Pilot Union Sues NetJets

The NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots (NJASAP), the labor organization representing the 3,000-plus pilots employed by Berkshire Hathaway’s NetJets, Inc., filed a complaint against the luxury jet carrier in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. The lawsuit accuses NetJets of attempting to suppress union-related pilot speech in violation of federal labor law.

NJASAP filed the lawsuit yesterday in response to NetJets’s threat to discipline or to discharge pilots for referring aircraft owners and customers to the union’s website when they ask questions about contract negotiations. The Union website provides visitors with information about the sustained U.S. pilot shortage, the status of negotiations between the parties and how career earnings at NetJets compare to the airlines.

On March 8, 2023, NetJets Chief Operating Officer Alan Bobo sent an email to NetJets pilots accusing them of violating the carrier’s work rules. Union representatives asked NetJets how pilots should respond if they are asked questions about contract negotiations and related issues. But NetJets refused to respond to the union’s questions and did not lift the ban on speaking about the website.

“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,” NJASAP President Capt. Pedro Leroux said.

“It is 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 NetJet’s discriminatory ban on union-related speech is unprofessional and illegal.”

While prohibiting pilots from speaking about the union website, NetJets President of Sales, Marketing and Service Patrick Gallagher, on April 19, sent an email to hundreds of NetJets employees claiming the pilot union’s leadership is out of touch with its members.

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 the lawsuit, NJASAP calls these allegations false, reckless, and part of a campaign to undermine the pilot union and its elected leadership in violation of the Railway Labor Act.

“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,” Leroux said. “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.”