Unions do not have share holders, do not make profits nor pay bonuses. They are quite amateurish at what they do, which is driven more by a good heart to right wrongs than much else. Money has more power than right & wrong, hence the outcome of any argument of humanity, safety versus profit. We are in a couple of decades of greed driven business & political decision making. Sweat shop conditions are alive & well in EU. The argument often quoted back at the unions (if you are lucky to have an effective one) is that the market is all about competition. If you can't do this & that for that much and under those conditions then we'll export the product where people will comply. The negotiating tool of fear. The basics costs of employing people, over & above salaries, within EU are huge. Legislation and other issues have driven bureaucratic costs through the roof. "Let's go some where they are not payable" is their cry. It might be that only registration & licensing rules have prevented this from happening. But watch the NAS attempt to circumvent some of those. Even MOL has threatened to shift outside EU, or certainly to a cheaper HQ. The EU politicians think they might have done a good thing for employees in making such guide lines & directives. However the costs were too high for the share holders and so the art of loop hole finding has boomed. The introduction of zero hour contracts with no rights and no guaranteed income is a classic: and it has been allowed to happen right under the noses of those same politicians who sought to give workers a better deal. Amazing; and the unions let them do it. Stable door and horse bolting comes to mind.
And this is not limited to our industry. It is the same all over. Greed knows no bounds. Increase costs reduce profits and the managers will try to find any way to restore profits. Usually that means reducing costs. It's always first option. Another could be increasing quality/value, higher turn over by increased clientele base = more profit if it can be achieved with sensible productivity practices. That is more difficult and needs a change in culture, and a brave CEO to implement it. An employee share option scheme often goes with such a culture. Often the business model will bottom out and a change is forced upon them, or the company rots away. Fresh blood and a new broom is also a common solution, but the share holders will be very beady eyed. Again it will be a bonus/share option driven issue, and first tears will be shed by many as the knives cut deep. Once at the bone it's over. Are we there yet? Don't think so. The motivation for the 'powers that be' to make a change is missing. No matter what the industry whinging workers won't cut it. Customers and marching feet is where the money is. Even workers' strikes won't help, but customer strikes will. It's called a boycott. It's happened over products, both food & clothing, where it is believed too much human, animal or mother nature suffering is involved. Could Green Peace do a better job than ECA? A few bodies chained to bogies and lying on runways might help. It would depend on their cause. Anti-noise and NO & CO2 etc. would not be in our best interests. But somewhere there must be a professional
PR solution. The holy grail is out there. Bring on Captain Indiana Jones.