Pilots for FedEx have rejected a tentative labor deal. But that doesn’t mean they’re about to walk off the job just as UPS is threatened with its own strike by 340,000 drivers and other hourly ground workers.
They turned down a 30% increase in both wages AND pension benefits? I’m very curious about what’s in the rest of that contract, because this sounds like it should have been a slam dunk.
30% is good, but the rest of the industry for pilots has been getting better deals lately and FedEx has historically been the highest paid pilots in the US so they’ve got high standards. We are also in the midst of a pilot shortage in the US and pilots have never had this much bargaining power to get what they want and likely never will again. Therefore, pilots at a lot of companies are being patient to get exactly what they want out of their new contracts. Honestly, the pay is relatively low priority to other quality of life upgrades.
Like guarantees to not get rid of the copilots position… something some companies are trying to do. My grand father was first an army pilot, then a flight engineer; the third man in the cockpit that no longer exists as a position, then a copilot and then a pilot, he heard the other day about companies pushing the FAA for flights allowed to have only one pilot and he just about shit himself.
Surely to fuck the FAA will resist such a move that is based on a bottom line of a corporation and not on safety, right?..right?!
Well it’s more so congress and not so much the FAA. For example, the house has passed a bill allowing pilots to continue to fly until 67 years old. The current mandatory retirement age is 65 and believe me, a lot of the guys pushing their 60s are delusional and this is just gonna make it worse.
Pilots already make plenty of money though
They pay huge sums out of their own pockets for qualifications and they have a complex job with high responsibility.
arent most commercial pilots in the US ex-military?
