My whole career, my family’s financial safety and well being can come to a complete halt with one bad decision, bad medical, a mistake, or bad days during check ride time.

Name me another profession that is as unforgiving as ours? Even anesthesiologists don’t get the scrutiny that we get. Furthermore, I have to live with my profession even on my days off. I can’t just get a DUI, get into a bar fight, and it’d be ok! These mistakes can be unforgiving, not only for your company, but the FEDs as well.

One of the reasons airline management has gotten away with subpar pay and the flying public doesn’t appear to care as much, is that we make it look easy. Yes, day in and day out we make decisions that some folks would crumble under, all while making it look “EASY.” And some of us don’t help our cause. I’ve heard the, “beats working for a living, I can’t believe they pay me to do this, I can’t believe they pay me so much,” naive statements. That is, until you find yourself in that no BS Cat II-III approach, wet-short runway landing, or the “real” emergency where a decision has to be made. Oh! and then you may have to explain yourself to top it off, despite making correct decisions!

There’s never been a better time in my career time to get a well deserved, excellent contract. I think our Union knows this. I’m willing to wait or do whatever our union asks of me in order to achieve this goal.