I seriously doubt he intends any browbeating. Much more likely is that he would just try to make them feel appreciated and create a personal connection with them. They would be a lot more willing to deal with their friend than some "evil corporation."
He has already agreed with the evil corporation. He _is_ the evil corporation. A wolf in sheep's clothing. I doubt he's inviting any of the pilots with him the next time he jet skis with a naked model clinging to his back.
Let's just say becoming friends with a billionaire because you've been invited to meet him due to the fact that you're on strike at one of his companies is unlikely.
I'm sure this is true if you have a blanket mindset of "all corporations are evil" but you're doing a Branson a disservice - he's one of the few progressive modern CEO's around.
Actually it doesn't sound like things have changed.
Here's a recent article detailing how Branson gave 8,500 Virgin Atlantic employees 2 week's holiday + 2 free tickets to fly anywhere on the airline's network as a 'birthday bonus' for loyal service:
...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.
Copyright and trademark law are sufficient to protect coders. Software patents are absurd. It's analogous in my mind to allowing Stephen King to patent a certain kind of plot twist.
