So would you buy a new GM truck now?

[Diamondpilot]

Chris maybe I am not understanding what you and jeffster are saying but it seems to me you both feel that just because you are union that you feel like you dont have to do the best you can do. On a lot of jobs maybe you can do more than the guy sitting next to you but you both have the same jobs. On an assembly line do you think it matters if one guy can work twice as fast as the guy he is standing next to. The line moves at a certain speed. In your own industry they have union pilots. What do you do better than they do. Do you take off better, Do you land a plane better, Do you pilot better. I would think in your industry that there is a level of perfection that everyone has to meet or it is disastrous. So because you do your best you should get a bigger reward than the union pilot who just does an ok job of landing or taking off or piloting

No, I am not saying I am better than a union pilot. I am simply saying if I do not do a good job or refuse to be flexible with my schedule I can lose my job. I don't like giving in as much as the next guy but I have to do what is best for my company to make sure my job is around tomorrow. I missed going trick or treating with my daughter this year and last year both because of flights to the same place for the same meeting. I am missing my daughters Christmas program at her school tomorrow because I will be in DC.

I have plenty of good friends who fly for Jet Blue, United, American, Delta, South West, Flex Jet, and other airlines and fractional's who are union. It seems if they have to work 1 minute over they are calling the union boss. Do you ever wonder why so many flights are canceled for weather and mechanical issues. Most are really crew problems. Some are not the crew fault due to FAA rules but the majority are because the contract says what they will do, no more. There is a old saying the goes like this. How can you tell the difference between a jet engine and a airline pilot? The engine stops whining at the gate!

What it comes down to for me is do a good job and keep your job. Don't do the minimum and hid behind the union. It seems a union employee can not get fired due to the mounds of red tape and fear of the union by the employer.

Chris

 

[BungeeII]

No, I am not saying I am better than a union pilot. I am simply saying if I do not do a good job or refuse to be flexible with my schedule I can lose my job. I don't like giving in as much as the next guy but I have to do what is best for my company to make sure my job is around tomorrow. I missed going trick or treating with my daughter this year and last year both because of flights to the same place for the same meeting. I am missing my daughters Christmas program at her school tomorrow because I will be in DC.

Do you have any idea how many union workers at GM put those same events on hold? Do you know why they did? Sure the money was there, but they knew their sacrifices for 30 years would pay off in the end. Now the country is calling for GM to stiff them. For every story about union abuse there are 100 workers that showed up in the same stinking spot on the planet for decades, sometimes for countless days and hours on end. As lucrative as those contracts are, when the negotiations are over and the company starts leaning on it's workforce to put in extra hours, they did it.

Everyone has their own perspective.

 

[blueriver]

No, I am not saying I am better than a union pilot. I am simply saying if I do not do a good job or refuse to be flexible with my schedule I can lose my job. I don't like giving in as much as the next guy but I have to do what is best for my company to make sure my job is around tomorrow. I missed going trick or treating with my daughter this year and last year both because of flights to the same place for the same meeting. I am missing my daughters Christmas program at her school tomorrow because I will be in DC.

I have plenty of good friends who fly for Jet Blue, United, American, Delta, South West, Flex Jet, and other airlines and fractional's who are union. It seems if they have to work 1 minute over they are calling the union boss. Do you ever wonder why so many flights are canceled for weather and mechanical issues. Most are really crew problems. Some are not the crew fault due to FAA rules but the majority are because the contract says what they will do, no more. There is a old saying the goes like this. How can you tell the difference between a jet engine and a airline pilot? The engine stops whining at the gate!

What it comes down to for me is do a good job and keep your job. Don't do the minimum and hid behind the union. It seems a union employee can not get fired due to the mounds of red tape and fear of the union by the employer.

Chris

Are you on the job today?

 

[Iplayfarmer]

Preamble: I believe that a lot of corporate execs are indeed overpaid and their golden parachutes, etc. are exorbitant. Additionally, there is a lot of evidence to suggest that the auto executives have not done the job for their companies that they were hired to do.

That being said, there are reasons these guys get paid what they do. I worked for a company that went through 5 CEO's in 7 years, and I saw the difference between a good executive and a bad executive. A good one can really create profits for the company many times more than their huge salaries.

My favorite example is the Ben & Jerry's ice cream company. They originally had some pact that their top executive wouldn't make more than a specified multiple of the lowest paid worker's salary. They nearly went under before they realized that they were going to have to pay the going rate for the kind of talent it takes to run a large company.

It takes some serious talent, experience, and intelligence to run a large corporation. Not everyone can do it. Supply and demand influences executive salaries too.

 

[mjarrels]

I don't understand the CEO hiring process... Look who's running Ford now... Previous job was to run Home Depot into the ground cut stock price 50%! Why would a Co. hire someone like that?

mark

 

[Diamondpilot]

Are you on the job today?

Yes, I am. Got up at 4:30am arrived at the airport a 5:15am took off for Philly at 6:30am and arrived a 7:40am in crummy weather and pouring down rain. Dropped off my passengers and refueled the airplane for a 9:00am departure for Atlanta. Arrived in Atlanta to deal with heavy rain and thunder storms at 10:45am. Secured the airplane and went to lunch. Came back to the airport to finish up my paperwork and off to the hotel will I remain for the day.

