This issue is like Chinese water torture. It just keeps coming up over and over again, you guys playing tag team out there??
To me there are two sides to this issue. To begin with it is clear to me that the age 60 rule is a purely arbitrary limit; it does not match up well with the social security system (for what that is worth), and has seen its longest days of that I am sure. In a number of countries in Europe 60 is no longer the limit. Usually the FAA and the USA are leading changes in our industry this time when the tide comes it will come from the other side of the ocean.
Now what is clear to me is that the hidden agenda here is not only 60 but it is 60 plus keeping your position at your current employer. And that is one of the major issues that ALPA is fighting against. To me continuing beyond the age that you signed your contract for is totally unacceptable.
I realize that the industry has gone through a hell of a ride in the last five years in the USA and a lot of my fellow colleagues in the States have seen their terms and conditions torn to shreds. Pensions don’t seem to be protected in any way shape or form. And each day is bringing more legacy carriers to the brink of chapter 11. But each pilot out there (with a few exceptions) has been operating with the knowledge that the gig was up when you turned 60. It is not fair that you allowed your colleagues ahead of you to clear out when their time came, and now when it is your turn to move on you are screaming age discrimination. You knew the deal when you signed up, this is not discrimination. I like to take my hypocrisy straight up, not hiding behind a lot of bollocks like discrimination.
From time to time this issue flares up in my airline. My experience has been that the people screaming for an increase in the pension age are exactly the people who you don’t want to be sitting beside. They are working on their third marriage and some still have young kids they have to put through school. The numbers of moody bastards in this group it out of proportion to the total (barring a few exceptions that have a true love of this lifestyle). It tends to always be about the money!
Just a little about Chapter 11: To a European chapter 11 is a truly marvelous management tool. It allows insolvent airlines to keep flying and damage other carriers that are operating under “normal” laws of competition. It has allowed airlines like United and US Airways to shove concessions down the throats of their employees under the guise of survival (true enough), but in the process other companies can only follow in bringing down their T&C’s. And they will be forced to use the same chapter 11 to do the same. It is truly sick that this is allowed to go on.
Keep up the fight I expect the next thread to open up on this topic soon, let the torture continue. Gr. O.