wallabie - I hear your point. Perhaps my advice under the circumstances is to forget about CX (since it's taking such a long time to resolve the mess there) and focus elsewhere.
If it helps you to know, I don't work for CX but went through the 89 dispute after a mere 8 months in the Australian airline system. I can understand therefore how vulnerable and insecure young guys feel when they have the rug pulled out from under them.
However, after 12 years abroad (working for airlines in Europe and Asia) my career has blossomed since the dark days of 89.
There is life after death - and I am ever grateful that I wasn't disposed toward 'returning'. I have enjoyed a much better life and career thanks to the catalyst of the dispute. (In 89 I couldn't imagine I would ever be grateful for the dispute... but that's life...!!)
What I have found is that after 89, as a result of keeping my nose clean, there are only 2 airlines in the whole world that I can't work for - TAA and Ansett. What a lot of choice I have and had. The reverse logic is true, if I had scabbed, there would have only been two airlines in the world I could have worked for...
Please guys, don't screw up your career at such an early stage by breaking the ban at CX. You may well regret it forever.