[falconvalley]

One problem is though we are technically blue collar "labor", we don't labor very much in our work, thanks to agreements. There are a bunch of white collar thinkers in the pilot groups. That doesn't surprise me one bit. We don't turn wrenches, sit in cherry pickers next to thousands of volts, or troubeshoot a desperate housewife's kitchen leak. We fly airplanes. We aren't required to have a PhD, yet we hold the lives of the public in our hands and rely on our training and xp to do our jobs safely. It is virtually impossible for us to throw up our hands and go into private practice. Thankfully not, because insurance for that would be insane. We're not talking about 1 dead person from an out-patient procedure. We're talking about multiple lives and and potential property damage. The next best thing, is getting out of the airlines, and finding a flying job that is not blue collar.There are lots of things we can control and lots of things we just can't. We can demand better pay and QOL all we want, but we have to do the right things to get it. We don't have the control that private labor folks have.If I really wanted out, I could look around for a corporate job that would start me at at least 40k a year. They are out there, but are more difficult to obtain and the benefits are different. Or I could stay in the airlines, where there are more jobs, and it's considered blue collar and treated as such. I don't anticipate to be treated and paid like a corporate pilot. Corporate pilots generally make more starting out don't have quite as steep of a pay increase throughout their career. They are generally more carefully selected and treated better because their service is more personal. The people flying on the aircraft have more power to select who will get them from point a to point b and want the best. I anticipate to be treated like an asset. A part of the company that costs money and is part of the revenue engine.