RI, let me begin by saying that I am neither a Netjets pilot nor a Netjets pilot on furlough. I have a great many friends at Netjets, though, including unfortunately, 3 on furlough .

NO union contract can prevent a furlough during the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. That happened at American, Delta, United, Northwest, Alaske, US Airways, etc., and even UPS. What a union contract WILL prevent is what happened at some of the non-unionized Fractionals, such as:

1) Christmas 2008, XOJET terminates (not furloughs) 1/5 of the pilot group on one day, "bloody Saturday", I think they called it. Their first warning was that their e-mail and company phones quit working. For the rest of their careers, these pilots will have to check TERMINATED on their online applications elsewhere. Maybe they'll get to talk to a real person to explain that their company had no contract or furlough policy. But then again, maybe not.

2) 2009 and 2011, Flexjet furloughs, then terminates. Pilots there are unrepresented with no union contract or furlough policy. Pilots must RE-INTERVIEW for their old job and come back at FIRST-YEAR PAY. Some then only to be terminated in the next round. See above at XOJET for the effect on their careers.

3) In 2009, Travel Management pilots receive an e-mail that if this is their go-home day, day 7, to just add 8 days to their tour. Good luck if they are a single Mom or Dad, or a pilot who is caring for a sick spouse, parent, or child. The pilots had no contract to prevent this.

The above are examples of what can happen to a pilot group with no contract to prevent egregious behavior by an employer. Contrast that with the Netjets pilots that were at least given the respect of a furlough. Continue from there and ask any Netjets (or even Southwest, Fedex, etc.) pilot if they would rather go back to the "good old days" before they were represented and before their blowout 2005 contract.

The furloughed pilots I know at Netjets have been furloughed before from other places and one even intends to use his recall rights to Netjets rather than American, where he also has recall rights.

Finally, as far as 50 percent being unhappy, ask any pilot group maybe other than Southwest and you will get a similar result.