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Fly the Unfriendly Skies : Pilots plan informational pickets about low wages, lack of contract
By Amy Starnes http://www.freetimes.com/print.php?sid=1860
JOHN HEINRICH walked into Cleveland Hopkins Airport one Monday in late July and ran smack into one of the airlines' secrets: professional pilots who operate commuter or regional flights for the big birds make shockingly little money.
Heinrich ran into a group of ExpressJet pilots holding an informational picket in front of Hopkins' Continental Airlines ticket counter. They've been attempting to negotiate a new contract for more than 800 days now. The picket was the third so far this year and coincided with others at Continental's hubs in Houston and Newark.
ExpressJet operates as Continental Express, the regional jet affiliate of Continental Airlines, but as ExpressJet spokeswoman Christy Nicholas is quick to point out, ExpressJet is no longer a subsidiary of Continental Airlines. ExpressJet was sold on the public market in April 2002, and at first Continental owned 53.1 percent of the shares but has since sold down to about 31 percent — still the largest shareholder.
To the average ticket-holding flyer, they're still Continental pilots, they're flying Continental planes to 130 destinations in the United States, Canada and Mexico, and they're still charged with your safety. But what John didn't know until that Monday was that their starting salary is $17,600 a year.
“My wife makes $9 an hour making pizza. I was shocked,” Heinrich says. “I thought, this is ridiculous.”
Cleveland-based ExpressJet Captain Chris Addams, who helped organize July's informational picket, says, “A lot of our first officers, in order to be able to provide for their families … work second jobs, or their wives work as well so that both of them can bring home enough income.”
First Officer Jim Alcido of Houston is 42. He helps fly a 50-seat Ebraer145 through Cleveland two to three times a month. He started at $17,600, but now makes about $27,000 as a third-year officer. It's not enough to support his wife and two small boys — ages 7 and 2 — so he works two other jobs. He's a member of the Navy Reserve and commits at least a weekend a month and other occasional days there. In the rest of his free time he delivers Domino's Pizza for extra cash.
“I don't want to sound like ‘poor me' or what have you, but I usually don't have an off day. I pretty much work all month,” Alcido says.
Alcido flies Continental Express routes 20 to 30 hours per week, which normally takes up four out the week's seven days. The Federal Aviation Administration caps pilot flight time at 30 hours per week and 100 hours per month, so even if Alcido wanted to pick up extra flights to exceed his minimum pay, it's rarely possible. Plus, Alcido isn't paid for the four days he's gone, just the hours in the air. When you're out of town for four days, that limits the moonlighting possibilities.
His family rents an apartment, just bought a used van because one of their older cars died, and he notes that if anything major happens to one of the vehicles he would probably have to ask family for help.
Alcido and other ExpressJet pilots are not alone, however. Earlier this year, Mesaba Airlines pilots nearly struck over a two-year-old contract dispute. Mesaba, based in Eagan, Minnesota, operates 600 flights daily for Northwest Airlines to 114 cities in 30 states. The pilots contended they weren't making a living wage. Their starting pay was about $17,000 a year, and the union claimed that half the pilots earned less than $32,500 per year.
ExpressJet and the Airline Pilots Association have been stuck in negotiations over pay increases for the first officers as well as other job definition and job security issues.
“Our pilot group is growing kind of frustrated because it's taking so long, and there's really no need for it to. And we feel the company is kind of stalling, even though they have repeatedly said they're making good progress with us,” Addams says.
ExpressJet spokeswoman Nicholas says the company will not comment on ongoing negotiations. In the meantime, the Airline Pilots Association plans another Cleveland informational picket sometime around Labor Day, but they have yet to firm up plans.
ExpressJet beginning first officers receive incremental raises per year, but a major jump in salary would really come only when the officer makes captain. Alcido estimates he might make about $50,000 per year when he makes captain. But his rank attainment depends on the other officers in line before him and the economics of the airline industry. Many pilots were laid off or “furloughed,” as the industry calls it, after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
“There were times when we had pilots who'd only been with our company two years and were making captain. Now I don't think there's a single captain who's been with our company five years,” Addams says. “We have first officers who have been with the company going into their fifth year, and they have never broken $30,000 a year on their W-2.”
Switching companies for one that pays better isn't always an option, since some companies still have furloughed pilots, and switching would only make the pilot low man on the seniority and captain list.
Alcido believes his captain status is about two years away. Before he became a pilot and while he was earning his bachelor's degree in aviation management from Ohio State University, Alcido worked loading and unloading planes. He would earn $1,000 more a month if he went back today.
He and his wife have talked about it extensively, but the decision came down to two things: he may ultimately make more as a pilot if he sticks with it; and, “I've always wanted to be a pilot, which is a curse, I guess.”
