nimtz
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 5, 2001
- Posts
- 1,442
The more and more things I read lately, the more I worry that those out pursing this profession have low respect for what they are worth. Why would you go run over to fly for Freedom? Why would you accept a POS TA like that over at Mesa? Why even work for an airline at all? If your that hard up for a flying job have you ever thought of maybe looking outside the regional airlines. Do you not realize that you are doing exceedingly high damage to your own future earnings potential?
Think about it, I made about 24K last year as a regional FO. I know for a fact that if I would of stuck around my local area with my family, I could of found a corporate job paying more then 24K while also putting me home alot more. If you are competitive for an airline right now then there are many corporate/135 jobs you could easily sign on to. I know that these jobs are out there and available for people if you purse them. People leave corporate jobs alot more frequently then the airlines, so there is always velocity in that labor market.
What is the huge benefit in working for a regional? It ain't the compensation folks, at least not until some of us get the chance to fix it. Just try living on 24K a year in New York or Boston with a wife and kid. Oh you want to commute to save money, well go ahead add that stress level to your life and plan on losing 2-3 of your 12 days off a month. What do you think the travel privileges seal the deal? Yeah they are nice for about the first six months, but then you get bumped off 6 flights in London and have to explain to your significant other why she won't be making it to work tommorow or even possibly the day after. Do you think the job security is just plain better? Tell that do the guys laid off from US Air with 16 years of service. Is it the ego of flying an airliner? Well then just listen to the comments from your passengers next time they board your cabin class airliner. "Oh I thought this was going to be a big jet." "I always hit my head on the ceilings of these d*mn things." "Why do I always get stuck with these sh*tty puddle jumpers?"
So again I ask why do you want to work for an regional airline? I went to go work for one because I thought at the time I would throw in a year or two of paying my dues and with alot of effort positive changes to my profession would be made. Well I learned real quickly that management thinks I was positively happy just to be flying a jet so they just expected me to make do with what they offered. I quickly realize I was not simply happy just because 'I loved to fly.' No matter how much you love your job, at the end of the day it is still your job. I also noticed that every coworker shared my opinon that something had to be done about our pay and work rules since all the money my company was making went right into the pockets of the vp's. Well that's when we started to become more active in our union in order to let management know that we deserve higher pay then the TSA security dude getting coffee every five minutes. So, finally the contract came up for renewal and the battle begun. We are still talking with managment, but more and more our efforts are being thrwarted by the actions of others. Thanks to Comair for starting the battle and showing the suits our generation won't be afraid to walk. Now the bar is passed to the next group, ie Expressjet, ASA, and Mesa. Don't anybody dare drop it.
Now it seems that many people have the mentality that since they love to fly and have to feed their family, then they must get an airline job even if it severely undercuts their value as a professional. Hey your right you have to pay the bills, but have you considered EVERYTHING else before you accepted a job like Freedom. Look around you might find a better flying job outside the airlines and not have to suffer the frustration of moving your family every 12 months, because you can hold a better line at the new domicile. If you didn't look around then you made yourself the equivalent of a GM worker in Leon, Mexico; getting paid pesos for a job that deserves dollars. You've also served to ruin our profession by saying to management "I'll do whatever you want, just keep me flying." Well that sure sounds like prostitiution to me.
I'm no rabid union nazi, but I do know that at my level of this profession the union is the only organized group that agrees with my stance and seeks to change it. I know that I chose this job to make a living, not to put a grin on my face whether I'm stuck in a 6 hour ground stop or getting cleared for a visual 30 miles out on a calm night. As the next generation of airline pilots, the regional guys have to do our part to push up the benefits of this job or we are doomed to live pay-check to pay-check the rest of our careers.
Management will have many tactics to stop us along the way. Freedom Air is the most blatant seen yet. Most of you mainline pilots went through the same thing with B-scale attacks in the 80's. Fortunately you fought them off by either saying no or getting it negotiated away. Our group faces the same problem today, except we have no job at a major as a security blanket. Therefore, the attitude stays the same. There will be no sympathy nor understanding for someone who has to taken a job at Freedom or any other management alter-ego that serves to destroy our credibility as a trade. As said before, since the individual has no regard for his/her future as an airline pilot, then they would of been better off in the right seat of a citation! We are professionals, not overjoyed kids in a big toy. Check yourself before you wreck yourself and respect yourself!
