He's a cheif pilot. He's employed outside of the contract. Yeah life sucks for everyone right now, but your choosing to focus on something superfluous.
I don't think its that at all. The problem is that Horizon hires FOs for management positions because they know an FO will be a yes-man for them. If not its no upgrade for you. This way, management has someone in their pocket, and not on the side of the pilots. They dangle the carrot. If this was not true they would never hire an FO, they would hire a captain for the job like most companys.