NetJets NJASAP Feud Heats Up

NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots (NJASAP)—the labor union representing the three-thousand-plus aviators currently in NetJets’ employ—has filed a lawsuit against the Columbus-based air-charter and fractional ownership powerhouse in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.

Filed in response to NetJets’ threat to discipline or discharge pilots caught referring aircraft owners and customers to the union’s website—which features articles questioning NetJets’ commitment to safety and detailing the company’s demonstrable inability to retain experienced aviators—the suit accused NetJets of attempting to suppress union-related pilot speech in violation of federal labor law.

Comes now 22 June and an exacerbation of the acrimony between the air-carrier and the union by which its pilots are represented.  

NJASAP has filed a class-action grievance alleging: “NetJets is failing to provide adequate and standardized training across all segments of the pilot group from its newly hired pilots who are completing initial aircraft training to crewmembers who have been on property for decades and are completing new aircraft transition training.”

NJASAP President Captain Pedro Leroux set forth: “The quality of the NetJets training product has significantly diminished, which is very concerning to NJASAP given the number of ongoing and scheduled training events required to accommodate the dramatic expansion of our fleet.”

Captain Leroux continued: “One of NJASAP’s most pressing concerns is specific to instructors; in several instances, training is being conducted by new, inexperienced staff who have little to no knowledge of NetJets’ standard operating procedures and aircraft.”

NJASAP stated, also: “The instructor-to-pilot ratio is too high to facilitate a productive training environment, and there is a profound lack of standardization in the delivery of study materials and instructor familiarity with the same.”

Captain Leroux opined: “Many pilots are seeking resources outside the established training curriculum to offset inadequacies in their instruction. When pilots are so concerned about the level of instruction that they have no choice but to supplement their training resources outside the classroom, you have a very big problem on your hands.”

NJASAP averred: “These many and varied deficiencies in the training program constitute an egregious violation of the parties’ collective bargaining agreement, which NJASAP will endeavor to remediate through the minor dispute resolution process codified in the collective bargaining agreement. The matter must be heard within ten business days unless the parties mutually agree to an extension.”

In a press release made public prior to the filing of the union’s April lawsuit, the NJASAP reported NetJets Chief Operating Officer Alan Bobo—in response to NetJets pilots referring aircraft owners and customers to the NJASAP website—summarily and collectively accused the entirety of NetJets’ pilot cadre of violating the air-carrier’s work rules.

Union representatives endeavored, at the time, to determine what response pilots ought provide when queried by passengers about contract negotiations and related issues, but were stonewalled by NetJets’ management, which—in addition to ignoring NJASAP’s questions—refused to lift the ban on speaking about the website.

Captain Leroux remarked: “The aircraft owners and customers we fly engage our pilots in conversations every day, including about their jobs and a wide variety of other topics. It’s only natural that they would ask us for basic information about our current labor dispute when they see picketers. Referring to a union website is a professional and legal way to respond to their questions. We believe NetJets’ discriminatory ban on union-related speech is unprofessional and illegal.”

The NJASAP press release alleged, also, that on 19 April 2023, NetJets president of sales, marketing and service Patrick Gallagher “sent an email to hundreds of NetJets employees claiming the pilot union’s leadership is out of touch with its members.”

The press release continued: “Gallagher’s email, sent the same day that more than 350 NetJets pilots engaged in an informational picket at the air carrier’s Columbus, Ohio headquarters, also accuses NJASAP and unions at unnamed airlines of raising safety issues ‘when negotiations heat up’ as part of what he referred to as ‘the union playbook.'”

In its lawsuit, the NJASAP characterizes Gallagher’s remarks as false, reckless, and part of a campaign to undermine the union and its elected leadership in violation of the Railway Labor Act.

Captain Leroux asserted: “NJASAP stands ready to resolve our disputes with NetJets in the best interest of pilots, the company we work for, and the people who depend on us for world-class safety and service. What we will not stand for is an attack on our members’ workplace speech rights or their federally-protected right to elect union leaders without management interference.”

FMI: www.GenuineQS.com