Sunday, October 11th, 2009

Pilots on Food Stamps
By Michael Moore

We're on the descent from 20,000 feet in the air when the flight attendant leans over the elderly woman next to me and taps me on the shoulder.

"I'm listening to Lady Gaga," I say as I remove just one of the ear buds. I know not this Lady Gaga, but her performance last week on SNL was fascinating.

"The pilots would like to see you in the cockpit when we land," she says with a southern drawl.

"Did I do something wrong?"

"No. They have something to show you." (The last time an employee of an airline wanted to show me something it was her written reprimand for eating an in-flight meal without paying for it. "Yes," she said, "we have to pay for our own meals on board now.")

The plane landed and I stepped into the cockpit. "Read this," the first officer said. He handed me a letter from the airline to him. It was headlined "LETTER OF CONCERN." It seems this poor fellow had taken three sick days in the past year. The letter was a warning not to take another one -- or else.

"Great," I said. "Just what I want -- you coming to work sick, flying me up in the air and asking to borrow the barf bag from my seatback pocket."

He then showed me his pay stub. He took home $405 this week. My life was completely and totally in his hands for the past hour and he's paid less than the kid who delivers my pizza.

I told the guys that I have a whole section in my new movie about how pilots are treated (using pilots as only one example of how people's wages have been slashed and the middle class decimated). In the movie I interview a pilot for a major airline who made $17,000 last year. For four months he was eligible -- and received -- food stamps. Another pilot in the film has a second job as a dog walker.

"I have a second job!," the two pilots said in unison. One is a substitute teacher. The other works in a coffee shop. You know, maybe it's just me, but the two occupations whose workers shouldn't be humpin' a second job are brain surgeons and airline pilots. Call me crazy.

I told them about how Capt. "Sully" Sullenberger (the pilot who safely landed the jet in the Hudson River) had testified in Congress that no pilot he knows wants any of their children to become a pilot. Pilots, he said, are completely demoralized. He spoke of how his pay has been cut 40% and his own pension eliminated. Most of the TV news didn't cover his remarks and the congressmen quickly forgot them. They just wanted him to play the role of "HERO," but he was on a more important mission. He's in my movie.

"I hadn't heard anywhere that this stuff about the airlines is in this new movie," the pilot said.

"No, you wouldn't," I replied. "The press likes to talk about me, not the movie."

And it's true. I've been surprised (and slightly annoyed) that, with all that's been written and talked about "Capitalism: A Love Story," very little attention has been paid the mind-blowing stuff in the film: pilots on food stamps, companies secretly taking out life insurance policies on employees and hoping they die young so the company can collect, judges getting kickbacks from the private prison industry for sending innocent people (kids) to be locked up. The profit motive -- it's a killer.

Especially when your pilot started his day at 6am working at the local Starbucks.

 

Well I can't stand Michael Moore, but I like this. Maybe he'll do more with it. Good for the pilots for showing him that.

Now if we can just get Glenn Beck involved! Now THAT would be something I'm on board with!

 

Mod note:

Let's see if we can keep this thread on the track of pilot pay and not degenerate into a partisan political discussion. Please remember the TOS against political discussions.

USMCFLYR

 

You dont like the pay....... Quit and get a different job that pays you what you believe you're worth. Dont want to quit because you love flying and being an airline pilot....... Stop complaining..... You chose that career and no one put a gun to your head and told you to be a regional pilot.

 

How is this:

I wonder how much the pilots for Air Cuba make and if they would like to trade places with anyone in Mr. Moore's movie?

 

Wow. That's an intelligent thing to say....

I'm not a Michael Moore fan either, but if this is in his new movie I can't argue with it. Looks like he might've gotten something right, even if it's by accident.

 

Are you 50 years old, or older?

 

He spent so many hours in the Alert Shack when he was on the B-52...shame on you regional guys for not doing the same.

 

Maybe Mr Moore should interview an Aeroflot crew sleeping in the back of their cool AH-124, or talk to them about when they are lucky enough to get a hotel sleeping 4 in a hotel room that would have one American crewmember sleeping in it.
Or maybe Mr Moore would be interested in them buying as much as they can in Europe (you should see how much "personal" stuff they bring back into the aircraft) to sell in their Socialist country for profit (wait that sounds like Capitalism).
Oh sorry I'm getting on my soap box. What a Douche Bag.

 

I hate posts like this. They are written by people who thumb their nose because they have a better situation; be it financially or career wise. They over simplify the process of "quit and get a job that pays what you're worth." Is it really that easy? If you are in a situation that you dont like, the best idea is to just bail and not try to improve conditions? Im pleased they dont put ejection seats in your airliner, otherwise the first fault you get, im sure you would peace out and pull the chute.