Voting on the company's "last and best offer" would have been a tremendous waste of time. It would have taken at least a couple of weeks, likely more, and it would have been overwhelmingly voted down. There was absolutely no chance of it being ratified. Those calling for a vote simply wanted to delay the inevitable. CHC&Proud has it right - those who voted for strike authorization and then got cold feet deserve the names they are and will be called. There will be some cold cockpits when this is over.
Hiring 500 hour pilots won't fill the void for PHI. There are fewer small ships in service every month, and more and more medium and heavy ships. 500-hour former Robbie drivers simply cannot be promoted to S92 or S76 PICs overnight. All the oil companies require much more time and experience for IFR PICs. PHI has plenty of 206 pilots, but even placing new hires into SIC positions hasn't made a dent in the medium/heavy shortage. I've been flying with lots of SICs with less than a year with the company, and while they're mostly competent SICs, they're a long way from being able to act as an IFR PIC. They're still learning to do normal approaches to rigs, and boat landings scare them to death. They'll get there, eventually, but not this year.