Originally Posted by
UnderOveur
Define: "demise of the industry".
Also...
Why are SOME (<---please note that qualifier) pilots so entitlement-minded as to believe they should get paid a high six-figure salary for doing a job that has become BOTH far safer AND much easier with the passage of time and the improvement of technologies?
If the overall risks and methods were the same as they were 20-30 years ago, do you think pay/benefits would have decreased the way they have?
I think in general terms this thread has defined demise of the industry for its purposes.
As a guy who has been in business for himself, I think I understand what you are asking/saying about entitlement minded. In a way I agree with the surface question...What makes a person think they are "worth" X number of dollars?
I recall being a fly on the wall during contract negotiations, several iterations ago. The conversation I overheard went something like..."But I am worth 200,000 per year and if this contract doesn't deliver that, I'm voting no!"
1st: In this job you don't get what you are worth, you get what the union negotiates and what the pilots agree to.
There is more to a contract than just section 3.
My personal first thought when overhearing that conversation was "prove it", hang your shingle and find out what you are "worth."
I don't think the job has markedly been saftified (not a real word) moreso than it was 20-30 years ago. Sure the displays are different, the accident rates are down, but the job is basically the same with roughly the same rules. So, the job today IMO has little bearing on pay today versus 20-30 years ago.