Wednesday, April 4, 2001
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Wednesday, April 4, 2001 |
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Anti-pilot-strike letter a case of 'class, professional' envy I ran across this piece of tripe while scanning the net, and in my opinion, it is an obvious case of class, professional, abilities envy. There are too many misrepresentations, inaccuracies to address them all in a few words. This person should take the time to research his hated targets a bit more before launching into such an hysterical diatribe. More and more of our profession has had to pay big bucks for their training and qualifications, having come up through the civilian "pipeline." They flew for little or nothing while building up the time required just to get an interview with a major carrier. If they were fortunate enough get hired, then they were paid a princely sum of around $24,000 a year. Also, where does your writer get off with this "at taxpayer expense" comment about our military trained personnel? Does he think we went right from flight training to the airlines? Has he/she ever been catapulted off the pitching deck of an aircraft carrier at night in the rain, then after maybe having been shot at by surface to air missiles, come back and have to land on that same pitching deck? I hardly think so. Those five or six years (and sometimes much more) were hardly filled with pleasure cruises. They pay we received while protecting the freedom of such idiots as your writer was not quite "fair" compensation for the job performed. So much for your writer's "free lunch" depiction. As for contractual items in past Delta pilot contracts, he/she doesn't have a clue about them. Unless Delta management has been incredibly stupid over the 30 years of my career, they seemed to think that we were worth whatever we were able to negotiate. The bottom line is that it is our skills, responsibilities, and qualifications, not our personalities or worth as individual human beings, that commands the salaries and benefits that we enjoy. Instead of whining and spewing hate-filled rhetoric, may I suggest that the writer quit their job (if they are employed), take flying lessons, get their commercial, instrument, multi-engine, and airline transport pilot qualifications, then fly for a commuter for a few years to build up the experience required and then compete for the relatively small number of positions at a major airline. After all, it can't be that difficult to fly a plane full of passengers and crew across the Atlantic in the middle of the night, can it? I don't know who this person is, or what their motivation is, but I would be willing to bet that they would think nothing of paying $50 or $60 to go watch some 20-something kid throw a basketball through a hoop, or would write such a flaming letter to the editor about him and his multimillion dollar salary. He may not have the cajones to sign his name , but I sure as hell do. Bob Lawrence Captain, Delta Air Lines, retired
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