You guys or on crack if you think the aa merger committee will give an opinion on how the east/west are ordered. I bet you they will remain "neutral" on that question

That question is irrelevant.

Even if EF ran to GH and begged to merge the E & W lists, it would not be permitted per the standing contracts. Those pesky contract terms.

The arbitrators can.

But how long would that have taken? How many more years? Absent this merger with AA, I think that would have happened eventually once the retirements eventually evened out the numbers of each group. But a lot of West pilots would have retired and/or left the company by then as well. That's one of the issues. The TA was written so either side could prevent implementation by not voting in a new JCBA that would trigger implementation. To try and use it now is taking that failsafe away that was built into the TA. It's essentially saying the East voted it in, when they did not.

Irrelevant, forget the Nic for a second, when was usairways a single airline under single corporate control? That is where the arbitrators will start from if they follow the ual/cal award reasoning.

This may not be popular with my west brothers and sisters but I will admit that the Nic is probably not going to be used in its unaltered form. That greatly disappoints me. None of us created the award. We, through our elected reps, agreed to let this guy decide what was to be. We argued a method just as the east did. Nicolau decided. Why the east never asked him to revisit the award if they felt it was inappropriate is beyond me. Hell he even went on to state that he would continue to have authority over that determination. Anyhow my point is; I do believe that the arbitrators will look at the current Nic and adjust it for existing equities. How that will be done is far beyond my pea-brain capabilities...

Some of you West guys are fixated on implicit assumptions.

You guys think you know what an arbitration panel will do, even though it is not certain that an arbitration panel will ever even be granted authority over the SLI... but even assuming it will be arbitrated, it is not certain who will participate nor is it certain what extent of the SLI question(s) will actually be granted to them.

When ever you use the word "if", just remember that is when your "implicit assumption" starts and "contingencies" begin... just like when the 9th schooled you guys on "implicit assumptions" and "contingencies".

Don't spend all your "righteous damages" just yet.

The arbitrators will decide what pre-merger career expectations are and what weight is given to that factor.....and BTW, it isn't simply me that's promoting that concept, it's APA. Anyone who has done any research into AA's financials and what the C11 was about, knows what AA's valuation was and what future it had. Just as in the UAL-CAL SLI, our final SLI award will contain the arbitrators full evaluation of that factor as well as the financials present at merger and future expectations and how those all factored into their final ISL if it is. Again, it seems no one really READS my points, but simply stops reading early and inserts their own bias.

I'm not speaking for my "friends" in the East's position on the Nic and never have. Yes, THEY don't want it used, but I've never said that and in fact, have said closer to the opposite with the West getting a fair shot at arguing for it and an opportunity to do so. What I've also said though is I don't THINK it will be used and I've also said I don't CARE if it is. Those are just MY personal opinions. My belief also is that if it should be, a more complicated SLI would result with mitigators like fences which would be included to offset its negative impact on AA pilots.

If the West committee doesn't get a seat at the arbitration table, then for all intents and purposes, the Nic is dead. The West may then sue someone for DFR, but that wont change a final Nicless ISL, only obtain damages if successful. The arbitrators are off-limits, USAPA will be long broke be then (5-7 years) and that leaves APA, who considering they threw that question in the laps of arbitrators, aren't likely to lose. Again, personally, I have no problem with a West committee nor arbitral consideration of the Nic.

But that SLI was "clean" in the respect it had no unconsummated previous integration between pilot groups prior to that merger. Will that matter ?

Only the arbitrators can decide that.

Possible, but the reality in that situation is it wouldn't be the Nic. The Nic would have been rejected.