My 2 cents worth....
Fly jets in the States, used to work and live in Australia...
"We must all hang together, or surely, each of us will hang."
-Benjamin Franklin
The days of THE pilots dispute seem to linger as more than a distant memory in all that read these posts. There was a captain at Qantas, named Geoff Westwood that believed that union representation between the international brotherhood should remain separate to that of domestic. At the time, the employers were very divided in their assumed roles of service to the general public, a case that no longer exists.
Somehow, the Australian workforce must take back control of the skies! Pay for training and other forms of indentured servitude that have long plagued GA are now spreading like a cancer in the airline ranks. This will, in time, take it's toll on contract negotiations and even safety as compromises on standards follow the power of the almighty dollar.
Since airline deregulation in the United States, more than 130 airlines have gone out of business!! Unless the Australian workforce takes control of the level of business ethics that upstart operators must abide by, you too, may find yourself ineligible to apply for a home mortgage when the bank finds out that you have worked for three bankrupt employers in the last five years.
The Air Line Pilots Association, (yes I do know how to spell "airline") has been a complete failure at reaching across the ranks of the industry. We have had airlines who were owned by the same employer vote in a different union because they felt at such contrary views over conflicts of interest concerning "regional" routes or "mainline" routes.
In the end, the regional jet has forced many mainline pilots to accept large pay cuts and the endless supply of pilot factories in Florida have turned out even more "airline pilots", some who are featured in Flying Magazine advertisements saying they couldn't even fly eighteen months prior. The consequences of these actions may not be known for many years until it comes time to upgrade.
If you want a sustainable lifestyle as a pilot, you simply must be unionised. You must not allow pay-for-training to undermine your collective bargaining abilities. You must change with the times and embrace both domestic and international sides of the industry, so that you can stand with one voice against a common foe.
The enemy should not be us. The enemy should be corporate greed, that compromises the job security of it's employees and the safety of the general public at large.
Cheers,
Chris