Hair,
Whether you like it or not, Jetblue has matured. Management had a clear path to keeping a union drive dead. They simply needed to keep > 35% of the pilot group feeling like they had a fair deal. That did not happen. No matter how you look at it management failed at that. Once the cards were dropped, it triggered a new era for Jetblue. All of us were forced to make a decision. I am not sure who concieved the idea for the Bobs, but they decided to sign up individually. A lot of these pilots are pretty good guys (not sure of the gals) who honestly see the good of what the original Jetblue was trying to achieve. Things probably would have gone fine if we kept growing and making money. That stopped with the downturn in the economy. Many of these pilots were "leaders" ie check airman, PVC folks etc.
I really think these folks were brave for coming out for their beliefs, but what I do not think they counted on was the realities of this industry. It is a tough industry where most pilots are unionized. I think it was brave but naive for many of them not to think this through. There were, however, guys like Nick who were...disgraceful in their positions and their misrepresentations of the facts and now the Bobs who were just naive will be painted with the same brush as Nick. We will now either be sold, something good will come out of the effort, or there will be a union drive every year till this passes. The Bob list sadly(for the naive) but predictably will live on forever.