Walt,
Scheduling have not screwed up! A systematic decisions was taken 3 years ago that it was cheaper to work the pilots to maximum hours in overtime than to employ more pilots. Sadly, they forgot that if you work people harder, on the type of flying we do, they get fatigued or sick.
Then the real rub, they had decided not to budget for long term sickness because it made the numbers look better. Now they are being caught with their pants down and are asking scheduling and the crews to fix it. 4 years ago guys would have helped out in a heartbeat. Now, because of the credit rule changes (training etc not counting for productivity) few people feel they have an incentive to help.
If they help they do not get paid for it quite often. A full months block in the remaining 2 weeks of a month without triggering overtime seems not to be uncommon. More importantly it allows the guy in charge of pilot resourcing to prove that he hasn't really screwed the pooch. Worse still, some of the guys that do help, ask scheduling to promise the earth for the swap and the knock on effect is that they screw their buddies.