That was a rapid reply, Kap. on a grey day, are we?
You have an admirable way with words, my friend, cleverly used to obfuscate. Your "ambit" claim was never such in reality, an AFAP member told me to my face in the AN Sim Centre lunch-room, and I quote, "ambit be buggered, mate, we've got the b*****s over a barrel, they can't run an airline without us"! Ambit? I think not.
I suspect my apparent "selective memoty" is a phenomenon possessed by not only myself, Kap, the pilot body in Aus has long made public only the parts of the dispute which show them in a good light and the opposition as the ratbags they undoubtedly were.
Why, in God's name, would the AFAP expect a set of unprincipled b
like Abeles/Hawke/Kelty, etc., to give up an advantage you handed to them on a plate? Don't you think you are still being somewhat naive? It's all very well to maintain the moral high ground, Kap, but YOU are the people forced out of your industry into the big, nasty, wide, unprotected world of international aviation by putting your faith in the apparent infallibility of your representatives and proceeding blindly down a self-made path to destruction of not only your collective futures, but also the potential futures of the union culture in this country. It was obvious to all except you that your opposition had you in a squirrel grip and intended ONLY to tighten the grip in the vice provided by yourselves.
Yes, I understand that the current AFAP is active and well-supported, long may it remain so, but I'd bet London to a brick that it doesn't profess the power it once believed it wielded!
Negotiations nowadays are on a very different footing than 1989, the whip is now VERY firmly in the hands of employers. That is not meant to imply that the AFAP was instrumental in that, but they did go some way to enhancing the power-base of the anti-union brigade.
Kind regards,
TheNightOwl.
