Originally Posted by
fogey
Well, duh, who has been members and paid dues the longest--it's about time that the union stopped pulling the rug out from under their longest paying members. At Air Canada Jazz they can retire anywhere between 55 and 65 --you get more in your retirement fund the longer you work--I don't see why it can't work here. I'm always amazed by how negative the outlook by some people on this forum about the whole flying gig is--I personally find it to not be that hazardous or stressful although there have been moments--however I'm glad that ALPA has finallly come to their senses and I predict that within 5years of the age changing everyone will wonder what all the fuss was about.
Fogey
Fogey,
I think the union would have done the "older" guys a better service to protect their pensions in the first place. The way things are shaping up here now, they don't have a choice. They have to try to continue to work after losing 80% of what they were expecting after working for a company for 25+ years.
Believe me, I don't want to leave them out in the cold. I want them to get what they deserve and working until you are 65 is not it.
Now, as for you not thinking flying is not that big of a deal, how many days a month do you work? How many legs a day do you fly? How many hours a month do you fly?
While it is true that flying on its face once you know what is going on is not that stressful. But, when you take the cumulative effect of the factors mentioned above, its not easy. Especially when the answers are 19, 5 or 6, and 89.
Sometimes rules are put into place to protect us from ourselves. Remember the AA flight in Little Rock? We might think we can do something safely because we have done it so many times before.
But, 8 hours "bottle to throttle", 100 flight hours in a month, and 8 flight hours in a day, among other things are there for a reason. Safety.
Do you really believe that we will be safer now by allowing pilots to fly to age 65 in todays airline environment?
It's time for us to realize our limitations and not let financial considerations rule the day.