Sometimes you have to shake your head at some of the antics trade unions get up to.
Australia's national airline Qantas has been suffering recently due to what can only be described as union terrorism. The Transport Workers Union and others have been holding the carrier to ransom with outrageous wage demands. Strikes have been held at the worst possible times - holiday weekends and other high volume occasions - and the CEO Alan Joyce has repeatedly pleaded with the unions to stop the garbage because it is putting the airline's survival at risk. Profits are down in a volatile market and the airline is looking at relocating overseas to try and circumvent the unions.
Now we hear that unionists have been sending death threats to Alan Joyce, and workers who refuse to join the strike action have had their cars and houses attacked.
So what is the TWU's response to all this? Have they apologised or called on their members to cool it? Have they called off the strike action and recognised that if they continue the thuggery their jobs will be at risk? Well, no.
In a breathtaking display of arrogance, the head of the TWU Tony Sheldon has accused Qantas management of fabricating the death threats. Why Qantas would want to do that is unclear but it apparently has something to do with trying to discredit the union.
Pardon me, but the TWU and other unions have done a very good job of doing that themselves.
This only goes to illustrate how unethical the unions are and how they fail to uphold the welfare of their members. Wages in this country are already among the highest in the world and that is why the cost of living is so high and those who are not getting this largesse - such as pensioners - are suffering.
I'm proud to say that in my entire working life I was never once a member of a union. In one job I had, when unions became involved I actually lost my job - a job I really liked - and I have never forgiven them for that.
The Transport Workers Union and the others should immediately drop their industrial action and apologise to Qantas for suggesting they fabricated death threats to Alan Joyce. If they don't, Qantas management will be fully justified in pulling up stumps from Australia and relocating to a country where they can operate freely without having to deal with union blackmail and thuggery.
