Your first sentence says it all.....you might as well have said, I think usapa is going to fail its DFR, get itself sued, and force the separate ops issue as long as it can.
The other issue, is you are assuming you can get a non-Nic ratified. AOL could pull the DFRII trigger prior to ratification and stop the whole process.
Let me make it perfectly clear for you.
You have exactly two feasible options.
1. Nic inclusive joint contract.
2. Separate ops.
The same two options you had 7 years ago. The same two options you will have 7 years from now. It is really that simple. The Nic is not going away...that is what is meant by "binding".
Further, many strange things happened at the latest BPR meeting. APA president Wilson spelled out the APA's understanding of successor obligation to existing contracts, and for the benefit of the audience, exactly when the APA owes a DFR to LCC pilots. The investment people shocked Parella, when they made it clear she had no understanding of how the merger went down, and West rep Scherff did the recall attempt on Hummel.
All should have been eye openers for any usapa member still thinking the little lawyer was right, "seniority is like crew meals" or have the false read on what the courts have been telling usapa all along.