What puzzles me is that they should have been aware of this. I had a couple of sessions as a staff rep and I quickly learned that if some big change was coming, the best thing to do was to get it done as quickly as possible and then tie the loose end up as quick as possible afterwards. Often we would fairly quickly end up exactly where we were prior to the change but the shitstorm had largely been avoided and everybody regardless of what side they took quickly forgot what had happened.