So you're just that pissed off about everything, right? Man, your life must just suck.
They were parked after 28 Dec 2014 to comply with the SWA/SWAPA CBA, and in particular, its scope clause. I'm gonna' have to assume you're not familiar with it, since your last few posts have either ridiculed its importance, or shown a marked ignorance.
At any rate, it protects all of us (including you) by prohibiting not only all domestic and near international code share, but also prohibits the company from creating or operating an "alter-ego" or subordinate airline. That included the residual AirTran 717 fleet, continually decreasing, but working an AirTran-type operation and paying AirTran wages. The union voted in a limited-time exemption to this prohibition to give the company time to draw down that fleet in an organized manner after the acquisition, as it assimilated the employees into Southwest.
The fact that there was still 30-odd leftover 717s parked after the agreed-upon sunset of the exemption is a testament to the strength of our scope clause. The company was unable or unwilling to fulfill their obligations in the agreed time, so the remaining aircraft were parked and the remaining employees immediately assimilated into our contract.
So tell us, oh great and all-knowing Freightdog dude, what should we have done?--let the company continue to operate an alter-ego airline in perpetuity? Jeez, you bitch about the existence of alter-ego, "B-scale" airline operations during the agreed-transition period, then bitch out the other side of your mouth (nearly the exact opposite argument) when the exemption period ends and it goes away. Make up your mind, already.
Bubba