Originally Posted by
Flyboy68
The DEC programs "is what it is". If a particular carrier doesn't have enough FO's with the flight time to upgrade, they have no choice but to hire from the outside. The only alternative is to ground planes, and no one wants that.
For at least one of the wholly-owned regionals, the FOs with the requirements to upgrade were there, they just weren't willing to do it for the pay/quality of life hit/various other reasons. Instead of addressing those factors, the company chose to work with the union to let them know they were less interested in fixing whatever may have been preventing a voluntary upgrade than forcing people to upgrade.