United Airlines Pilots Will Vote To Authorize A Strike

This is dumb. You guys are getting paid better than ever. My husband flew for the company for twenty one years so I know. You keep it up and the First's position will be eliminated. In fact, if they could convince the flying public to fly without any humans in the cockpit your dream job would be toast.

Ben - maybe I'm just not seeing it but I don't see anywhere in this article what the strike is actually about?

I'm kinda with commenter Joanie on this one. UA Pilots just got one of the biggest pay increases and are making big $$$. Granted, that doesn't mean they can't complain about anything ever, but still... a strike right after securing a massive new contract? I don't think the public will be on their side on this one.

With a rapid advance in AI, technology and robots will replace humans in blue and white collar professions. However, there is a remote chance that the politicians will allow AI take over white male dominated fields, such as truck drivers, pilots and actors/ actresses. White privileges are alive and prevalent in the States. In spite of the Asian dominated tech workforce, except the management. Ever wonder why tech industry has no union.

Here we go again.

Every post about union action always starts with regular people commenting on how greedy and unreasonable the union is, then the union and its member catch wind and come in to tell us all how they're being totally fair, professionals need to be well compensated and something about "everyone should try to unionize instead of dragging us down" (and upvoting each other's posts).

Except United didn’t secure a new contract. Delta has a new contract, AA has an agreement in principle that has yet to be voted on by the pilot group, but will likely be voted in. UA however is still at the negotiation table.

“Better than ever” based on hourly rate, maybe. However, when accounting for inflation, wages still have not caught up to what they were prior to concessions given during post 9/11 bankruptcies.
Inflation impacts everything we do and everyone’s wages. Medical costs have gone up, a loaf of bread costs more, and the high school kid at the fast food joint now makes $15/hr to take orders. However, the salary of your airline pilot should stay the same as they essentially take a pay cut each year as their buying power goes down?

Sure, lots of people’s salaries have stayed the same, but if given the opportunity to renegotiate, do you not think any of them (including you) would do the same? The pilots have an opportunity to maintain buying power and bring historical pay back. Why should they not take advantage of it?

Secondly, a pilot contract goes far beyond the pay scale, although that’s what the public focuses on when it hears new like this. The pay table is literally a single page in a contract hundreds, if not a thousand, pages long. Work rules, regional scope protection, merger protection, furlough mitigation/protection, vacation, sick time, emergency leaves of absence, disability, retirement, the list goes on and on. I could literally list items for hours. There is a lot to be fixed followed the dismantling of the contracts the past 20 years. Pilots are just trying to get back to be some form of what the contracts used to be.

How long ago did your husband retire? There is one of three scenarios: 1) He either retired very long ago and is completely out of touch with the state of the career. 2) He got screwed over multiple times and is now completely bitter and doesn’t want to see any pilot have a good career if he couldn’t have one himself. 3) He was a scab.

If your husband flew professionally for 21 years I’m surprised you have no interest in his safety of the tens of thousands of people flying every single day. There are tons of data that show how two pilots mitigate the myriad risks and save lives.

Also you should learn about inflation and how dollar adjusting works. If you did, you’d know that we in fact are not getting paid “more than ever.”

Lastly, can you please tell me why we should make less than our friends at delta? Thanks!

It's very interesting that the public as a whole doesn't seem to be very pro labor until its their profession asking for pay increases. Until that exact moment it's just others being greedy. Most people wouldn't bat at eye at a pharma sales rep or VP at (insert corporation here) making big dollars and I guarantee that individual believes they're worth more. But the second a union, especially a pilots union asks for increases on the backs of billions of dollars of generated revenue, the narrative quickly shifts to greed. All these articles like to regale the reader with tails about pilots making 600K a year which is almost entirely nonsense with very few exceptions. The vast majority of pilots make a third of that annually at best. Furthermore, it's quite interesting how the narrative further evolves to how pilots should be lucky AI hasn't replaced their jobs, almost like a veiled and oddly celebrated threat. Frankly, if anyone doesn't see the omnipresent threat that AI poses to large swathes of human existence then they should probably invest in a new pair of glasses.

I have great respect for pilots and feel like the current setup of a captain and first officer is essential and do not trust any AI pilots. That being said the pilot's union is taking full advantage of the current pilot shortage and pressing on the pedal too hard. Pilots have seen crises from 9/11 and Covid which wreak havoc on the airlines. While they absolutely deserve to be well compensated for their work, trying to increase their salaries from the 200-400k range to 300-600k range in a few years might be too much. Afterall the passengers bear much of the inflation from these salaries going up too much. I think we need a lot more high speed rail so pilots can focus on longer mileage flights rather than waste them on Los Angeles to Vegas....DC to NY...and Houston to Dallas flights.

@Super

Except UA pilots didn’t “just got one of the biggest pay increases”. They didn’t “secure a massive new contract” as you state…..If you are gonna comment at least get the basics right