I'll bite.
I think it was a genuine attempt by flight ops to manage the surplus they've got. At the moment the surplus is around the 100 mark. It's likely to get worse after 24th August.
I don't think the pilot managers want redundancies. I'll give them that much.
The fact the lwop has turned in to the abortion that it has, however, speaks volumes about the competency of those involved. You make sure a deal like this is 100% ironclad before you go public. A bit like the east Timor/ Malaysia refugee deals alluded to elsewhere.