TTT and co.
I don't think you should be placing such a strong emphsis on union involvement as a way to generate unity amongst pilots.
I too was once a union member, however I lost all faith in their ability to represent when they failed on all accounts to successfully regain mine and others employment and the 10s of thousands of dollars owed to each of us in redundancy and unpaid leave.
They also failed to draw attention to what this company was doing to it's "employees" conditions of work. They, under no uncertain terms and with no consultation with the pilots or union, sacked everyone (the great ethnic cleansing of '93) and offered their positions back as share holders of the 2 bit employment companies set up to blatently avoid payrole taxation obligations, (amongst other trivials) and at the same time, stripping them of any rights they may have had under a federal award.
Oh yes. This company managed to survive (all be it with a red and white tail now) and many of the union members standing by, letting all this happen to their "brothers", remain with them to this day, even after the shafting all have received from this unscrupulous operator.
So, in summary:
Don't be so naive to think that the AFAP will be our great savior IF it hits the fan. Their (unions) purpose is only to justify their existence. Anything too hard gets shelved, as did the above very straight forward case.
Put it this way. If the AFAP, due to their actions in my case, caused this company to return to their previous incarnation, abiding by a federal award and meeting their obligations to the ATO, they would not have survived (they barely survived as it was) and their members would have been out on the street unable to pay their dues. That wouldn't serve the unions purpose now would it?