Buffett Makes $5.1B Bid in Power Industry

[bart]

When are the pilots at NetJets going to figure out that they made a huge mistake inviting the Teamster's to represent them, and that BH will take them to the mat for it? You do not have the votes to strike, and if you do, you will be fired and replaced and spend the next ten years in court trying to prove you were wrongfully terminated. Uncle Warren has tremendous resources and will go a long way to make sure you learn a good lesson in supply and demand.

My wager is the strike will go to a vote and be defeated. Then you will plow along for the next ten years at your current pay or until you decertify the Teamsters.

Bets of luck in your plight. You have made an interesting bed. Let us know how it sleeps.

 

[transpac]

My wager is the strike will go to a vote and be defeated. Then you will plow along for the next ten years at your current pay or until you decertify the Teamsters.

If we can agree on the details of payment I'm ready to take you up on your wager. In fact, until your kind offer, I was willing to wager that the strike vote would be at least 75%. I'm not speaking for anyone else, but I imagine there's others who'd like some of this action.

 

[Live4flyng]

When are the pilots at NetJets going to figure out that they made a huge mistake inviting the Teamster's to represent them, and that BH will take them to the mat for it? You do not have the votes to strike, and if you do, you will be fired and replaced and spend the next ten years in court trying to prove you were wrongfully terminated. Uncle Warren has tremendous resources and will go a long way to make sure you learn a good lesson in supply and demand.

My wager is the strike will go to a vote and be defeated. Then you will plow along for the next ten years at your current pay or until you decertify the Teamsters.

Bets of luck in your plight. You have made an interesting bed. Let us know how it sleeps.

Thanks for your opinion Mr. King Air Pilot. With all of your experience in this area, is that the best advise you can give? Here is a little tidbit of information for you.....THE TEAMSTERS represented the EJA pilots long before Berkshire Hathaway showed up.

In addition to Transpac, I would love a piece of that action. How much money do you have to lose?

You may be correct about being locked out if we strike, but we won't be spending any time in court trying to get our jobs back. Our "bed" sleeps just fine, why would you care?

 

[TimsKeeper]

Are NJ pilots really reduced to arguing their side maliciously to unidentified posters on a public forum? You want support but attack the people that you want that support from?

I think there is extreme, I repeat EXTREME, denial going on within your pilot group and need to take a reality check. It may be in the end the actual "scab" tag will be on your resume when you need to find a job in another aviation sector. If it is so terrible at NetJets you are qualified to go elsewhere....what is so difficult about this concept? You chose to take the position, you don't have to stay!

When enough NJ pilots leave their position (by either strike or by their choice to a new job) the salaries will increase when the supply of new pilots run out. Go take a ECO101 refresher before you hurt your families....there are no easy streets in this industry right now, it's tough all around!

 

[FamilyGuy]

You forgot 2004' Mr. Family Guy

Flight service revenues increased $813 million (33%) over 2003. Over 90% of the revenue increase resulted from the NetJets business where flight operations revenue increased just under $400 million and revenues from aircraft sales increased about $360 million. The increase in flight operations revenue was primarily due to higher usage, a larger percentage of hours being on larger aircraft and a slight rate increase. Sales of fractional aircraft increased due to an approximately 10% increase in aircraft sold and a higher percentage of sales being large cabin aircraft which carry a higher sales price.

Pre-tax earnings of flight services businesses totaled $191 million in 2004, an increase of $119 million as compared to 2003.

33% increase in Revenue

62% increase in Profit

Not too shabby. You are right, this is fun.

Nope, didnt forget 2004 at all. My original posts were responding to your claim that Flight Services didnt make a profit in the PAST, hence the need to go back and look at 2003, 2002, and 2001.

I was hoping you would want to continue this discussion, since I do like to deliver the intellectual b!tchslap (borrowing 100LL's rating) to fools such as yourself who think they understand the numbers.

So lets take a closer look at those 2004 numbers that you've foolishly latched onto as proof that the Company can afford to pay you double your salary. To further clarify what appears to be murky waters for you we will add in all of the Flight Services numbers since BRK bought NetJets in 1998...

