It's naive to suggest that this was all about blowing smoke up somebody's skirt.
Look, to make this happen on any kind of scale of more than a few, some pilot group would have to pay something to offset the training costs of putting pilots, who had no intention of staying here, through a syllabus and training their replacements when they leave. It's a known double training hit for the company. That's why managments like Comair and Alaska have that policy in the first place.
As a status rep, you must understand that.
You can call it "naive" all you want, but the facts are the facts. Captain Buergey asked for nothing more than for the CMR MEC to have a talk with management and request preferential hiring of DAL pilots without having to resign their DAL numbers. He requested no bargaining, no concessions, nothing else. Just a simple request of Comair management.
Why do we have to keep debating this? The facts are known on this case, and they have been for quite some time. Just admit that it was a stupid thing to do, and your fellow ALPA pilots deserved better.