Hi Capetonian,
I agree with you that if a Trade Union becomes too strong then in the long run, the only person who pays for it is the customer. IMHO, that is part of the problem with the American airlines (generally) and why they have such a poor customer service.
Before I moved to Dubai, I was a Trade Union rep. In my naivety, I thought I would be able to make the working environment for me and my colleagues better, and help colleagues when in trouble. However, not long after I started as rep I went to my first annual conference. I was genuinely gutted by what I experienced. The tone was started by our TU leader who referred to us all as 'comrades' as if we were all workers in a Soviet gulag........I very quickly realised that although TUs can be very useful, they're also very much a vehicle for others to feather their nests or for people to be argumentative and troublesome for the sheer bloody-mindedness of it.
For example, look at the dispute between the BA management and their staff through the TUs a couple of years ago. There was only one winner there and it wasn't the TUs. Any reasonable and sensible person could see that BA management were being pretty fair, yet the TUs were just spoiling for a fight.
Regarding Emirates and their staff, although I would say that the vast majority of their cabin crew are very polite and appear genuinely happy, there are always exceptions. Sadly for me as a Brit, the nationalities of the cabin crew who do let down their colleagues USUALLY (though not always) are British cabin crew......make of that what you will but that could open a whole new debate about socio-economics in the home countries of the cabin crew and the way that affects their attitude..........