If the pilots have loyalty, it should be to their bread and butter. I.e.: if United’s acts were defensible, the pilots should either have taken a more even-handed approach, or kept their mouths shut. It’s not in their best interests to add fuel to the anti-United fire.
Iow, if United loses monumentally, it won’t be good for business.
That pilots point is “ain’t our (UA) fault”. The pilot’s point is that they are UA and Republic is not and it was Republic who called the policemen who harmed the passenger. They are telling you this isn’t UA’s issue.
But it is because UA is responsible for their contractors even when they are not in UA union. The pilot union’s bread-n-butter is themselves and no one else not UA and certainly not the passengers.