To paraphrase a former colleague (I believe he's one of those who has taken VR): the management at the company has spent years terrorising it's staff with threats of job cuts - the "T "word was definitely used.
It's been the management style for a long long time and it has resulted in Unions whose first response to claims of a crisis is the company is crying wolf..and that in turn has resulted in the banging of heads that TURIN mentioned.
The whole management/union dynamic has been one of perpetual confrontation/low level conflict, even when the billion plus euro/STG profits were briefly rolling in.