Effort Calls For Pilots To 'Stand Together In An Unprecedented Way'

Regional airline pilots are organizing a "sick-out" September 1-5 in an effort to call attention to what they say is an effort to "take back our careers."

On the website pilotstrike.com, the organizers are calling on the 20,000 pilots of regional jets to call in sick if their flight begins on September 1, or they are scheduled for a flight through September 5. "Many pilots will not call in sick mid-trip for fear of disrupting their fellow crew members and a phone call from the chief pilot," the site says. "But most of us have no qualms about calling in sick before the trip starts.  That is EXACTLY what this effort is."

The organizers say that while one or two individual pilots might lose their jobs if they undertook such an effort on their own, the airlines will not fire 20,000 pilots that "stood together in an unprecedented way and made U.S. airline history."

The site owners say its purpose is not to bankrupt the airlines, "but to simply send a message. Some of our mainline partners have been posting record profits while we flounder in an endless sea of nothing.  Uncertain futures are on the horizon and non-existent calls for a greener pasture. We need to send a message that we are unified and will do what it takes to keep moving forward."

FMI: www.pilotstrike.com