By Amy Starnes http://www.freetimes.com/print.php?sid=1860
JOHN HEINRICH walked into Cleveland Hopkins Airport one Monday in late July and ran smack into one of the airlines' secrets: professional pilots who operate commuter or regional flights for the big birds make shockingly little money.
Heinrich ran into a group of ExpressJet pilots holding an informational picket in front of Hopkins' Continental Airlines ticket counter. They've been attempting to negotiate a new contract for more than 800 days now. The picket was the third so far this year and coincided with others at Continental's hubs in Houston and Newark.
ExpressJet operates as Continental Express, the regional jet affiliate of Continental Airlines, but as ExpressJet spokeswoman Christy Nicholas is quick to point out, ExpressJet is no longer a subsidiary of Continental Airlines. ExpressJet was sold on the public market in April 2002, and at first Continental owned 53.1 percent of the shares but has since sold down to about 31 percent — still the largest shareholder.
To the average ticket-holding flyer, they're still Continental pilots, they're flying Continental planes to 130 destinations in the United States, Canada and Mexico, and they're still charged with your safety. But what John didn't know until that Monday was that their starting salary is $17,600 a year.
“My wife makes $9 an hour making pizza. I was shocked,” Heinrich says. “I thought, this is ridiculous.”
Cleveland-based ExpressJet Captain Chris Addams, who helped organize July's informational picket, says, “A lot of our first officers, in order to be able to provide for their families … work second jobs, or their wives work as well so that both of them can bring home enough income.”
First Officer Jim Alcido of Houston is 42. He helps fly a 50-seat Ebraer145 through Cleveland two to three times a month. He started at $17,600, but now makes about $27,000 as a third-year officer. It's not enough to support his wife and two small boys — ages 7 and 2 — so he works two other jobs. He's a member of the Navy Reserve and commits at least a weekend a month and other occasional days there. In the rest of his free time he delivers Domino's Pizza for extra cash.
“I don't want to sound like ‘poor me' or what have you, but I usually don't have an off day. I pretty much work all month,” Alcido says.
Alcido flies Continental Express routes 20 to 30 hours per week, which normally takes up four out the week's seven days. The Federal Aviation Administration caps pilot flight time at 30 hours per week and 100 hours per month, so even if Alcido wanted to pick up extra flights to exceed his minimum pay, it's rarely possible. Plus, Alcido isn't paid for the four days he's gone, just the hours in the air. When you're out of town for four days, that limits the moonlighting possibilities.
His family rents an apartment, just bought a used van because one of their older cars died, and he notes that if anything major happens to one of the vehicles he would probably have to ask family for help.
Alcido and other ExpressJet pilots are not alone, however. Earlier this year, Mesaba Airlines pilots nearly struck over a two-year-old contract dispute. Mesaba, based in Eagan, Minnesota, operates 600 flights daily for Northwest Airlines to 114 cities in 30 states. The pilots contended they weren't making a living wage. Their starting pay was about $17,000 a year, and the union claimed that half the pilots earned less than $32,500 per year.
ExpressJet and the Airline Pilots Association have been stuck in negotiations over pay increases for the first officers as well as other job definition and job security issues.
“Our pilot group is growing kind of frustrated because it's taking so long, and there's really no need for it to. And we feel the company is kind of stalling, even though they have repeatedly said they're making good progress with us,” Addams says.
ExpressJet spokeswoman Nicholas says the company will not comment on ongoing negotiations. In the meantime, the Airline Pilots Association plans another Cleveland informational picket sometime around Labor Day, but they have yet to firm up plans.
ExpressJet beginning first officers receive incremental raises per year, but a major jump in salary would really come only when the officer makes captain. Alcido estimates he might make about $50,000 per year when he makes captain. But his rank attainment depends on the other officers in line before him and the economics of the airline industry. Many pilots were laid off or “furloughed,” as the industry calls it, after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
“There were times when we had pilots who'd only been with our company two years and were making captain. Now I don't think there's a single captain who's been with our company five years,” Addams says. “We have first officers who have been with the company going into their fifth year, and they have never broken $30,000 a year on their W-2.”
Switching companies for one that pays better isn't always an option, since some companies still have furloughed pilots, and switching would only make the pilot low man on the seniority and captain list.
Alcido believes his captain status is about two years away. Before he became a pilot and while he was earning his bachelor's degree in aviation management from Ohio State University, Alcido worked loading and unloading planes. He would earn $1,000 more a month if he went back today.
He and his wife have talked about it extensively, but the decision came down to two things: he may ultimately make more as a pilot if he sticks with it; and, “I've always wanted to be a pilot, which is a curse, I guess.”
