Wino,
You contend that fences determine the "fairness" of a merged list.
We have been operating operating seperately for two years now, with a "virtual fence" in place that isolates west and east operations. Since the merger, every new aircraft on the property has gone east. Every bit of growth has gone east. All of the furloughees have been recalled and hundreds of upgrades have taken place, all on the east. The west has upgraded fewer than fifty people, has taken delivery of no new aircraft, and has shrunk in every measurable metric. The result has been complete stagnation of the west.
These are not the result of the east's much vaunted "attrition", but the systematic shifting of corporate resources to the east in an attempt to capture the higher yields that exist there.
If you are looking for the proverbial lottery ticket, there it is, and the west doesn't hold it.
There was/is no reason to believe that this will not continue.
What you propose as a fence to "protect" the east would, in reality, be a fence that would restrict the west to an ever shrinking domicile and reserve all growth for the east; all in the name of protecting the "attrition" that was of dubious value the day prior to this merger, and denying to the west what were their reasonable pre merger expecations of growth.
As for the "rosiness" of the situation at AWA, what I posted was factual.
At the time of the merge, AWA was solvent, adding airplanes and hiring pilots. US Airways was not. What part of this is spin?
As for the granting of "the equivalent of 15 years service", consider that 15 years of service at the pre merge US Airways bought you a junior FO position on the bottom of the list. Post merger, it bought exactly the same thing, a junior FO position on the bottom of the list. At pre merger AWA 3 years service bought you a junior FO position at the bottom of the list. Post merger, the exact same thing. Who's got more, the guy with $1.50, or the guy with 1 Euro?
If any west pilots "go east" to be captains, they will be west pilots whose seniority level would have allowed them to upgrade at pre merger AWA, and whose pre-merger career expectations included the reasonable expectation of that upgrade.
I disagree with your opinions expressed in your last paragraph, inre arbitration and this particular arbitrator. Just because you don't get everything you ask for doesn't make the process flawed. (Not speaking to the SIN arbitration, only arbitration in general)
Thanks for the civil discourse.