here's a recent (but separate) matter being discussed on the Airtran forum
Ramp Outsourcing at 7 AirTran stations
The original poster, wahooflyer, made a great comment at the end of his post:
Good luck with the rent-a-rampers, Southwest. You need look no further than the Alaska Airlines/Menzies ramp outsourcing in SEA to see what's going to happen at these small stations. I fly US Airways out of RIC frequently (which has outsourced its ramp at almost all stations) and see bags flying off the carts and lots of other ramp carelessness all the time. That's the kind of people you'll get when you hire a contractor paying $7.50 an hour.
Wahooflyer also pointed out that the most recent WN transit workers 555 contract
ALREADY allows third party contractors for airports that have 12 or less departures per day. This is definitely a cash grab.