Cubdriver

Good points MaxThrust. I think airline pilots are white collar workers and it stuns me that anybody here voted otherwise. You can go into various shades of gray and find some (just as an example) bush pilots who have no advanced schooling, do not keep up with advances in technology very much, act more like machine operators than anything else and do not make a lot of weighty decisions, but this is not an airline pilot. Even a lowly new-hire FO at a bottom feeder airline has years of advanced training behind them, years of college in most cases or a degree, and cannot leave the right seat without years of additional apprenticeship/study on being the captain.

I don't think any of these things are really hard core blue collar traits, although they are more commonly found among blue collar workers. Anyone can work part time, wear a uniform, and work shifts and still be a top tier professional. For example, some ER doctors work on call during only the night shift wearing a hospital uniform when on duty. Unions are more of a blue collar thing but there again, any group can unionize if there are enough of them and they wish to do so.