TWA:
Nobody is sure.....but since there never was a "consumated" merger between the East and West, the Nic may not be used. You are betting what you have received on the notion that the future arbitrator will use the Nic list as the USAir list in the SLI with AMR. What if it never gets to an arbitrator? Wouldn't you rather have something a little more concrete than "well just see who is right"?
I personally hope it isn't, even though I don't have a dog in the fight. While binding arbitration is binding, the results of the NIC, IMO, did not comply with ALPA merger policy and it should have been tasked by ALPA National to fix the situation. ALPA did nothing because as is typical, they let the pilot groups go at it like a boxing match without a referee, and of course, they don't want to get sued, do they. No one wins when one group gets a windfall and the other uses its majority to not only leave the union, but become enabled to proliferate a never ending series of lawsuits that may never be settled. ALPA's history is littered with this crap. PanAm-National, TWA-Ozark, AMR-TWA.....any of this sound familiar?
A national seniority list should have been implemented by ALPA years ago and DOH is the only way to merge lists. You use conditions and restrictions to make sure pilot groups of wildly differing seniorities and years of service don't screw each other over. You can't stand behind a list of nebulous one liners that is ALPA merger policy. The policy should be black and white and not up to interpretation.
The only saving grace now is that for the short term, merger mania may be over.
A350