A fair days pay for a fair days work
Why is it that as airline pilots we get paid today what we were paid (numerically) 15 years ago, but of course the cost of living on this planet has gone up substantially over that time. Most self employed professionals and tradesman are paid more than us because they increase their fees in line with their expenses and the cost of living. Wage earners like train drivers get paid more than some of us because they get negotiated pay rises (or go on strike). Back then going from the military to an airline usually resulted in doubling your earnings where as now in many cases it is a pay cut. The list goes on and good luck to them all. This must be the only industry that screws employees in preference to increasing charges in response to an increase in costs.
It is about time airlines work out what a seat mile costs to produce after allowing for fair wages, a dividend to the investors and investment back into the business, then add on a suitable profit margin and charge that for the ticket.
Regretably we are surrounded by managers that seek to line their own pockets at the expence of the business, the investors and the staff (and of course some of our own that are willing to fly for food and live in the crew longe).
It would be nice to think that IFALP could make a stand otherwise bring on $200 a barrel so we can be put out of our misery.