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?
True
Skipness, in truth I was thinking more of general commerce. I have never worked in the airline biz, just a user of it across 47 years. I did see closed shop at [not] work but overall, I have been fortunate to see good managers getting good things from the staff. I noticed the change following the 1989/1992 recession. Although, one of the earliest signals was the disposing of Personnel and the arrival of H.R.
For what it's worth, I started work in the autumn of 1977 and, when working as a temp office worker in London in 78/81, I was turfed out of the contract by both mgmt and unions at different companies and for different reasons! [details on request] So I have an even handed approach to these things.
