Quote: "It wasn't really, the staff in the 50s, 60s, 70s were heavily unionised and in a perpetual state of conflict. Do you not remember the days of the closed shop?"
Remember the closed shop very well! In many cases it was a cosy stitch-up between management and the unions, often set up at the management's suggestion (meant they only had to deal with one union and have just one set of arrangements for all staff).
BTW it wasn't always "a perpetual state of conflict", and many industries were not unionised at all, although aviation was: transport and general (TGWU) for the most part.