Hi again cupie, wehn i think about it the aust post workers prolly have a good case too, i dont know enough about what they are asking for (nor ba for that matter but the ba union guy on the box on bbc news or somewhere put a pretty compelling case for them) to comment properly, i just am perhaps not as sympathetic to aust post because as a base level consumer all i have seen is slower service, often poor things broken or treated roughly and higher prices, i do know that aust post have a horrible new system of healthcare for their workers where they are almost forced to work sick but the flipside of that is that many workers were taking excessive time off and abusing the sytem plus ruining it for the genuine ill or injured.
re airlines, all we see whether its qantas or ba management is this constant drive for bigger profits for their investors and shareholders and workers be dammed, it looks glamorous but actually flying for a living is detrimental to both family relationships and health long term, companies ad corporations just seem to want more and more out of workers generally for less and less and that is the same for employment, as you say many employers take advantage of workers, employ them on short term contracts to avoid super and other costs when they should be full time, it sucks and there is little foresight, a worker is an investment in their future as well but that gets ignored, on the flip side some workers are a definite liability and dont deliver the performance or reliability required so its a two way street.
i think the message here is that workers will at the end of the day revolt in numbers 9their only real recourse) when comapnies push them just that bit too far and hit them the only place it seems to hurt them, their pocketbook