Then we'll have to change the federal code.
Why? I don't recall anything in the Federal code specifying that we must be viewed as blue collar employees. In fact, a quick keyword search failed to hit on that word at all.
Do they get dolalr for dollar? Or do the hospitals and firms get their cut?
In the case of my neurosurgeon friend, he gets paid an hourly rate. What the facility charges the patient he doesn't know (or care). The patient doesn't pay his wage directly, just like our passengers don't pay our wage directly. Both clients (patients and passengers) pay the company (medical facility and airlines) for a service, and the service provider (surgeon and pilot) get paid an hourly wage for providing the service. (By the way, I need to tip my hat to my friend-- at 28 he just finished an 8-year neurosurgery residency, one of the youngest people to do so, and his sister is finishing her general residency at 25. He left last month for Israel where he will be working in an Army hospital for a 1-year fellowship seeing cases he'd never see regularly in the US. I've never seen someone work so hard and make it look so effortless.)
Likewise, in the case of my attorney friends, they bill clients $200 and $285 per hour, respectively, and they get paid $100 and $125 per hour respectively. (The 3rd friend wasn't home when I called a few minutes ago, so I don't know what he gets paid.)
If it is a great idea... then I think it would be done.
If you applied that logic to every new idea-- that it would have already been done if it were a great idea-- then we'd never have anything new, would we? "CSIRO 1996: If making Internet connections wireless is a great idea... then I think it would have been done" or "ALPA 1931: If establishing a collective bargaining agent for pilots is a great idea... then I think it would have been done."
How does an organization control and certify entrants?
Excellent question, and one I think ALPA or a newly formed group of concerned pilots should study. I am sure that a quick investigation of the history of the American Bar Association and the American Medical Association would teach us a lot.
So how would that work for airline pilots? Once a pilot gets hired what incentive does he have to get a gold seal or Master class?
I am sure that there are many ways to approach this. If we use my original example that a requirement of membership in ALPA is the passing of a Bar-type entrance exam, then any pilot hired at a current ALPA would have to have passed the exam in order to obtain ALPA membership. Public shame works well, too: "At ALPA, we only admit the best qualified pilots, pilots who have graduated an ALPA-certified school and are able to pass the ALPA-exam on the first or second attempt. Many call themselves pilots, but only a select few have earned the title ALPA Pilot. So the next time you book a ticket, be sure to ask the airline, 'Do you employ ALPA Pilots?' Your family deserves the best."
Trust me, peer pressure works well in a situation like this. When United Airlines employed the first nurse as a flight attendant in 1930, other airlines fell all over themselves to make sure that their flights had nurses on board, too. Nobody wanted to be viewed as 'less safe' than United Airlines. It was only because of WWII's need for nurses in the military that the requirement was relaxed at the airlines.
If it would be a liability, then I would bet the airlines would lobby against it. That would be the first battle ground...
I know it happens, but one would hope that an airline would never survive the PR disaster of campaigning AGAINST a perceived safety improvement. Let's take this ATP requirement as an example... the ATA is pushing to drop it, but their push is a quiet behind-the-scenes push. Nobody is running nationwide television ads touting the benefits of an all-ATP crew (the license, not the school). I think that ALPA should, and I'd gladly mail in a voluntary contribution for that cause. I suspect that if one airline starts advertising that every one of their flights has two ATP certified pilots on board, other airlines will be falling all over themselves to follow suit.
