STP,
I hope you are not implying that the CX pilot group was unified during the 49er debacle. They may have appeared so before the illegal firings but certainly not after they occurred. Any pilot group worth its salt would have shut the airline down, including the two you referenced in Oz.
I honestly don't think the Swires are as foolhardy as Sir Peter Abeles. They have too much to lose. The Ansett nightmare is really unprecedented in the industry. I doubt that could happen again unless we were to play our cards as poorly as the AFAP leadership did, specifically Capt McCarthy. Unfortunately, we have many of these 89er pilots in our ranks who think industrial relations can only be won by the employer. I suspect their presence did not help in 2001.
Steve, if you are who I think you are, I really appreciate your hard work and pragmatic approach. There is certainly a place for that, but there is also a place for more of a hard line approach when it can be backed up. I think PW and his teams played this quite well in the last round. We need to be building on this success right now. I am not sure we are doing that, but I am not on the inside anymore so I am not privy to all the goings on and information.