I depart Atlanta at 11:00am tomorrow to fly into Teterboro NJ, one of the busiest business airports in the world where I will drop off a few and pick up 1 passenger and on to Washington DC where I will wait at the airport 3 hours then on home with 2 additional passengers back to our base of operation. All this by 7pm and after a hour or so cleaning up the airplane/restocking the supplies/doing paperwork I will drive home and get in around 8:45 to wait for my daughter so I can hear about the Christmas program I missed.

I agree that being a pilot is a great job but the long hours away from home, early get up, hotels, time away can suck. I work more hours in 2 or 3 days than some do in a week.

Chris

 

[Iplayfarmer]

... I work more hours in 2 or 3 days than some do in a week.

Chris

But it sure sounds like you love it!!

That's worth more than any wage IMO.

 

[blueriver]

Yes, I am. Got up at 4:30am arrived at the airport a 5:15am took off for Philly at 6:30am and arrived a 7:40am in crummy weather and pouring down rain. Dropped off my passengers and refueled the airplane for a 9:00am departure for Atlanta. Arrived in Atlanta to deal with heavy rain and thunder storms at 10:45am. Secured the airplane and went to lunch. Came back to the airport to finish up my paperwork and off to the hotel will I remain for the day.

I depart Atlanta at 11:00am tomorrow to fly into Teterboro NJ, one of the busiest business airports in the world where I will drop off a few and pick up 1 passenger and on to Washington DC where I will wait at the airport 3 hours then on home with 2 additional passengers back to our base of operation. All this by 7pm and after a hour or so cleaning up the airplane/restocking the supplies/doing paperwork I will drive home and get in around 8:45 to wait for my daughter so I can hear about the Christmas program I missed.

I agree that being a pilot is a great job but the long hours away from home, early get up, hotels, time away can suck. I work more hours in 2 or 3 days than some do in a week.

Chris

Hey great schedule, you got me beat ... I got to sleep in until 5 A.M. out the door at 6 to start feeding cattle, then the hogs, grind feed. then breakfast. after that a trip to town for some fence supplies ... a couple coffee breaks and then hit TBN, back to some fencing. Sorted out some calves to vaccinate and am having another coffee break and TBN break. Will finish vaccinating and will be in for dinner around 6 P.M. ALL WITHOUT A UNION SALARY!! NO BAILOUT!! NO EXECUTIVE BONUS!!

Believe me when I tell you I am not complaining ... I live the American dream, just don't understand when a man complains about being out of work (Not You) and then he tells me " I aint gonna work for any less than $ per hour"
because my union says I don't have to .... well he aint never been hungry enough ...

 

[Diamondpilot]

I do love my job. When GM struck in the late 90's I was out of work for 3 months. My flying job at that time was 80% GM based. I painted a house, worked on cars and boats, built a deck, worked as a farm hand, whatever it took to keep the cash coming in. I was getting really nervous. I ended up having to move 100 miles to get another flying job to only lose it a year later due to a buyout and the closing of the flight department. Once again out of work for 3-4 months then another move 80 miles away and a new job which I have held for 9 years now.

I am not afraid of hard work like most on this site. All I am saying is I don't feel anything is owed to me. I will get buy. If a company gets rid of a union the only employees that will have something to fear are the ones who do not perform.

Chris

 

[gemini5362]

No, I am not saying I am better than a union pilot. I am simply saying if I do not do a good job or refuse to be flexible with my schedule I can lose my job. I don't like giving in as much as the next guy but I have to do what is best for my company to make sure my job is around tomorrow. I missed going trick or treating with my daughter this year and last year both because of flights to the same place for the same meeting. I am missing my daughters Christmas program at her school tomorrow because I will be in DC.

I have plenty of good friends who fly for Jet Blue, United, American, Delta, South West, Flex Jet, and other airlines and fractional's who are union. It seems if they have to work 1 minute over they are calling the union boss. Do you ever wonder why so many flights are canceled for weather and mechanical issues. Most are really crew problems. Some are not the crew fault due to FAA rules but the majority are because the contract says what they will do, no more. There is a old saying the goes like this. How can you tell the difference between a jet engine and a airline pilot? The engine stops whining at the gate!

What it comes down to for me is do a good job and keep your job. Don't do the minimum and hid behind the union. It seems a union employee can not get fired due to the mounds of red tape and fear of the union by the employer.

Chris

Chris I can sympathize with you. I worked for a company that had a policy field engineer contracts were never let out for the period of December 18 to Jan 1. It was so that we could spend christmas with our families. Everyone went home for those dates. It was the only holiday we could count on. I was happy if I could stay on the same side of the US as my family so I could sneak a trip home if we happened to be ahead of schedule. Which did not happen very often. Then I moved overseas where I was home every night but the normal schedule was 48 hour workweeks if you didnt have to stay over to fix things. I almost never got in a 48 hour work week 60 to 70 was more like it. When I moved home I eventually got a job in a steel mill where there idea of a schedule was 1 day off one week, then back at 3:30 to work evening shift for a week then off a day and a half to come back at 11pm to work a week of midnight shift then you got off on thursday morning at 7am and had friday sat and sunday off then back on monday at 7am to start it off again. You only got one weekend a month. Management did not want to hastle with vacation time scheduling so in january you picked your vacation for the year in 1, 2, or 3 week vacations depending on how long you had been there. No vacations was allowed in less than 1 week increments and they were all picked in january .so if you needed off for something to do with your family it was too bad if it was during one of your shifts. so I can sympathize