United Airlines Pilots Will Vote To Authorize A Strike

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.

Pilots are beginning to price themselves out of a job. AI in cars has become more and more a part of everyday life, and it has only just begun. The features have been there. Auto braking when a car suddenly stops in front of you or when a pedestrian suddenly steps off a curb in front of the car, self parking, self driving. The safety that comes from the AI taking over when a human makes a mistake will become accepted, then expected. It is at that point when the airlines will lobby for an "AI co-pilot". The "captain" will be the only person in the cockpit, at first as the primary, then over time, as a back up. The airlines just eliminated the cost of the second highest paid person on the plane. Computers do not go on strike, want vacation time, need health insurance, call in sick, or file lawsuits against their employer. I am not saying they are over or underpaid. Just saying they may be providing incentive for their own demise.

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.

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).

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.