No posturing, just negotiations 101.
It's pretty straight forward, SWAPA has pretty much all the leverage, plus they have the GO at their back.
Would they fear arbitration? Absolutely not, the long list of gains for AAI pilots are legendary. The possiblity of a bad SLI with regard to the Southwest pilots? The operations would never be merged per Mike Van's 'no Southwest pilot will me harmed'. Read - Gary and Mike will not harm the culture. (Gary to piss of 6000 pilots vs 1700?, you be the judge)
The formulation of TWO LCC corporations was done for a specific reason and it had absolutely NOTHING to do with tax purposes other than being structured in Nevada. You guys can keep debating the above, but I have no worries about it. Cheers.