T28D - The issue of the breaking of the mining unions in the Iron Ore areas of W.A. has no comparison with the current Qantas/union dispute.
The mining unions in the Iron Ore areas of W.A. (and the W.A. Goldfields as well, to a certain degree) in the late 1960's and early 1970's, were controlled by militant thugs, who rode over weak management like a bus flattens a childs trike.
These thugs indulged in strike action at will, initiated by any spurious reason, using thug tactics amongst their members, and ensuring that secret ballots on strike action would never be instigated.
The scenario is a common one, and as a ex-mining contractor, I used to watch this scenario in disgust. A union meeting would be held right at shift changeover, at 4:00 PM.
Beer was freely handed out, and a professional union thug would take the soapbox, and whip up the workers with regard to some petty issue.
The issue was always overblown (flies in the mess, inadequate ice-cream varieties available, inadequate food quality, or some other "perceived" grievance), and the shop steward thug would call for a show of hands for a strike.
There were always the "union men for life" scattered amongst the workers, and upon the call for a show of hands, the "union men for life" would shoot their hands sky-high... then turn and glare at those who didn't have their hands up.
This resulted in a slow increase in the number of hands raised, until the union thug on the soapbox declared he had a "majority showing", and it was "everyone out!".
I would speak to moderate-view individuals later, independently, enquiring about what had transpired, and would always get the same answer... "everyone else had their hand up, so I felt obliged to do so, too". Union intimidation at its best.
These thugs ended up controlling the Iron Ore operations at will, and their demands were utterly outrageous. Demands for prime steaks for lunch for employees, descended into outright greed, where large coolers were filled with prime steaks, that fed the workers entire family for a week, cost-free.
The breaking of these outrageous thug-driven unions was needed, and the balance between unions and management restored. We no longer have very many of these style of unions, and they deserve no place in todays society.
On the other hand, this airline grounding exercise of Joyce, Clifford and the Qantas board, in retaliation for some very modest union activism, ranks on a par with Henry Fords actions against the auto-manufacturers unions.
All that's missing is the company thugs beating the crap out of the Qantas union organisers.
The lack of management ability of this board, coupled with an inability... nay, basically a refusal... to negotiate in good faith with unions, is a sign that this management sees the workers as the "enemy", to be manipulated, ambushed, and generally trodden underfoot, until they (the board) have a group that is totally subservient to them. This is not the way management and employees should engage in a properly-functioning company.
As has been mentioned previously, the Qantas of today is the result of 90 years of unfailing effort by employees, guided by competent management (up until the last few years, anyway).
This board ranks as little more than a blip on the radar, in the history of Qantas, taken into context of the companys history and achievements. Let's hope that blip on the radar doesn't turn into a massive, out-of-control thunderhead that brings down the entire fleet.
