And so the very concentrated work of a non-automated, two-pilot crew working, sometimes, five-seven legs per (no rest) 12-hour duty period (soon the company can flex us up to 90+ hours..we signed this agreement), having worked sometimes an entire year with no sick calls = pilots who don't work much and sit at home? How does working 900+ block hours per year, most legs lasting only 30-55 minutes enroute time, equate to only 400? Can a professional pilot be so gullible when hearing vague rumours and reading the media's ignorant distortions, "hook, line and sinker"?
If an employer wants you to be MORE productive, then why do they practically refuse to guarantee you more than 4 hours minimum guarantee in the interim contract? It is THEIR job to make you productive-would you enjoy an extra day off, or even two...thousands of pilots use their days off, in order to commute home and back. Previously, the daily min. was 4:15. Many of hour days are only worth 4.5-5 hours actual block time...flying three or four very short, intense legs. Who created these trip patterns? Our ALPA MEC wants to be more productive on all narrow-body flying: is it productive to work MORE days for the same pay? If we could someday have a contract daily min. guarantee of 5 hours, the company would be forced to make us more productive-but they somehow can't deal with this, having commited themselves so long ago to the wasteful hub and spoke concept -so why are these ideas so difficult for many Pprune members to grasp? Trip and duty "rigs" were created long ago to give middle mgmt. incentive to use crews as productively as possible during each duty period, on each trip. But without at least a few hours minimum credit per day in the contract, why would mgmt "fly" us more than three hours per day? Yet their spokemen/spokesbroads harp about productivity to the media.
Some bitter Pprune contributors make absolutely no sense, whatsoever. Hypoxia is insidious, but so is deep-rooted bitterness and irrational resentment. My brother started his career quite late (mid-30s), flies a small King Air for a very modest salary (two kids to support, who he can rarely visit or be allowed to reach.... by phone...)and is 49; politics and the lack of the type-rating $o far prevent his chance to fly the company's first (Beech)jet. Regarding flying and his lack of opportunity to fly a more exotic or large aircraft, he is a gentleman and has shown no bitterness towards anyone.
Many on Pprune might be inhaling the same type of stuff ( "Amsterdam's finest"? ) from the same type of pipe that was found in a suitcase at Boise (BOI), Idaho years ago by airport security. The MARIJUANA ("weed") pipe allegedly belonged to one of a certain airline's former co-owners.
Histotoxic hypoxia can compound the self-deception and illusions regarding this industry.