I still respectfully disagree completely, its easy to sit in a board room or office and play with the SL like its the roster of the Yankees. But its an entirely different thing to go out on the line and see people face to face and say "sorry but that guy hired 5 years after you will be upgrading to your position, your an FO again."
The thing that further exacerbates this is the age 65 rule (previously of course 60). As things stand right now every one of us flying 121 have a magic date when we are no longer fit to fly for the airlines anymore (mine is 9/12/2068). Every day that date gets closure irregardless of what we fly or who we fly for. Now generally speaking, the higher you go on the SL the older people get (although OF COURSE this isn't always the case) and the more burdens they have (mortgage, kids, tuition, etc). Since everyone on the list is paying the same union, and its the unions job to do whats best for the group this only makes sense that the follow DOH.
In thinking about this more, I also recognize some exceptions can be made. For example when merging of different aircraft types I see why a temporary fence is often put up to reduce training costs and stop involuntarily displacements.
