They did it to the auto makers. But that is off point. The questions to ask is why did the classics go away? It was determined that the classics were no longer at Polar because the freight was being flown by Atlas. A violation of the CBA scope. That was the the reason the classics went away at least in the arbitration award..
I find myself in agreement that the FE's should have worked toward a commercial license, but that is not as easy as you might think. A few of the FEs took LOAs (the single ones) and worked on the 250 hrs needed, others started from scratch and they are working on the -400 today. But with wife, kids, and bills, a lot of the guys did not have the time nor money to go that route.
But, given that it still doesn't give the company to right to violate the scope. Even after the ruling the company still refuses to abide by the ruling. All have ID cards again and are on the CASS roster or at least soon to be, yet none are being paid although the company says they are active crew members and that means the 65 hour guarantee should apply.
While there are a lot of good points made on both sides here it still comes down to scope.