NetJets Unrest Puts Warren Buffett in a Rare Pinch

[Checks]

Nja owner,

The pilots are productive but feel that they can't ask for a raise because the company can't afford it from a business standpoint. The fact is the company is profitable.
What heck is a nja owner doing on this site anyways? Kinda silly that you r even on here.

 

[JustPlaneTruth]

Nja owner,

The pilots are productive but feel that they can't ask for a raise because the company can't afford it from a business standpoint. The fact is the company is profitable.
What heck is a nja owner doing on this site anyways? Kinda silly that you r even on here.

NJAOwner has been on here for a very long time and most of us appreciate the perspective provided. He has been a supporter of NetJets pilots for the long haul. Why NJAOwner comes here not anyone else's business or concern.

 

[NJAowner]

Because how else would i find out about labor unrest, policy issues, and how the pilots are treated who fly me, my family and associates around. While fractional is not perfect, from my perspective, atlas I know you guys are fairly well fed, stay in decent hotels and have a fatigue policy. What I have learned about most (not all) charter, especially cheap charter, scares the crap out of me. I learned most of it on this site, but then confirmed through many other channels.

Plane (intended) and simple. In the business world it is called "due diligence" and trying to find out as much as one can which led met this site. My travel is a very large expenditure and a very important one so I like to know what is happening in private air travel. When I look at companies I prefer to speak to non-executive employees, suppliers, customers and landlords rather than hearing what an executive team has to say. And -- at some times I have to admit this site is entertaining as well.

 

[msculley6905]

How about profit sharing? oh wait, that's just for the non union groups....never mind.

Yep...instituted shortly after we started paying some of our healthcare benefits. It's been a nice net gain on yearly income, so works out well. You guys /gals want both or it's management greed.

 

[Checks]

Nja owner,

Sorry for questioning your motives. I flew charter and it can be scary....if only the passengers knew.

I'm curious how much more expensive netjets is verse traditional charter or even flight options.

 

[realityman]

So many posts are base upon the logic "he has soooooo much money he should pay us more". That is a very poor premise and outnumbers all others probably 10 to 1.

Funny, any time I wanted a raise I went to my superiors and my basis was always "I should be paid more because ..... I am valuable because ... I do a better job because .... I can make you more money because .... I make the company better because...." My team members who want raises come to me with similar logic. I have never said "you should pay me more because you have so much money and wouldn't notice it" or something similar. But that is the overwhelming position not only on this board, but in the public campaign. It is all based upon NJA's $$.

The pilots know I support them. But the argument, position and strategy being employed is not one of strength and productivity but one of entitlement. Please don't shower me with messages about how productive you are, etc. - while that is true and I agree - that is NOT the emphasis of YOUR campaign and NOT the issue which the union is communicating to the owners. Maybe the union show have a survey company poll a demographic similar to the owners (like marketing companies regularly do) and see if the campaign is effective and communicating the proper message? If there is a "gaol sheet" of the objectives of the campaign, I seriously doubt they are being accomplished as far as the owners are concerned.

I appreciate the perspective, but that's not what I see going on. The point I, and many others here (but admittedly not all) are trying to make is that we are trying to make the case as you suggest (how much we work, our experience, our value to the company, etc..) and that we deserve a raise because of it. In fact, we deserve to be paid as well as our counterparts at the legacies. We aren't saying we should have a raise BECAUSE Netjets/BH has money, we're saying they can afford to provide us the raise we deserve for the previously mentioned reasons.

I'm not sure what union's public propaganda you've been following, but I haven't seen one single thing put out by our union that's said we should have a raise simply because Netjets/BH has money. Would you kindly point me in the direction of that propaganda. All I've seen publicly so far is our union trying to point out our EMT's incompetence and mismanagement of the company. We have genuine concern for how they are taking care of your aviation asset as well as for the service they're providing you. And we the pilots can't provide you that service you should have because this EMT isn't giving us the tools we need to do so, and in fact keeps putting more and more obstacles in our way.

But I've seen nothing from our union saying we should be paid more simply because NJA/BH has lots of money.

 

[NJAowner]

How about huge signs and billboards that essentially just say GREED. That is not boasting your attributes. The message you think you are sending and what is being received are 2 very different things. Quite common in the business world -- marketing people and PR firms spend a lot of time refining message to make sure they are effective.

 

[realityman]

Actually, they got it exactly right. It is management greed which is reducing service to you. The company is wildly profitable, yet cutbacks continue, not just to employees, but to our clients. And why? So BH and WB, both wildly wealthy, can squeeze a few more insignificant dollars out for themselves (insignificant to them, not to your value for the product or our compensation). But I don't see how that message has anything to do with what you were originally talking about, that we claim we should have raises just because they have money. That is not a, message I've seen our union communicating.

 

[T-1GUY]

So what do you call it when the company you work for underpays their frontline highly skilled employees by forty percent compared to other professionals with the same skll set in the industry, and then demands paycuts at a time when the company is making money hand over fist on the backs of those employees just so Warren can have a higher rate of return.

I'll call it what it is: GREED

 

[msculley6905]

Was the union not ready/willing/wanting to extend the current deal back before all this started? Why then were willing to accept "40% less than your peers". To my knowledge NJ also does not make 100s of millions of dollars per quarter like the majors, so comparing pay to them is apples and oranges (strictly talking revenue stream, not skillset) Not to mention the vastly different financial/operating structure.