Originally Posted by
tossbag
bafanguy, hardly, the unions are weak in Australia. Nothing like the US.
The biggest problem in the US is competition and constant chapter 11s forcing wage stagnation. Right now its the opposite. USA the unions are strong, but competition is rife, so you can get so far and then your company gets white anted. In Australia the libs have made unions seem like evil communists that are bad for everything, when they are the only method for workers to get what they need/want.
And if you don't think USA pilot unions are not strong, look up things like scope clauses. In Australia QF can just buy subsidiaries and play them off against each other, in the US the union forces the company to sign non competitive deals so that the smaller operators can't white ant the bigger ones T&Cs. Ie small commuters like Comair were restricted to RJs and less than 74 seats so that they can't be used as cheap labor on larger aircraft. In fact the union clauses were so strong aircraft were designed specifically to fill those roles, hence the 70 seat TPs and RJs.