Normanton, your argument boils down to: “If you vote NO, we are going to torture you with red hot irons. If you vote YES, we might not.”
Bullwinkle:
I’ve never understood this QANTAS management mentality (il dolce brought it to Virgin with him as well) of bullying and threatening your staff, and then turn around and expect them to be loyal willing obedient servants.
The Qantas management mentality is simple: “The value of the brand is in our stellar management coupled with superlative marketing and the lobbying power of our Chairman’s lounge. We own both political parties, CASA, Airservices and a huge mindshare of the Australian public. We are also experts in manipulating the fears of our staff because there is effectively no other Australian airline. We can act like a monopoly as an employer.”
I have seen first hand how contracting out works in the maritime area. The objective is to utterly subjugate employees and make unionisation or mass bargaining impossible. Staff are employed on rolling two year contracts that are deliberately unsynchronised so there is constant labor turnover. Staff are deliberately recruited from diverse national and cultural backgrounds. The cultural barriers make union type organisation difficult. In fact, no long term trust relationships between staff are formed.
The net effect is that up to half the staff can be replaced each year if necessary by the simple act of not renewing their contracts. This threat prevents any resistance to management demands and attempts at unionisation can be nipped in the bud by removing ringleaders.