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Blue or White Collar? You make the call.

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White Collar Wage Earner + Blue Collar attitude + Union Member = ??????

Unless your at JetBlue.....Blue Collar + ......
 
DH106 said:
What's important, here, is the way we consider ourselves and present ourselves, to our employers and the public.

A white-collar worker would:
- invest $70,000 in one's education
[yea, pilots are the only mo-fos on the planet with a student loan]
- work six jobs to obtain the high-paying job
[Yea, only a pilot work for free for 10 years just to get the good job]
- continually study and perfect knowledge and skills
[heh heh heh heh...you said skilled. Heck, even nurses get inservice training]
- work in a leadership role
[I was quasi management at a security company once, does that count?]
- manage difficult situations (not be managed)
[Airline pilots are the most managed people in world, whether it be by the company, the feds, the regs, the ops manual, the union, the coworkers, their medical status...you are managed.]
- hold the responsibility of hundreds of lives
[Timothy McVeigh was responsible for hundreds of lives]
- be singlehandedly trusted with hundred-million-dollar equipment
[They can always get someone that looks just like you to drive that machine for less]
- need to demonstrate complete proficiency every six months
[Yea, no other job has that requirement...that's why cops are bad shots and wreck their cop cars twice a week]
- typically (but not always) be college-educated
[All nurses are college educated...so they got you beat there]

I have enormous respect for blue-collar labor. But, blue-collar labor does not fit the description above. [I'm sure a Muslim could rationalize how other religions are wrong too]

My point is, be proud of the hard road traveled to get to the top. This is called a career path. White collar workers follow a career path. Blue collar workers do not.
[More false analogy...you can go from patrolman to chief of police in a career path as a blue collar worker.]
.....
 
White Collar

The real important distinction between white and blue collar is responsibility and decision making power. In a typical factory the workers do what they are told and that's about it, where is the manager makes the decisions. In the cockpit, pilots have ultimate authority over decisions once the door is closed and therefore are managers (white collar).
 
I know this thread is running it's course, but a wise old guy once told me that "airline pilots are blue-collar, and don't ever forget it...". He then asked me for the Before Start Checklist.
 
Some seem very insulted by being labeled blue collar.
Personally, I think it's an aggregate of both which makes it fun.
 
Hey,
If you are paid by the hour, you are blue collar.
If you are paid a salary, you are white collar.
There will always be a fuzzy line that is hard to clarify, but thats life. We as hourly workers are blue collar, within that classification we may be nearer the top than the bottom of the scale, but are blue collar nontheless. You might say what about laywers that bill by the hour? Doctors who are on staff at a hospital, the question must be asked, does the paycheck say X hours times X hourly rate, if so blue collar. If your pay check is based upon a yearly salary, thats white collar.
the sooner we realize this fact, the sooner we will have a mechanism for future unity within the labor groups.
PBR
 
PBR, Hospitalist--Doctors employed by the hospital, many are paid by the hour, so they must be blue collar doctors?
 
OffHot said:
PBR, Hospitalist--Doctors employed by the hospital, many are paid by the hour, so they must be blue collar doctors?
My statement stands, paid by the hour, LABOR. You guys are getting spun up over labels.The point is labor is labor and subject to the issues of hourly pay and workrule issues. To argue the point further, do doctors work with their hands, eyes other senses? To equate the difference between blue and white collar by cost/duration of training/education is futile and counterproductive.
Keep telling yourself that you are managment/whitecollar, wait for the C.E.O. to call for a consult and opinion from you. Ask the DAL guys who their buddies are, managment?
PBR
 
Surgeons and dentists work mostly with their hands. Are they "blue collar" doctors?

Its's ok....you can call yourself white collar as a pilot if you like. No one will really care.
 

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