Airline Pilot Central Forums - View Single Post - Any "Latest & Greatest" about Delta?

04-13-2011 | 08:34 PM

#63937

Scoop

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Joined: Dec 2007

Posts: 7,263

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From: DAL 330

Quote:
Originally Posted by satchip [IMG]file:///C:/Users/Perry/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtml1/01/clip_image001.gif[/IMG]
I don't assign value to my professional skills, the market place does. It's not really oil and management incompetence that has impacted our career earnings. The biggest factor is deregulation. In a regulated market carriers were guaranteed profits and had little competition on routes. That market no longer exists.

As to our management's competence or lack there of, very few managers could effectively navigate today's pseudo regulated market where government has an ulterior motive and plays favorites. Ex, LGA slot swap.

I'm the second highest paid 4th year 737 pilot in the US. How is that not fairly compensated? Could it be more, sure. But it ain't gonna be 50% more, at least here in Literalville.

Aren't the highlighted portions above indeed the problem. Isn't the "intrinsic value" of a pilot the same today as it was 40 years ago? Are we any less trained, experienced, responsible, professional, and in the end, when the poop hits the fan, the only ones who are left holding the bag as we were 40 years ago?
What is the value of a CEO, a lawyer, a doctor? Don't they all work in a deregulated market?
In 2010 DAL MADE 733 MILLION DOLLARS on bag fees. A fee that DID NOT EXIST 40 years ago. Where did all that money go. That's right spread out to ALL DAL employees................. (they did take a 40% pay cut and had their pensions terminated right?)
It's time as individuals, as professionals and as a UNION to set the MINIMUM bar of what a professional pilot NEEDS to be paid. Not what is "fairly compensated".............

Guys,

No the intrinsic value of a Pilot today is not the same as it was 40 years ago – it is less, for reasons that SATCHIP and ACL have so eloquently pointed out in previous posts.

But, even with the reduced value I feel that we are still being underpaid since our contract was forced upon us in a bankruptcy vice decided in the free market. Hopefully the next contract will correct some of that.

Another often overlooked factor is the “friction” delay inherent in the system. When companies start hiring minimally qualified Co Pilots as they have done, it takes time for the ramifications to manifest themselves. A lot of recent fatal accidents have been at the Regional level and we are just beginning to see any fallout – Think Colgan and the proposed 1500 hour requirement. Although ALPA is for a 500 hour waiver, brilliant!

Someone mentioned a heart surgeon, well the AMA does not try to lower barriers to entry into the medical field, but for some reason even when the Government tries to raise the entry requirements our union sides with the Regional Airline association over their own dues paying members. So maybe that has something to do with why Doctors make so much – although I think most Doctors don’t even have it as good as they used too.

Bottom Line – Pilots may not be worth what they were 40 years ago – but we are still worth more than what our current Bankruptcy level compensation pays.

Scoop