...again, I am not saying Virgin is inherently evil. The original post suggested that an employee on strike might go to Branson thinking he is a friend and not part of the "evil company". My point was that Richard Branson is the founder & the president of the company & has sided with management already in his open letter. That is what I meant by "he is the 'evil company'". I would hold little hope that a pilot is going to have much sway with Mr. Branson.
Now the conversation has veered off into if Branson is a friend of his employees. It sounds like he's partied with employees during the good times. But it's physically impossible for him to be a true personal friend with all his employees. While it's good to be on friendly terms with the founder/president/executive team, you must always keep in mind their position of power & what their motivations might be.
Good companies probably do layoff people. But there is this concept that if you fire someone on a friday it's better for them, or right before their weekend or you give a bunch of employees free travel bonuses while sacking 7% of them. It's slight of hand.
It has already announced an imposed pay freeze for its staff. Board directors will not take bonuses this year.
And the airline has filed to reduce its headcount by 600 staff - a cut of 7 per cent - though it says it has so far activated about 500 job cuts.
It's a bit like saying "everyone gets cake, oh and 7% of you are getting fired".