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DHL pilot alleges poor labor practices that are spreading throughout industry

qz.com

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Re: DHL pilot alleges poor labor practices that are spreading throughout industry

#11

Post by latch »

robk wrote: post #5

There aren't really any facts here just pure emotion that you would hear in any industry where costs are cut. I've no idea how fairly these pilots are paid. But surely there are regulations about pilot rest just like on commercial flights. And a pilot cannot really pull heart strings about being away from home when they chose that line of work where your job is literally to be away from home all the time.

I think transportation is an incredibly important (food!), but the way this is written seems incredibly tone-deaf. He should have focused on the facts (if there are any) about incident rates and length of time flying, instead of saying how his dream of connecting "our great country with the rest of the world" is being jeopardized.

Re: DHL pilot alleges poor labor practices that are spreading throughout industry

#12

Post by etherael »

latch wrote: post #11
robk wrote: post #5

There aren't really any facts here just pure emotion that you would hear in any industry where costs are cut. I've no idea how fairly these pilots are paid. But surely there are regulations about pilot rest just like on commercial flights. And a pilot cannot really pull heart strings about being away from home when they chose that line of work where your job is literally to be away from home all the time.

I think transportation is an incredibly important (food!), but the way this is written seems incredibly tone-deaf. He should have focused on the facts (if there are any) about incident rates and length of time flying, instead of saying how his dream of connecting "our great country with the rest of the world" is being jeopardized.

To be fair, the emotional approach is what actually works in the vast majority of cases. Normal people don't connect with or understand facts.

I think this might be a case of content audience mismatch.

Re: DHL pilot alleges poor labor practices that are spreading throughout industry

#14

Post by hblanks »

A couple things to consider:

* Hour restrictions for passenger transport are significantly more stringent than for freight.

* Southern Air's fleet consists 737s and 777s -- not small planes.

* These plans have to fly over and into major metropolitan areas.

* Many parts of flying can be automated, but in the end, and for aircraft this size, you probably want a human operator in the plane for the sheer reason that they are better equipped to handle unplanned emergencies.

It's a tough call whether flying freight or regional airlines pays worse -- but in either case, you're anywhere from a quarter to half of what a software engineer of similar years experience in the bay area would make. The hours are in a lot of ways worse -- mostly because you're away from home a lot of the time, and you have really limited control of your schedule. (As someone who's worked as an on-call engineer for ten years, and who also flies, I'd take the on-call responsibilities over flying freight any day of the week.)

I'd agree that the article lacks for details. But, a relatively quick reading through things like airliners.net will give you an idea of the kind of hours and pay these guys typically work -- it's not an easy job. If we care about their safety -- and our own, given the number of freight aircraft flying over us every night -- we shouldn't write them off as just asking for money they don't deserve.

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