This is so good that I had to share it here with the easties.
IMHO, Mediation/Negotiation is unlikely to be imposed by Silver.
1. The DJ is about about answering company liability on accepting a SL, not resolving the dispute created by east pilots over the NIC.
2. For the plaintiffs (AOL) to be given the authority to mediate would require Silver reaching inside RLA law to modify the TA to name the West plaintiffs as the third party to replace the West MEC. This would also change the structure of the USAPA union. Like Wake realized for his injunction, Federal judges lack the power to do such a thing. Wake's injunction simply ordered USAPA to follow the TA.
3. USAPA and the company cannot agree to change the TA on their own to allow the plaintiffs to replace the west MEC in the TA without inquiring liability - the subject of the DJ. As many have said, USAPA closed the door to changing anything in the TA (the NIC) when they eliminated the West MEC.
4. If any of the above actually occurred, then, the closed section in TA on seniority integration would have to be agreed to be amended by all three parties to allow a new process (negotiation). Given the concessionary contract USAPA is negotiating for the West, negligible pay increase and potential for job displacement, there is no reason for the majority of West pilots to agree to such a thing. The NIC is all we the west pilots have for protection.
5. The 9th said that USAPA can modify the award to the extent that its predecessor (ALPA) could. ALPA could not legally modify the NIC and neither can USAPA.
USAPA has a habit of advancing a pretext of compromise when they are losing (RICO). This mediation/negotiation talk continues that pattern. As Wake said in doc 593, USAPA's purpose is to advance the interests of the east at the expense of the west. Mediation/Negotiation serves this purpose.
