Sobast -
At the same time in MEL the vote seemed "rigged" the other way. They were voting on rosters for INT,DOM and supers. Each of the 3 areas had to have the same majority one way or the other. That meant that the the smallest group of (I think) 8 had control of the vote. You could have a couple of hundred guys voting one way, but the 8 would override them. Even if only 3 of te 8 voted the other way. NOTE- I'm NOT bagging the supers. It's just the way I see it, the smaller number won the vote because of the way the votes were weighted by the union. Please, if I've got it mixed up, tell me.
Not too far from the truth but management were told that the DMM vote would not have any impact on the two main votes. Both areas Dom and Int needed to pass acceptance of the new rosters before the Asn would agree to the merger and subsequent rosters. Nothing rigged just a union taking care of the needs of it's entire membership.
You see in the past Qantas have divided smaller groups and played off one dept against another. The Asn and it's past leadership allowed this but the new Executive will stand by their members in a united front.