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On 11/7/2002 8

27 AM eagleflip wrote:
By that logic, any low paying flying job would have a greater rash of drunks. Give me a break.
Do the math. Trust me, show up to UAL, NWA, DAL or AMR with a history of DUI's and tell me how the interview goes.
Downward pressure on wages due to non-union airlines? EXACTLY! I don't think an airline Captain HAS to make $230K a year...how much is enough? Is a decent wage (which is the word I used in my previous post) sufficient?
Again, I'm in favor of a pilot making as much as he or she can request and get. BUT--there comes a time when the economic model you are operating under no longer works as well as it once did. What causes it? Competition. People who are willing to do things a bit differently and still earn a decent wage, with potential (big) income down the road directly tied to performance.
OK, lets take a poll! What do you consider a descent wage? Whats a descent wage in SFO? LAX? DFW? LAS? Want to bet you'll get differant numbers from diff folks? If that's the case, then lowering wages to your descent level, may be below the descent' level some other, more qualified folks have. so then LESS QUALIFIED PILOTS!!! Gosh teaching you freshman economics is tiring!!!
Comparisons to children working to produce Nikes is a blatant attack on Kathy Lee Gifford, which won't be tolerated on this board.
The paradigm of making huge bucks in your senior years as a Captain, all the while getting a huge A and B fund put into place, are going by the wayside. Practically nowhere else in the civilian sector do pensions still exist. I've heard many on these boards justify their huge salary during their most senior years by virtue of the long time it took to attain that position and the number of furloughs endured in the process. How about this? Those same pilots are paid that much because their airline can afford it. When the airline CAN'T afford it, their jobs are at risk. That's where we are now.
Why should an airline pilot make gazillions of dollars a year if that very fact directly contributes to their company's demise? Is zero bucks somehow better than maintaining an arbitrarily high wage, union or not? The wage pressure works both ways, my friend.
Arbitrary? Our wage rates go back to formulas that date to the 40's. I'd say the wage rates at the latest Fly-by-night operation are much more arbitrary. BTW, how many zero's in a gazzillion. You are absolutely correct, wage pressure works BOTH WAYS! We brought your's up, your bring ours down... Don't ya think your's may be on the way down as a result?
How about a compensation system tied directly to performance such as stocks and profit sharing?
You mean like a system that pays directly proportional to speed and TOGW of the jets? or are you foolish enough to base YOU salary on SOMEBODY ELSE'S PROFORMANCE? (ie your CEO).
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