Say tomorrow, all the Captains at Netjets sit down with management and used their greater numbers to give themselves a pay raise and the FO's a pay cut. I'm sorry, I don't work for your airline. Could you please post the pay scales that show you will now be making less? Really? The new age 65 rule started and your company immediately implemented a concessionary pay scale where your wages were downgraded? Show me which years of service, specifically, you'll be working for free in. Last time, and then I'm done with this: I will grant you that you will HAVE to work longer to get the same years as a captain, but over the course of your career, you will make a total of MORE, even at F/O wages, than you would have with the age 60 rule. As you have said yourself, the math doesn't lie. At no point do I see you working for free.At the core, that's what we're talking about.
After all, those FO's didn't do anything to 'deserve' their pay rate, right? Yeah, I know that the pay rate has been set in stone for decades and the Captain's got it when they were FO's, but now they 'deserve' more. Okay, you're angry. Like i said, you feel how you feel and you're entitled to feel however you want to about it. It's a personal thing. But your anger is blinding you to some other facts. It wasn't the pilots who came up with the random age of 60 to force pilots out. It was airline management. Without so much as a "would you mind terribly if we....?" airline management cut short the careers of tens of thousands of pilots. This age wasn't based on any scientific safety data. It was a random age chosen to force out the highest paid pilots in the workforce. And despite what you've previously said, most pilots have been fighting for a very long time to get rid ofnthe age 60 thing. We're talking decades. Maybe instead of viewing it as them taking something from you, they're taking back something that was taken, most unfairly, from them. You like to mention those not hired yet. Well, as pilots retire, and there is some growth in the airline industry, things will even out again. The newhires of the future will now have a choice to retire at age 60, making the same money as pilots of the past, or continue on to age 65 and make even more. It is those of you who are caught in the transition who MAY experience a downside to this change. chosen
Those FO's have no reason to be upset, right? That's just the nature of the business.
The worst is when one of those greedy, entitled FO's, who has to work to work overtime to break even, has the audacity to not tell the Captain he's special and 'deserves' a raise.
All kinds of uncertainty out there for everyone, but only one segment faces that uncertainty by eating their young. This isn't economy, this isn't fuel price, this isn't 9/11. It's pilots taking from pilots.
That's exactly what every one of them said when they were FO's.
But now they're special and 'deserve' more.
"Give me your money because there are more of us, and we're special."
You've boiled it down to: "you lose, that's the breaks, suck it up. They've got the numbers, boo hoo for you."No. I never said you shouldn't be upset. I just keep saying that it isn't all bad for ALL the current and future F/O's. You don't want to work until 65. I get it. But I will bet you my next year's salary that there are a great many F/O's who are thrilled with the fact they don't have to quit at 65 if they don't want to. We have a whole bunch of retired airline guys at NJA. Some are working because they need to. Many more are here because they weren't ready to quit flying, were still physically and mentally sharp enough to be able to do the job, and wanted to stay in the flight levels a little longer. Do you really think this condition applies only to their generation. Through all the years, pilots are pilots. Some things just don't change. And as such, I don't believe that ALL the F/O's got hosed, or that they all feel badly about the new rule. Again, it's a personal thing. You feel you got hosed. Okay. No one is telling you to feel otherwise. But don't try to tell me that ALL F/O's feel the same way.
You're right. Absolutely.
Just don't try to pretend that five years of my life or hundreds of thousands of dollars are no big deal. Don't try to tell me how lucky I am to have the 'privilege' of working an extra five years for free. Don't try to tell the guy who just wanted the same deal that every pilot before him got (nothing more, nothing less) is greedy while the guy who took more isn't.
It's just not going to fly.I'm not calling anyone greedy. And as things rebalance in the industry, everyone will have the same opportunity as those that came before them. In fact, it will present MORE opportunities and choices than they would have had previously. You don't like the deal. Okay. It's just a shame that in your anger you can't see how this will benefit many working today, and all who will come in the future.
CEO pillages the pension; do you get upset at the CEO or do you call the pilots entitled and greedy for thinking they 'deserved' anything in this uncertain industry?
