I can write reams of the lack of integrity wrt mental health of both unions and especially management from the early 70s until the mid 90s but I will do my best to
précis an incident which led to the loss of career and suicide of a captain that i had contact with « on the long finger »
My first employer had not only a history of bullying but also an annual hull loss. It was necessary to be a union member and have one present whenever one was ordered to the office. Such was the uncaring nature after I had survived two weeks having been given a week to live ( I now know was exposure to neurotoxins) I was threatened with the sack and told we will stop paying you at the end of the month anyway.
After the merging of four state companies during which my group were sold down the river by both management and the union we were allowed cross bidding. In those days a long haul pilot needed far more skills than short haul; whereas long haul had a relatively large % of command failures we had virtually none in short haul with a commensurate number of idiots who should have been out to graze.
The board then put pressure on the long haul training establishment to pass all and sundry which left with a marginal candidate flying LHS on a Classic. (According to his training file).
With a sick crew from food poisoning he departed for home base (not unknown and part of normal operation).
The weather turned bad and he asked for dispensation to make an approach from management which was granted.
Unknown to him (and me for 30 years) there was an occasional fault with the analogue autopilot which meant the localiser approach was offset to one side which happened and foolishly he decided to carry out a manual and non SOP missed approach which nearly hit a hotel. (His copilot was sick and not authorised for the low viz approach technically).
A few weeks later I was at a party of a mate who had been sacked and just reinstated after upsetting a security guard and management (only reinstated as the union was calling on a full strike) when the captain phoned up basically asking for advice- I was in the room;
Said guy wouldn’t talk to management about the incident which got up their noses -but they hadn’t experienced the institutional bullying in our previous employers..(I understand both sides).
It was obvious from the press reports of the incident that it was a serious incident and a Walter Mitty character who was one of my first instructors decided that he would institute a prosecution.
My party mate had flown said aircraft the week following the incident and had had a similar ILS approach offset which was reported. According to him the tech log records were lost;
the union was as good as a chocolate tea pot;
the jury found him guilty, which without doubt, were technically incompetent to judge him.
Apparently the union wouldn’t back an appeal and within a year he had driven up to Scotland and connected a hose pipe to the exhaust of his car.
In the late 80s early 90s I or colleagues involved in three instances of refusing to fly with other carriers.
A subsidiary LCC which was being used to undermine our terms and conditions; in front of me the then new captain was asked to leave the room and when he and the chief pilot returned it wasn’t mentioned again. The subsidy had two hull loses not long afterwards.
Same company but a year or two before was using a local company to relocate crew across the Congo; another chief went to Africa and whilst in the RHS of the single pilot operation took control and the rotation ceased.
A mate who had saved a second Tenerife and been made a trainer refused to dead head on a new carrier; he lost his training appointments and nearly lost his job. The carrier concerned had two total losses.