The company made a big mistake when they decided to pick a fight with the pilots.[/QUOTE]
Lord Wakefield,
This is an excellent point in its most basic sense. NetJets wants everyone to think this is a typical Management/Union struggle which it is not.
Its about a very dedicated pilot group who wants to make the company a career destination. All we want is to know the company will take care of us and we will take care of it.
We are and have always been under the umbrella of a "union" but until 6 months a go we had never operated as one.
The growth of the company, the reputation the pilots established, the work we did day in and day out was built on the backs of pilots doing the very best we could.
If this union is so bad for the company then why, under the former union which did little or nothing for us, were the contracts as poor and miserable as the one we were offered in December?
Year after year NetJets makes the excuse that the money is coming, we want you guys to stay, we need your help, you are the best pilots, etc... Why? because they were smart enough to know that in order to build a company of this size they would need total cooperation from the pilot group. We were the only ones who could make all this possible. Any labor strife in the previous years could have halted much of the growth and market share.
Finally today the pilot group realizes what we have done. We built an empire with little or no return on our investment. Are we stupid, maybe, but more likely naive.
We believed we were immune to the likes of airline style management or the Enrons of the world. Why did we believe this? Because it was a new industry, we were pioneering something different and we so desperately wanted to be succesfull that we drank the koolaid or poison water(depending on which side your on).
Today, there is little or no good will left. A pilot who was terminated unjustly, for which an arbitrator agreed, is now being pursued for termination again by non-company lawyers because their internal legal staff wont touch the case.
Its a very frustrating time at NJA. A time I have never experienced as a pilot. This upcoming winter season for NetJets is going to disastrous. Pilots will DNIF and write up airplanes, all perfectly legal as Bridgeway Bob pointed out, at an alarming rate. When pilots would go the extra mile because better times were to come,well, now they know the truth.
Another winter will come and go with pilots and their families going without. during this period we will have over 20% of the pilot group elligible for food stamps and the rest will just get by. I know for myself and my kids it will be another lacking holiday season. I suppose it is to be expected since its been this way for so many years.