With 15 years hindsight, and a more matured brain, I have to agree with a fair degree of what TNO has written. I disagree with his thought's on 89'ers, but I am sure he disagrees with my vehement hatred of scabs too. To each his own.
As I have said before, we all made our beds, now we have to sleep in them. Some got the fleas in the bedding, others got the plush fittings. Home is where you make it.
What happened in '89 can never be reversed, naturally, and what happened to AN is just as past. It's all history; an interesting and heated one at that.
What is the point in blaming McCarthy et al in the AFAP? Where is it going to get anyone?
WE, and by WE I mean ALL pre-'89 pilots, didn't stand a CHANCE against Abeles, Murdoch, MacMahon, Strong, and Hawke and his government. EVERYONE knows the bed that Hawke and Abeles slept in, and had done for quite a while. Unfortunately, IN HINDSIGHT, how the AFAP boffins thought we could have a crack at the airlines is open to conjecture - one that will be purely speculatory!
Gone were the "glory days" of Reg Ansett, and the TAA reps. Gone were the days when the likes of "Red Ned" and Charlie Gray had some effect in the company. The companies were now run by business brains, with nary a former link to aviation.
I admit to whooping like a crane the day Abele's died, and hoped it was painful (slander me all you like). Nothing will ever change my feelings toward him, Hawke, and Murdoch, and Strong.
Same goes for '89 scabs. The hatred is there, but the care factor these days is negligable. Like a former TN check captain, non-scab, once said to me, "You walk through ghosts". NUFF SAID! Yet, quoting the Bible:" The sins of the fathers is visited on the children to the third and fourth generation of those that hate them". In other words, it will ALWAYS be remembered by those involved.
15 years has come and gone. Personally, I've moved onto bigger and better things. For that, perhaps, thanks is required! Shift me off my lazy arse!
I'll still NEVER fly QAN Dom and one of it's off-growths, but that is a purely personal choice. (Yes, I advocate to my friends not to travel with them either....)