Originally Posted by 1515greenlight

Jeeps, I don't think anyone who has been in this business awhile feels they are "entitled" to a high paying job. I for one see it this way:

A doctor, lawyer or God forbid, a fund manager holds a life, freedom or a lt of folks retirements in their hands (yeah, I know, but I felt this way a long time before they fubar'd it). If a doctor screws up, insurance pays and he likely will not lose his license. A lawyer can screw up a case and lose your money or your freedom. The money guy...'nuff said.

Not one of them is required to attend refresher courses that, if unsuccessfully completed, would cost them their license. They go merrily on, and many indeed DO feel "entitled."

We, on the other hand...you know the drill. Six month medicals, EKG's, PC's, recurrents, line checks, Fed's, FAR busts...need I go on? Any of those can cost our license. We fly tubes full of people who have aggregate net worth's in the millions on a passenger flight, cargo ranging from McDonalds cups headed for Dubai to Ferrari's to military equipment for our guys and gals. We can't make a mistake. It's not allowed because the penalty is: "Mrs./Mr. ___, the plane crashed. Your husband/wife didn't make it. Sorry."

We get pushed every day to keep the schedule. To "complete the mission." "So and so would fly with that broken." Again the list goes on.

I am a professional. So are my fellow crewmembers. We do what we do because we have a big enough ego to put on the monkey suit and walk into that plane, look at the passengers and turn left, knowing we are the only SOB's on that bird that can get them all safely from Point A to Point B. And we're smart enough to leave that same ego outside the cockpit door and trade it for a healthy yellow streak that keeps us from being stupid once we close the door.

So do I feel I am "entitled" to a high paying job? No. I feel I am entitled to be compensated for my years of experience, my knowledge and my professionalism that is all proven to be 100% dead on accurate and correct every time I put 800,000 pounds of of metal, fuel and freight or in a damn small box at high speed. I feel my fellow professionals who haul SLF are due the same. I'm entitled to the respect of some peckerhead in a suit who can't tell the difference between an airplane and a firetruck, who sits in an office and manipulates numbers to claim I cost too much money for the airline and makes me take a cut in pay while he rakes in bonuses and destroys a company I proudly work for.

There's more, but I'm sure this is beginning to sound like a rant. It's not. But it's high time we stood up for ourselves and called it like it is. Should we be greedy? No. That's stupid and only aids in the demise of our company. But we should be compensated properly for the work we do. And we shouldn't be ashamed to demand it.

Funny thing is this. Most businessmen are conservative. I don't knock that. Ask yourself this. When was the last time you heard a banker, a doctor, a lawyer or a broker arguing with their compatriots that they made too much and would gladly work for less? Or that the "free market" should determine their compensation package?