Several airlines have begun offering signing bonus to go there. Gojet just began offering a $5000 bonus paid over a year. They have been in contract talks the last couple of years.
The bonuses are a violation of the contract that is in place. The contract specifies how pilots will be paid. Paying some pilots outside of the contract is a violation of the CBA even if you call it something else.
The pilot shortage will help to drive wages up but not if airlines can merely begin their own new compensation scale with new hires. Pilots will not look at the contracts when deciding which airline to go to they will look at the new hire bonus package. Airlines will lose their incentive to bargain in earnest with the current union representations because what will really be important in getting pilots will be their new hire package.
Why would Gojet want to finish their contract and give all 500 pilots a $5000 or more raise when it can simply offer the raise to the new hire pilots?
With the expiration of the Gojet contract a status quo requirement goes into effect, neither side can unilaterally change the terms of the employment. That includes giving a raise to certain parties.
Anyone wishing to see what the Supreme Court has said on the subject can look at http://www.leagle.com/decision/1976... TOLEDO SHORE LINE R. CO. v. UNITED TRANSP. U, and its progeny.
Not sure how GoJet is doing it, but other airlines have gotten away with it by paying the signing bonus before the pilot is technically an employee. Show up for class, get handed a check, and then fill out your W-4 and become an official employee. The signing bonus is 1099 income, not wages. The CBA doesn't cover someone until he's employed in that craft and class.