There was a time when a college degree was a ticket to upper middle class. There were essentially only three ways to do it, either your family had the means to pay, you were exceptional enough to get an academic/athletic scholarship, or you worked and paid your own way. This economic barrier, while seemingly unfair to some, meant that the supply of college graduates were limited. Then one day the government made taxpayers co-signer to loans. Colleges lowered admissions standards to attract more students. Banks lowered requirements to qualify for tens of thousands of dollars. Young people who had no business in either higher education or substantial debt chose to be blissfully unaware of what they were actually spending on. Tuitions went up, new degrees invented, and suddenly the market is flooded. This is why so many recent grads are frustrated to find meaningful careers and pine for loan forgiveness.

Ironically the airline industry caught this phenomenon briefly, as cheap money found its way to flight training just in time to meet a boom in regional airline hiring in the early 2000’s. Previously, borrowing money for flight training was so difficult and unheard of, if you could qualify for the loan you probably didn’t need it. Suddenly you had access to money, training cost went up as people scrambled to enter a career that promised adventure, excitement and high wages. But regional airlines and regional contracts are not the same. There was still a barrier to entry as legacy airlines that pay the big bucks also demanded high experience with limited access. I remember sitting next to new hire FO’s with six figure debt for a 20k a year job facing at least a decade of stagnation. Shiny jet syndrome meant there was always someone else willing to do the job for peanuts because it looked cool, and this was before smart phones and social media.

So why do you see well paid pilots doing informational picketing? Because if not for the strength of hard fought union contracts, the lifestyle and pay would erode just as fast as the barriers to entry. The current pilot shortage would be met by those willing to do it for less if it meant jumping to the front of the line, or pilots from other countries who do it for less for the chance at a visa. There is already a dilution of experience at all levels of the industry. One of the main reasons pilots are able to command the compensation we do is that the public’s perception is we are good at what we do and they are confident with their safety in our hands. Pilot contracts have consistently pushed for work rules that protect against unsafe conditions.

So yes, as a person who loves flying and thinks they would be incredibly fortunate have the chance to be paid $90/hr to fly big shiny jets, it may seem absurd to see those of us who make even more out there picketing, but this career is only what it is today because of decades of just such displays of unity.

lol thanks for the laugh

It's been mentioned, but to put some numbers on it... that 90/hr regional guy is making under $100k. $90/hr regular job would be making nearly $175000. It's not an apple to apples comparison. Also keep in mind that guy had paid a lot of money (or time and risk in the military) and hard work to get there and is responsible for a lot of lives. But money isn't everything. The bigger issue is work rules and benefits.

No one is striking….anytime a strike is mentioned it’s just a drama show. Flat out drama. True striker’s actually walk off the job like the good old days of union strikes of years gone by. True strike = every flight cancelled not picketing. Probably won’t ever see an actual authentic airline strike.

well….. no

You have a lot of catchup reading to do. Make the Railway Labor Act your bathroom go to for the foreseeable future and you'll be able to make much more insightful remarks here.

Who is on strike?

Maybe he is working on his ratings or hours. I had a college degree and made $3.35/hour (80’s pay) so I had the flexibility to fly.

ETA: No airline will ever be allowed to strike again unless they are intent on going out of business. The government is far too corrupted by corporate money and will never release a work group to strike under the RLA.

The only way out is for ALL the unions to declare a general strike until they are released from the RLA. Not gonna happen…

Me thinks you did NOT take the sound advice to make the RLA your bathroom reading go-to. It certainly is not simple or easy to ‘go on strike’, but if parties follow the RLA negotiation/mediation roadmap and do not come to agreement, there is a point (somewhere down the road) where the parties (company and labor union) would be released to self-help, after a 30-day cooling off period. The gov’t CANNOT keep parties locked in mediated negotiations indefinitely, despite what the Mediators might claim. They are allowed to bull$h— I mean use blarney, to drive parties to agreement.

At the end of the 30-day cooling off period, if an agreement hasn’t been reached, the use of self-help (company=lockout and/or hire replacements; labor union=strike actions) is authorized. But the RLA roadmap hasn’t ended. The President can convene a 30-day PEB, which would make NON-Binding recommendations to the parties. If those parties do not accept the recommendations, and they haven’t been negotiating outside the mediated process, then release to self help comes to fruition.

Is it likely to get that far, maybe. But the company would already be suffering as customers would likely book away their travel onto a carrier NOT racing headlong towards a possible strike. I mean, we gotta get to Bobby’s wedding, so how far in advance do we buy tickets? And how much does a major/mainline company lose PER DAY if not a wheel turns? The closer the parties get to self-help, the greater the incentive on the company to reach a deal. Of course, the union is feeling the pressure, too, for if a strike occurred, where goes the paycheck? Do you still have healthcare coverage?

Self-help actions are possible, but it only works if you follow the RLA roadmap, and do not engage in illegal job actions. It takes courage and discipline to get that far, but it is possible.

And you will not get ALL the unions to declare a general strike, because that is an illegal job action not in accordance with the provisions of the RLA, and the courts would would fine the unions into near bankruptcy. IIRC, a judge fined the APA about $55 million in the 1990s.

"working in customer service getting yelled at by entitled people making $14/hr."

Because i didnt drop 70k and 3 years of my life to make 14hr. Having a pulse qualifies me for 14hr. Minimum wage employers are so clueless they demand a bachelors degree to make 10hr and they think its a scooby doo mystery why they cant find people. 10hr doesnt pay for anything and the employer wants you to come in every day on time not under the influence of anything do my job and on top of all that have a smile on my face? yeah no. And these millenials complaining that they need 1000 121 to make captain when guys from the 70's sat sideways for five years without even touching the yoke. Not to mention literally building the airplane compared to mesa fo's who didnt think the memory items were important or got 120 hours of ioe or furloughs or the lost decade or the 2008 recession or 911 or the fact that the union is a joke because a handful of airlines even come close to negotiating a real contract. There is way too much time and effort and sacrifice to just be making 6 figs. how many doctors would there be if they had to go through 12 years of medical school and no matter how hard you worked as a doctor no matter which field you were in you made 100k a year no matter what.