"The average baggage handler at Ansett was on $95000 pa"
If that is a substantiated quote from Mark Korda I am now starting to get really worried about his grasp of figures and what the real world is about.
Urban legends are created when people like him make these comments, and maybe he can be excused because possibly a "mate of a mate of his" told him that is what we were earning.
I knew every "average Ansett baggage handler" at SYD Domestic, and I can guarantee that we on around $50000 pa.
Some that had no home to go to and lived in the muster room on Bay 36, made maybe $65000.
I know that these seem ridiculous amounts of money to pay a person for just throwing bags, but we did have to work 8 days straight before getting a break and some of us were actually entrusted to load aircraft safely and to legal standards. The bosses even trusted us to pushback aircraft worth $$$millions.
In all honesty we also had people who wouldn't work in an iron lung, but from experience I can say, no more than any other large company e.g Qantas, Telstra, RTA etc etc.