Major airline pilots have long complained about the practice of “outsourcing” flying to lower-cost regional carriers, despite the existence of clauses written into union contracts meant to limit the size and number of regional airplanes those affiliates may fly. In fact, those scope clauses lost much of their bite when a wave of major airline bankruptcies starting in 2002 tipped the balance of power away from the unions and decidedly toward management.
Now, as United and Continental Airlines work to complete their planned merger, pilot leaders from both carriers see a chance to regain some lost ground during talks in Denver over a new, integrated labor contract. Not only have the pilots proposed a stricter scope clause, they have also called for an eventual abolishment of so-called “regional jet outsourcing”–a proposal so radical that few expect management to consider it for a moment.
