Firm Files Lawsuit Against NetJets for Interfering With and Damaging Pilots Union

Kronenberger Rosenfeld, LLP filed a lawsuit against NetJets Aviation Inc., a private jet charter company owned by Berkshire Hathaway Inc., on behalf of NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots (NJASAP), a pilots union of approximately 3,000 pilots. The complaint alleges that NetJets Aviation used Twitter to impersonate union members and unlawfully accessed and obtained confidential communications from the password-protected union Internet message board to weaken and ultimately destroy the union.

The complaint also alleges that NetJets created the imposter Twitter account, titled “TwinkieTheKid,” to:

• Encourage NJASAP members to violate the Railway Labor Act’s status quo provisions;
• Bait them to endorse or participate in an unlawful job action;
• Interfere with union procedures for appointing and electing leadership; and
• Threaten to blacklist NJASAP members from other employment if they left NetJets.

The complaint further alleges that a member of NetJets’ management admitted to obtaining copies of confidential conversations, which had appeared on private Internet message boards for union members. These private message boards are a secure environment for union members to discuss, among other things, how they interpret various terms in a collective bargaining agreement.

“The great lengths to which NetJets went to undermine the union is unconscionable,” said Karl Kronenberger, Partner with Kronenberger Rosenfeld, LLP. “Union members have the legal right to communicate with each other privately within their own Internet message boards, and, unfortunately, NetJets’ actions, as detailed in the complaint, are inconsistent with their obligations under federal labor law.”

The suit calls for the destruction of the confidential information and an injunction barring further coercion, as well as monetary damages.

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