411's right - it's not being heartless, it's just a reality of modern-day cut-throat business practices.
From an airline / employer point of view it makes great commercial / financial sense to do this, there are even a few plus points for the pilots / employees too, but I'll leave you to go figure just what. <img src="wink.gif" border="0">
Thus I'll go so far as to wager that as the years roll by there'll be more and more airline pilots working on a 'contract' basis than you'd ever think possible today - and the days of the 'Teamsters' are long gone !