Reply #4: Pilots are working at 1992 rates- No Shit, now their retirements are in doubt

[cpamomfromtexas]

How do I know?

I'm married to one and my brother is also a pilot here and I've checked the pay rates per hour. I also have lots of airline clients. The massive 23-40% paycuts since 2003 has cost us an unbelievable amount and AMR management has pissed it away on regional jets that no one wants to fly anyway and which are gas guzzlers in an attempt to steal jobs from the mainline pilots.

How many people can be gone from home for 1/2 day (or more) and lose the entire week's paycheck, because some fucker didn't fix the damn airplane? How about having to fly the high cost routes for per diem $40 a day, when breakfast alone costs that? It's a losing proposition, every pilot we know is saying fuck it, we'll go do something else.

I can't tell you how many times we lost pay because pilots at American don't get paid unless the airplane moves--even though they are required to be signed in 1 hour prior to takeoff, whether the airplane is actually legal to fly (maintenance issues etc very often delay this).

11 pilots from American have committed SUICIDE this year. That is 6 times the national average. Expect this to double in the next few months.

I say when this bankruptcy gets before the judge, there should be a requirement that at least 2 positions be allocated for pilot representatives. Past President Lloyd Hill would be excellent for this role. AMR was scared shitless of him because he is always the smartest guy in the room. He always thought long term (because pilots are basically married to their airline, unlike other employees at the company).

Currently, the pilot union (Allied Pilots Association -currently run by little sissy boys that probably peed their pants this morning). AMR has already bought off or bullshitted the current president--Dave Bates-remember that name, he isn't qualified to shine the past president's shoes. All of them kept trying to tell the pilots that "they needed to save the airline" so they wouldn't demand to have their pay restored from the massive cuts of 8 years ago (after no real raises for over a decade-which is how they got to NO RAISES FOR 2 DECADES!)

Everyone else on the property gave some in the cuts of 2003, but they had always gotten raises and were working from industry leading contracts at the time, not the pilots.