Times have changed my friend.
negotiating within the realm of the possible.
Philipat, I appreciate you approach these issues from a managerial viewpoint, whereas I see it from a pilot's point of view, however, what more "realism" would you like from AZ pilots? Would you like them to shove a broom up their rear ends at the end of the flight and walk up and down the aisle to sweep the airplane?
Seriously, your "unions should get real" mantra is flawed for two reasons in this case: firstly because low-cost labour is NOT the key to a profitable company, in fact quite the opposite (CX, LH, AF and even BA crew make substantially more than AZ crew, matter of fact even Easy and Ryanair crews are starting to make more on medium-haul). AZ crews are already fairly low-cost anyway: AF's Spinetta admitted as much earlier this year.
Secondly because the "unions", or more correctly professional pilots' associations, as FORD pointed out, have not made any outlandish requests. They have only asked to continue allowing pilots to be represented by other pilots (a true communist scandal, I admit: much like those ALPA socialists in the US or those BALPA pinkos in the UK, or even HKALPA in Hong Kong, another known hotbed of communism
).
There are no unreasonable terms and conditions being requested either: as a matter of fact during the negotiations, ANPAC offered to adopt either LH's or AF's entire pilot contract and T&Cs, but with the remuneration reduced by 30%.
I'm never one to let the facts get in the way of a good story, but this old saw about "AZ's woes are due to its labour force" is getting a little tired.