The_Cutest_of_Borg, sadly, the Qantas pilots sealed their own eventual collective fate and the earlier doom of those lesser mortals, the (mere) domestic pilots some years before 89 when they opted out of the AFAP to form their own companycentric union.
It's my belief that there were champagne corks a-flyin' that night in every airline boardroom in Australia. As to who was mostly to blame for the QF pilots departure, I have to admit that some of the blame has to be borne by the President of the AFAP at the time, of whom some true believers will hear no bad word said, even before his current medical situation made any criticism even more out of order to some. I'm not one of them - I blame him in part, but I lay the vast majority of the blame at the feet of the QF drivers of the day who considerd themselves too high and mighty to 'waste' their time and subs on the GA and domestic hoi polloi.
It was that industrial separation of QF from the rest of the pilots in Australia that gave Abeles and Strong and Abeles' Silver Bodgie puppet the green light to try a tactic they would never have dared to attempt if they had a single body of pilots representing all Australian commercial pilots to contend with.
Look what you've become - is there any better example than to cite the fact that the ex-president of AIPA has switched to Qandom so he can keep flying after 60? Can we call that an example of "keeping the jobs from the boys"?
As someone has already said, I stand by for the predictable incomings, but may I close by suggesting that 89 is water under the bridge. Anyone still with a glimmer of hope that it's not already too late HAS to put all that behind him and do everything he can to convince the many non-believers among younger pilots that a unified pilot group is the only hope anyone has of a decent future.
End of rant.