I think you have got to view the situation from the view point of MAPlc. A few years ago they had a virtual monopoly in the North of England and could afford to charge airlines as much as they could get away with and pay staff extremely good wages.
Times have changed. The explosion in LCCs has seen passengers tempted away to other airports. I recall a number of years ago the airports projections envisaged well in excess of 20m passengers by 2003. Consider wher it is currently at.
Something has to be done, costs have to be reduced if MAN is not to whither and die. The reduction of staff and wages is an obvious way of achieving this. The noticable lack of capital investment since the opening of Runway 2 is another.
I am sure the board of MAPlc would love 23m passengers in 2003 with an annual growth of 10% and happy well paid staff. The way the aviation market has evolved this is not going to happen. Who would have thought that ten years ago MAN would be fighting with LPL for passengers?
Despite being owned by the local authorities of Greater Manchester the airport is still a business. Businesses have to make profits to survive. MAPlc has finally woken up to the fact that it cannot remain aloof from the LCC market and is having to reduce it's cost base to compete in this sector.
As uncomfortable as this is for the employees it is unfortunately a fact of life in the world we now live in.
So try to give MAPlc some credit for trying adapt to the new business climate in civil aviation.