Relaxing the Scope Clause is bad. Agree with the many reasons baseball posted above.
Unfortunately, I think the MC and Negotiating Committee are headed down that road, or at least laying the groundwork for it.
I re-read the MC's Labor Day letter the other day and came across a tidbit in the Q&A that I had overlooked on the first reading:
Q) Are we going to trade scope for compensation?
A) No, pay rates are only as good as the protections in place to ensure we keep flying the seats where those rates apply. We will not agree to any changes in scope unless they benefit career security for pilots. Pilots need to have a long-term focus based on protecting the profession over a 30-year career, and not focus on short-term gains.
Put another way,
we will agree to changes in scope if they benefit career security for pilots.
In the same letter, the MC articulated what he perceived to be threats to our career security: the CRJ-550, JV Scope, and the fact that "management can park literally all of our mainline wide-body aircraft, and up to 160 of our narrow-bodies, and they would still not be required to remove one single RJ from Express service."
Are these true threats or is this the smoke screen being laid down to give the NC cover? The CRJ-550 has limited utility in limited markets and the company hasn't so far shown interest in having Delta-style JVs to outsource widebody flying.
It seems to me that the MC is setting up the messaging so that when they move on Scope, he can declare victory and say "we said all along we wouldn't make changes to scope unless it benefited career security for pilots and we've kept our word. We've limited the number of 50-seat RJ's, gained some JV protections, and now have RJ-to-mainline aircraft ratios. We also have a no-furlough clause! However, in order to secure these industry-leading protections, tough choices had to be made so we've agreed to remove/relax the 100-seat scope choke language. Pilots need to have a long-term focus based on protecting the profession over a 30-year career, and not focus on short-term gains."
It will be sold as a victory, but the company will have moved the line yet again.