--- I just flew a trip with a guy who is so fed-up with the direction of this profession that if our contract is not up to expectations he is bailing for a new line of work. That's what led me to ramble on like this, because I hate to lose good professionals due to the fact that some of pilots have no respect for themselves.
Think about it, I made about 24K last year as a regional FO. I know for a fact that if I would of stuck around my local area with my family, I could of found a corporate job paying more then 24K while also putting me home alot more. If you are competitive for an airline right now then there are many corporate/135 jobs you could easily sign on to. I know that these jobs are out there and available for people if you purse them. People leave corporate jobs alot more frequently then the airlines, so there is always velocity in that labor market.
What is the huge benefit in working for a regional? It ain't the compensation folks, at least not until some of us get the chance to fix it. Just try living on 24K a year in New York or Boston with a wife and kid. Oh you want to commute to save money, well go ahead add that stress level to your life and plan on losing 2-3 of your 12 days off a month. What do you think the travel privileges seal the deal? Yeah they are nice for about the first six months, but then you get bumped off 6 flights in London and have to explain to your significant other why she won't be making it to work tommorow or even possibly the day after. Do you think the job security is just plain better? Tell that do the guys laid off from US Air with 16 years of service. Is it the ego of flying an airliner? Well then just listen to the comments from your passengers next time they board your cabin class airliner. "Oh I thought this was going to be a big jet." "I always hit my head on the ceilings of these d*mn things." "Why do I always get stuck with these sh*tty puddle jumpers?"
So again I ask why do you want to work for an regional airline? I went to go work for one because I thought at the time I would throw in a year or two of paying my dues and with alot of effort positive changes to my profession would be made. Well I learned real quickly that management thinks I was positively happy just to be flying a jet so they just expected me to make do with what they offered. I quickly realize I was not simply happy just because 'I loved to fly.' No matter how much you love your job, at the end of the day it is still your job. I also noticed that every coworker shared my opinon that something had to be done about our pay and work rules since all the money my company was making went right into the pockets of the vp's. Well that's when we started to become more active in our union in order to let management know that we deserve higher pay then the TSA security dude getting coffee every five minutes. So, finally the contract came up for renewal and the battle begun. We are still talking with managment, but more and more our efforts are being thrwarted by the actions of others. Thanks to Comair for starting the battle and showing the suits our generation won't be afraid to walk. Now the bar is passed to the next group, ie Expressjet, ASA, and Mesa. Don't anybody dare drop it.
Now it seems that many people have the mentality that since they love to fly and have to feed their family, then they must get an airline job even if it severely undercuts their value as a professional. Hey your right you have to pay the bills, but have you considered EVERYTHING else before you accepted a job like Freedom. Look around you might find a better flying job outside the airlines and not have to suffer the frustration of moving your family every 12 months, because you can hold a better line at the new domicile. If you didn't look around then you made yourself the equivalent of a GM worker in Leon, Mexico; getting paid pesos for a job that deserves dollars. You've also served to ruin our profession by saying to management "I'll do whatever you want, just keep me flying." Well that sure sounds like prostitiution to me.
I'm no rabid union nazi, but I do know that at my level of this profession the union is the only organized group that agrees with my stance and seeks to change it. I know that I chose this job to make a living, not to put a grin on my face whether I'm stuck in a 6 hour ground stop or getting cleared for a visual 30 miles out on a calm night. As the next generation of airline pilots, the regional guys have to do our part to push up the benefits of this job or we are doomed to live pay-check to pay-check the rest of our careers.
Management will have many tactics to stop us along the way. Freedom Air is the most blatant seen yet. Most of you mainline pilots went through the same thing with B-scale attacks in the 80's. Fortunately you fought them off by either saying no or getting it negotiated away. Our group faces the same problem today, except we have no job at a major as a security blanket. Therefore, the attitude stays the same. There will be no sympathy nor understanding for someone who has to taken a job at Freedom or any other management alter-ego that serves to destroy our credibility as a trade. As said before, since the individual has no regard for his/her future as an airline pilot, then they would of been better off in the right seat of a citation! We are professionals, not overjoyed kids in a big toy. Check yourself before you wreck yourself and respect yourself!
--- I just flew a trip with a guy who is so fed-up with the direction of this profession that if our contract is not up to expectations he is bailing for a new line of work. That's what led me to ramble on like this, because I hate to lose good professionals due to the fact that some of pilots have no respect for themselves.
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