Actually, the history goes back a little further. You might remember a little outfit called New York Air. A guy named Frank Lorenzo started them as a separate airline under the Texas Air umbrella. He started the company, transferred assets (read aircraft) from the existing airline and hired pilots (non union) at a fraction of what he was paying the Texas Air/Continental pilots (Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that Continental was part of Texas Air when New York Air was started). The upshot of this was that it was all legal and above board. The unions started to negotiate scope clauses to determine who could fly their company's airplanes, or aircraft with their company's livery. The next logical step was to apply this to regionals involved in code-sharing who ultimately became wholly owned by the parent companies. Before we even get into the inevitable argument about career expectations and such, let me say this, the pilots at the majors who have negotiated these clauses have no "God Given" right to limit the scope of the flying of their airline. They simply have the power to do so. Why does a dog lick his..... oh well you know. Anyway, if you want to get a taste of what happens without such clauses, take a look at BA and Cathay and see what they have done. BA has a bunch of airlines flying under their livery, arguably taking away potential flying from their mainline pilots and one only has to cruise over to the Cathay/Fragrant Harbour Forums to see how people feel about ASL. If you ask me, the pilots at the majors would be well advised to listen to ironbutts and get the regional guys/gals on board because an elimination of scope clauses has much larger ramifications if you look at the case of different airlines under the corporate umbrella and the transfer of assets. Imagine if American Airlines could transfer it’s entire fleet of MD-80’s (or even B777’s) to another airline that they own and fly them for half the cost. Without a scope clause, they could even keep the same paint job and no one other than the pilots would know the difference.