Now that I think about it, maybe the fact that the arbitrator is on a permanent panel that may have decided disputes between SWA and TWU 550, that might be what they are trying to call a conflict of intrest?
Still at $900 a day, I think he can stay neutral.
Even so its a group effort to AGREE on the arbitrator. They are done, crying over spilled milk. The argument in itself is BS. It's an agreed upon process, that is used as a last resort to reach a decision. We've lost arbitrations before, we press on. This whole I heard story lost its validity simply due to its initial ill informed author.... pathetic.