You assume the company has a union!
Many small operators manage to withstand the move to unionisation. Most of the employees are sh-t scared of management and have just ploughed all of their hard earned savings into a type rating. If it is your first job and you have less than 1000 hrs you don't want to rock the boat.
Don't get me wrong, Germania is not Ryanair, it's a really nice company to work for and the Ts & Cs have improved dramatically over the last year, but I feel both sides would benefit from union representation and until the average length of service increases this will not happen.
KT