Professional Vs skilled Labour - A rose by any other name.
It's all semantics.
We are by profession 'aviators' and thus those that fly for a living are 'professional aviators'.
We are 'highly skilled' at our job and provide our labour for exchange for renumeration. So too do doctors, lawyers, teachers etc which are also considered highly skilled professionals.
The higher the skills (and the less availability of people with those skills) determine the overall size of the renumeration package they receive.
We pilots are professionals and by the same token as far as an employer is concerned we are also a highly skilled labour force. We perform a service for payment.
We work, we labour, we get paid.