About airline employees

[nancylebov]

Airlines have been problematic employers for a very long time--I don't think I've heard of so many broken contracts (this is usually describes as re-negotiating with the union) in any other industry.

I realize that it can be very hard to switch lines of work if one is ill-paid or has a lot of obligations, but that's the short term. It doesn't explain why people get training for airline jobs early on when they presumably have more options, and I think airlines have been trouble to work for for decades.

I'm not trying to blame the victims--I'm observing that people are doing something which seems to make very little sense, and I'm curious about why.

Comments

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Presumably they love planes and love to fly? I know that would have been what could have gotten me into the industry.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

My impression is that the pay for airline work is better in good times than other comparable professions, explaining why some folks would choose it. Plus, there's the travel perks (reduced or free travel, depending on which segment of the industry one's in). I can see why someone would work as a ticket clerk if they thought they could travel twice or three times as much as they'd be able to in other professions (assuming travel appeals, of course :-)

Also, many (most?) young people aren't thinking long-term, and, especially in the current economy, aren't thinking they'll necessarily wind up in the same industry, much less with the same company, that they start with. So the training, if available, makes some sense.

Personally, I'm concerned that I haven't heard about the unions whose pensions just got trashed by the court trying to make an issue out of equalizing the loss for management (that is, having THEIR pensions, still safe in the company's hands, suffer the same fate). Or have I just missed it?

[cheshyre]

Why do people become teachers or librarians or work in social services? Jobs which require masters degrees yet barely pay a liveable wage?

Passion.

[I also suspect that many pilots are ex-Air Force, for whom civilian piloting would be a natural career path.]

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

I'd have thought that a lot of airline jobs aren't glamorous, but maybe I'm not appreciating that even fairly low-level jobs are cooler if you're working with airplanes.

I've heard a similar argument for why airlines exist at all in spite (so it's claimed) of generally not being profitable.

[redbird]

I think most of the people with airline-specific skills, the pilots and airplane mechanics, got their training in the Air Force. Some people just like planes. And some who got their training elsewhere did so before it looked like a particularly iffy career path. New York City has Aviation High School, a vocational school that's part of the public school system and has been around for a long time; I have no idea if this is unique or one of a thousand scattered around the world.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

Because they love flying and airplanes?

Also because if you go into the air force, airlines are your natural next thing when you come out.

Also "ill-paid" and "bad conditions" are relative, and airlines looks good if you come from a background of worse pay and worse conditions.

[nellorat.livejournal.com]

As far as I can tell from people I know who went into airline-related careers, what everyone else says is true. There is more prestige being an airline ticket clerk than there would be for a similar job simply in retail. Also, the travel perks are impressive; I even know of one second-generation airline clerk because her family benefitted so much from her father's free and/or discount tickets. Also, much other work is even worse. I'll add that many airline workers in low-level jobs are women married to men in higher-payign jobs such as pilot, advanced mechanic, etc.