Personally I'm glad to see the
Ansett name disappear - it once represented THE best airline where employees gave their all to see it stay at the top.. .That "once" was IMHO, obviously the years up to 1989.
The "Dispute", manipulated through the then
Prime Minister - R.J.L. Hawke - in conjunction with the
ACTU allowed a type of employee to enter our beloved Ansett. Scalpers who came for the quick, easy high dollar reward, were merceninaries, and cared solely for their OWN advancement and bank balance. Greedy opportunists who KNEW that there was an industrial dispute underway, but who stepped over us and our families to sieze the 30 pieces of silver.
To have OUR right of workplace representation denied us should have sounded an alarm with other Australian workers, and especially for that other worker representative body, the
ACTU.. .And has it back-fired??
What Hawke began 12 years ago, P.M. Howard has used to his advantage. The ACTU, in 1989, condoned the employment of workers under individual contracts WITHOUT UNION REPRESENTATION, and ignored the question posed on thousands of AFAP flyers distributed at the time,
WHO WILL BE NEXT?.. .
For the sake of allowing some 800-odd SCAB pilots into the airlines, the ACTU sounded their OWN death knell.. .Congratulations, you short-sighted dropkicks, your come-uppance has arrived - and just as you (with a few noteable exceptions) took pleasure in seeing us and our families cast aside, the survivors of 1989 have had to take an extra strong dose of Panadol these past couple of days to alleviate the hangovers from over imbibing!
There is genuine concern for the "innocents" of Ansett - probably as much as there was for us at the time - but for the "heroes" who were welcomed with open arms, by Hawke, Abeles, and the ACTU, they are no less deserving of the contempt they were shown 12 years ago, than they are today. Their actions were UN-Australian, and their presence in Australia's workforce an enigma to all that Australians hold as core values.
The name "Ansett" was tarnished fatally in 1989, when it was used as the lead vehicle, and unfortunately become synonymous with "scab" - . ."
Ansett - the scabs' Airline".
Ansett has now gone, and I'm glad it has!!