rubbish elperro,wages were not being forced up by the union,which in turn pushed down worker numbers,the union was looking at bring up the wages to a parity equal to most western countries for aircraft engineers.the problem with aircraft engineers wages is linked to the demise of Ansett.once they folded there was only one place to work as a group 20 engineer and that was Qantas.where they had a monoply on the trade in this country(where if you didn't work for them,you didn't work)