Originally Posted by
AerialPerspective
Well, you can twist the English language if you wish but it remains that Pilots who were already well paid asked for a nearly 30% wage increase and did it in the lead up to Christmas for maximum impact. They did it by WITHDRAWING THEIR LABOR during certain hours of the day - i.e outside 0900 to 1700 (business hours).
Whether you think so or not, this is the very essence of what a 'strike' is - withdrawal of labor during a dispute. Just because they were prepared to work 'as normal' for 8 of the 24 hours in a day did not make it anything less than a strike.
Then, in a stunningly dumb 'strategy' they on the advice of their industrial leadership resigned en masse.
The airlines couldn't believe their luck.
This is the thing and where they lost most of the Australian public who were at that time struggling and weren't interested when they couldn't get a 5% pay increase in someone asking for 30% (just under actually in total).
It was a strike. Calling it anything else is just being pedantic.
Despite what you say, working at Ansett, Pilots still got upgraded on just about every flight. So did TAA/Qantas Domestic Pilots.
A lot of what you say is correct. The pilots resigned on 24/8/89. It was industrial action yes, a work to rule yes but not a strike. Not at anytime did they withdraw their labour whilst employed. There is a big difference between what you get and what you are industrially entitled to.
JBs hang up is " not in any circumstances".