It's not necessarily a attempt to reduce manning. Not to the extreme you suggested(or repeated). It's simply a way to utilize reserves more, particularly for the Wide Body fleets that have 5-16 day trips. You see, at Delta a pilots line value fluctuates based on the companies usage of a pilots respective fleet throughout the year. It's referred to as an ALV or average line value. There is a contractual window(72-84 hours)that must be met. Example- In a slow month like October the ALV is typically 72 hours. In a busy month like June it is 82 hours. Under the current rules a reserve pilot is not contractually obligated to fly past the ALV, so once he/she is with in 2 hours of said ALV he/she is done. No more flying required. This "supposedly" creates an issue with the WB fleets(particularly the 757/767 since it's domestic and international), as WB trips 6-14 days can be worth 35-80 hours of credit. If a reserve guy has vacation, or has done a few domestic trips and a long international trip pops up it will likely cause him to exceed the ALV and therefore he is under no obligation to accept it. He may take it if he wishes to break guarantee, and would be paid accordingly(not to exceed 15 hours above the ALV).

Under the new proposal, as long as he is under the ALV he can be assigned a trip not to exceed ALV + 15. Essentially the TA takes away the option to turn down a trip that causes one to break guarantee. This is considered by many to be concessionary.