I for one am not ready to throw away the NMFA as a relic. As far as deregulation that occured 20 plus years ago and the NMFA has survived since then. If the NMFA truly does perish it will be for several reasons, the lack of organizing in the freight industry, the growth of the non-union freight companies and like it or not white paper contracts that are substandard to the NMFA. Non of us should ever forget that there was a time when it was said "the companies will never sign a master agreeement or even allow their companies to be organized" and people did die to prove the naysayers wrong.
The reality is that UPS will not sign a NMFA, and the employees are not willing to strike to see it happen. They will take the Indy contract,+ or - a few things. This is my opinion, based on my fellow employees feelings on the matter.