Absolute max pay rates....compared to what & can you give me some examples. Oh, and don't pull out that old Tech crew wages chestnut, if you can generalise then you must have all the figures handy. Please give me an across the board figure compared to, say...Qantas for example. Same industry & region.
Minimum work done....By who? All of us? Surely you jest? AN ran for years without a figurehead & it wasn't by the skill of the incumbent upper management I can assure you. If you are referring to our Engineers...well, you ought to know where I could go with that.
Union screwed down the company....Unions have a role in any industry and perhaps if you had experience with a strong one, you may have known that. Unfortunately, the stronger they get, the greater the dreams of grandeur some of their reps get. Bottom line though, Unions are only part of the award equation. (I can explain further if you like) Application of the agreements fell to the Union & company alike. If the agreement was not good for the company, then that is the fault of the company. The current Govt. here obviously thinks like you & have decided to change the balance back to the employers. This will, I imagine, be more suitable to your tastes.
Also, if you were at AN as long as I was, you'd have seen many occasions where the company came to my union (probably others too), cap in hand. Our conditions were eroded in the 17 years I was there, so whilst some unions, like the TWU, held a position of strength, once again we see where your generalisation is unwarranted.
Bottom line, the fault of AN's demise lies not with Unions, Employees, Govt., or lower Management, I see it lying with Executive Management & in particular Abeles & Murdoch (
). Cheap shots flying from both sides at our level serve no purpose except perpetuate the angst. The real culprits have moved on and are counting their $$$.
PS. Good on you for posting under your real name, you're a credit to us all....Mattyj...That's Eastern European right?