltway at national, will be quick to shout "JCBA first!" The painful lessons learned in the LCC disaster were a real wake up call and a big financial hit for ALPA staffers, particularly the legal staff. On the other hand, the administration of the Spirit strike was a huge success, so maybe we are beginning to see more responsible leadership. Unfortunately it took the loss of US airways as fellow ALPA members to bring about the change.