Here's the Flight Services REVENUE, PROFIT, and Profit as a Percentage of Revenues from 1998-2004, all from the BRK annual reports (in Millions):

.................1998.....1999.....2000.....2001.....2002.....2003.....2004
Revenue.......858.....1,856....2,279....2,563....2,837....2,431....3,244
Profit...........181........225......213.......186......225.........72......191
Profit %........21%......12%......9%........7%.......8%........3%......6%

As you should be able to see, your claims of 33% increase in revenue and 62% increase in profits looks a lot different when you look at the "whole story". The $191M in 2004 doesnt even get back to the profit numbers from 1999, 2000, or 2002, and we know all of those profits were due to Flight Safety, not NetJets.

NetJets brought a lot of sales and revenues to the table when we joined Berkshire but we havent brought the profits.

And as for your claim that most of those profits are because of NetJets, lets just address that BS now....

From page 15 of the 2004 BRK annual report:
Earnings improved in flight services. At FlightSafety, the world’s leader in pilot training, profits rose as corporate aviation rebounded and our business with regional airlines increased.

NetJets earned a modest amount in the U.S. last year. But what we earned domestically was largely offset by losses in Europe.

Once you know that, its simple math...Flight Safety earned $150M in 'normal' operations in 2003 (see previous post) and $113M once 'abnormal' effects were accounted for. That means that Flight Safety earned more than $113M of the $191M in 2004 Flight Services profits...again, far more than NetJets brought to the table.

I'm glad you're enjoying your accounting lessons. The first step towards solving the problem is acknowleding that you have one....hopefully you guys will open your eyes and LEARN rather than throwing temper tantrums like my 3 year old niece when she doesnt get what she wants.

 

[bart]

Thanks for your opinion Mr. King Air Pilot

You are very welcome...

You have taken a vote on a TA and some militant rhetoric from a very few and turned it in to a resounding majority for your strike vote. Best of luck. When it comes time to say no to a paycheck, I would say that a good 40 to 50 per cent of the strike votes you are counting on will evaporate.

I would be interested in hearing the odds you see of a strike vote passing. I would put it at 7 to 1 against.

As for expertise with the Teamsters and BH, I worked for a company that had Teamster's on the property before BH showed up. I saw how hardball was played once BH had influence on our board. When the union wasn't happy with new work rules in the contract, they went all the way to a vote on a strike, and it did not fly.

So I must admit, the only union experience I have had is in eradicating them. It actually isn't tough once employees come to see the union as part of the problem rather than the solution.

 

[Publishers]

What has often gotten lost in all aviation discussions is the whole concept of what should be an acceptable profit. It is more of an attitude of "well we have money, we should get it."

The base concept that we are looking for a specific ROI or compare our entity with available investment elsewhere is totally over looked.

We are so intuned to airlines who report millions of losses that we become desensitive to the fact that many companies chug along making a nice profit as they are supposed to. Berkshire is the quintiscential investor, no love of the business simply looking at the field and saying I like that team today.

They have no axe to grind with the employees and if like most investors would prefer total hands off involvement with NJA sending them reports and increasing their value. Whether they own 5%, 50%, or even 100%, they are looking for management to deal with the issues. Entities like BH vote for management, that is who they bet on. They rarely intervene, they just seek out new managment or a different investment.

 

[pilotyip]

Pubs, there you go dealing in reality again, this is a pilot board

 

[TonyC]

Today, 15:26 (news article) UPS, pilots wary as mediation set to end

V1andgo, stop dealing in reality, this a pilot board.

Today, 15:30 Buffett Makes $5.1B Bid in Power Industry

Pubs, there you go dealing in reality again, this is a pilot board

Today, 15:32 United Airlines F/O makes a stand!

Hey, Rick this is a pilot board, do not deal in reality.

Two things occur to me:


1) Broken record


2) Someone learned a new phrase today











Hey, at least it's not an anti-college rant.




.

 

[pilotyip]

Lots of Reality

It is impressive that Tony is such an avid reader of my posts, however it is unusual to see so many posts on different threads dealing with reality. Maybe I should change my trailer.