I have been told that. My friends agree. I have no reason not to agree if they say it is so.
How flexible is the union going to be in this type of economy? What is going to be done to help both the company and the pilots? I know this is a broad question, but I look at what the UAW and management has done to the automakers and it is no surprise they are begging for money from me and you, the taxpayers, just to stay in business.
I don't know enough about NetJets to know how or if their union is any different. GM was the big boy on the block. United was the big boy on the block. NetJets IS the big boy on the block....now. You see my concern?
THAT is why I try and gleen as much information off these boards as possible. Intelligent, informative posts (B19, X-rated, ect.) by people working in these jobs/industry help me in my decision making process.
Having to wade through grade school insults to get to the substance in EVERY thread about this stuff is tiresome.
7777,
You are comparing apples to oranges. The UAW is entirely different from NJASAP. NJASAP hasn't negotiated a way for pilots to sit at home for years on end and receive 90% of our base salary. Nor has the company even approached us yet about any kind of concessions. Nor are we making an inordinate amount of money based on what our product costs.
The automakers basically build cars for average Joe American. What NJ's (and the other fracs) provide is a LUXURY service. In other words, it's something pretty much everyone can do without. If they want it, then paying top dollar for it shouldn't be a problem (as long as they're getting the value for the money), and that includes paying a professional salary. And the folks who can afford this type of luxury service aren't likely to dump the product at the first sign of trouble in the economy, unlike the average car buyer or airline ticket purchaser.
Furthermore, the UAW, as well as the typical airline union, tend to maintain a very adversarial relationship, where it'll be a cold day in hell before one side does anything to help the other. It's not like that at NJA. Sure, we did what we had to when it was time to work for our 2005 contract, but generally we are working in partnership with NJ's to help out as much as we can in these tough economic times. We fill out waste reports anytime we see waste happening on the road that could be avoided. We send suggestions on a dedicated link when we think up other ways to improve operations at NJ's. Our union committees are constantly working WITH the company to improve all areas in efficiency and effectiveness, from training to crew meals to controlling hotel costs while maintaining quality to scheduling and so on and so forth.
Now, having said all that, I will also step up and openly admit that even the mighty NJ's isn't immune from this truly awful economy. Things have gotten bad enough that even the wealthy are hunkering down. My personal prediction is that if things stay this slow much longer, then by the end of summer we may be looking at furloughs too. I hope I'm wrong. Time will tell.
But so far our union has been effective in helping the company during these tough times. I hope that answers your question of how quickly our union will react when the company needs help.
As for B19, you'd really need to go back through thousands of posts to see that his arguments aren't intelligent, just repetitive. I've ceased arguing with him because it's like playing raquetball against the curtains. He makes statements against unions, and cites examples. But when you take apart his arguments and ask him to explain, he moves on to another topic, or just repeats what he previously said.
Here's just one example: B19 has, in the past, as well as now, always complained that when times are tough for a company that unions refuse to consider changes to their contract without a fight, sometimes dooming a company to bankruptcy or extinction. I have countered his argument with the question of why should the workers alter their contracts when management almost never changes theirs? A worker making $65K/year should take a pay cut while the CEO still goes home with millions in salary and bonuses? Why should management's contracts be honored, but the workers' should not? And to this day, B19 has not answered that question at all. Why? Because there is no ethical answer he can give. In other words, his arguments are bogus and he knows it. And instead of even TRYING to answer me (these are points I brought up with him over a year ago), he just continued to repeat the same old anti-union crap.
So you need to see his history on these boards to know that his arguments are NOT intelligent, no matter how well he types.
He has since been on my ignore list, and these threads have had far more coherence without him (when I weed past the folks who keep wasting their time responding to him these days).
).
You decide. 
in the past so I let it go. It took tremendous restraint on my part!
