Don't forget Paul Howes is part of the ALP "Military Industrial Complex" that brought us the FWA - a piece of legislation supposedly designed to protect workers but in reality is a just a (Labor and Labour) lawyers picnic.
Consider what would have happened in the "bad old days" under Howard's Work Choices:
Parties would have slugged it out based on their various levels of commitment to the fight and most likely, when they both had a bloody nose, sat down and negotiated.
What happened under the FWA? Fancy QF Lawyers - who were always going to run rings around Labor's straight-out-of-uni-into-the-public service "B" team of legislative drafters, find various loopholes in the thousands of pages of eyeglazing legalese and short circuit the whole thing to their advantage. Thanks Ms. Gillard.
Once upon a time unionists gathered out side the factory gate with a placard and a 44 gallon drum with some burning logs in it while they picketed the joint. Now it's left wing suits doing dirty deals with right wing suits behind closed doors with zero transparency while the high priests (FWA tribunal) genuflect before the the thousand page book that is the FWA.
BTW - this is a repeat in general terms of how the Hawke Govt. ran IR. A three legged stool of Big Govt, Big Biz & Big Unions (ACTU). If your were a small business or a small union (eg. AFAP,AIPA,ALAEA) you were st*ffed as AN & TN pilots found out.