I remember the days when I worked for a small fresh charter airline. It was the baby of the boss and the jewel in his eye. The Financial Director was as anti-union as every one else in management. He took great delight in devising extreme policies to discourage pilots from becoming members of the national union. Penalties: sound familiar. He said the company could not afford it. T's & C's were the bottom of the national pile. We tried to form an internal committee to negotiate with him. Resisted. We said it would be a pilots' association. No, No, No. Would not discuss it. I asked him about his membership of the accountants' & fiance directors' association. It was there is discuss general standards in the industry, nationaly. A cartel of sorts that fixed hourly rates and conditions etc. He would not respond to his hypocracy. The company went bust 3 years later after a salary cut at the coal face but sweet fruits shared each year amongst management (bonuses). Not a union insight. It went bust a further 3 times before being rescued by a larger patent, and still enjoys the bottom of the pile T's & C's despite being a member of the union. Strength of argument stood for nix. Moral argument stood for nix. Hypocracy won the day and weak willed employees got screwed, 'helping the company'. That was 20 years ago. No doubt Eastern guys can tell simliar stories. Easy guys perhaps also. One things for sure, airline managers are not silver hearted charities. There is a college in the sky that produces these types. They are in every airline. It churns them out by the dozens and they always survive, even after failure, and end up doing it all over again. The good guys you never hear of. Are there any out there? They operate directly opposite to all accepted modern industrial relations philosophies. I often asked why and never received an answer. They wouldn't last a wink outside a non-vocational industry. Why? Ask yourselves and weep.