What Jetlife says is often unpleasant, but he for the most part speaks the truth.

NetJets has a lot of problems right now. No matter what the company says, we clearly are understaffed in several fleets and the problem isn't fixable in time for the busy season.

To complicate matters, this problem was caused by, or at least signed off by the union during the CBA 2015 ratification, which allowed for scheduling to become more efficient per the company perspective. Since then, the company has shrunk, less pilots do more work. Sometimes the raises have kept up with the added work load and inflation, but in the cases of F/Os (especially new hires), it has become a bad job for low pay. We can not retain good F/Os in the smaller fleets. The contract is just not competitive.

So...the union has taken up the company on their offer to "make things more efficient and/or improve things mutually". The problem is, the company has already negotiated in bad faith before negotiations have ever gotten underway. They have denied there is a staffing problem even through CHRONIC FATIGUE is a major concern, they have attempted to intimidate pilots with new sick leave policies and tried to usurp our union negotiated fatigue program. Why the union wants to negotiate with the company in light of these events I have no idea.

We come to the busy season overworked. The company has the burden of not having enough pilots. The union has the burden of allowing this problem to get to bad levels.

The lack of pilots and the chronic fatigue, overworked pilot group is a burden that should not be placed on the pilot shoulders this winter. We already have enough to worry about.

While nobody at NetJets has a really great job (say, a Delta pilot that goes to Tokyo twice a month), the Global and G guys sometimes aren't too far behind. Compare that with a new hire working for RJ F/O rates in a Phenom with an average 13 hour duty day, well, conflict arises in the pilot group...solidarity and leverage are lost.

If NetJets does hire soon, just be aware of these facts. The people that created the problem are unlikely to solve it...and sadly the people that created it are still calling the shots.

Stay safe out there. I wish it was better, it certainly could be.