The right to strike is a right to withdraw one's labour. It is not a right to use violence or threats of violence against anyone else, a right to stop other people working if they want to. There is no need for any policy on it whatsoever, apart from enforcing property rights. Union action cannot raise the wages of all workers; all it does is benefit some workers at the expense of others. Society is not a class war. Government action favouring strikes and unions over and above the law of property, merely creates the kind of chaos that we are now witnessing with Qantas. When it is driven broke, the unions will complain about jobs going offshore!

If this is typical of the union hacks who want to enter politics, then all I can say is "God help us". If you want to drive jobs overseas, then this is the quickest way to do it. When are you people going to get some brains?

David

While the faithful are all practicing their craft and beating up he investors who dare to risk their funds .. quietly, the business all moves to places where you can get things done without constant bullying and threats of violence.

It might not be the patriotic thing to do, but hey patriotism comes after family after all. The unions can strike all they want to, in fact, shut everything down .. and show us your awesome power, push all businesses to bankruptcy .. wow, you're so powerful.

In the end that's what today's unionism is all about, self obsessive power of the union movement .. always referring back to the days when unions represented the workers, because now let's face it, they represent the few who lead the unions.

Ask credit card Craig, there's a man who understand the worker's lot.

Our government is now full of former union leaders, who all understand the biffo, the undermining of enemies, the cut and thrust of managing the media to their ends.

So we have a government who is really just an opposition in government, as they only understand how to attack the other mob, no idea what to do in government, or how to govern, it's all about keeping the other one down, beaten.

We never hear our government or it's MPs quite so confidant as when they are attacking the other mob.

So regardless of real goals, the Union movement, it's political wing the ALP, are just cultured attackers and fighters with no other goal in life except to win .. whatever it takes.

We, the Australian public, are the losers as ultimately any of us who disagree, are attacked mercilessly as well.

It's not about country or society, it's all greed and selfish obsessive contests between the powerful union officials.

Jobs go off shore for greed, jobs are lost because people do not buy Australian. But someone leaves and another starts up. You want a livable wage, but how much is enough. No matter what someone earns, it is never enough. Joice can-not live on 2 m $. It seems that everybody spends to the limit. So why is everything got political connotations. Maybe there's a little self blame to be absorbed here.

"someone leaves and another starts up"

Really, that's why America is the powerhouse it always was, NOT!

If you live in this kind of dream world and ignore reality, fine .. good luck to you.

Clearly there are no problems in manufacturing or any other industry, why on earth are the Qantas workers going on strike .. one leaves, another starts up, it's so eeeeasy .. like all those greeeeen jobs that are everywhere.

So when the next international/domestic airline starts up 579, then they can employ all those poorly done by Qantas workers, easy is n't it!

Wow, I had no idea the industrial workplace was so simple .. and I'm an employer and company director .. gosh, if only we had more people like 579 in the boardrooms of industry .. it's so eeeeasy!

No, the reality is that companies move away and that's it, it is over .. replacement companies do not start up .. the parasites who depend on government subsidies, are never around once the subsidies stop.

Not everyone has or wants political connections, you only do it if you have to, the political class are the most abhorrent people to deal with .. it is not attractive to deal with them, they are self absorbed prima donnas.

...Unionism was killed-off by contract labour. Job insecurity becomes the primary focus. Traditional conditions of employment once considered an essential element; sick leave, penalty rates for working unsocial hours, holiday pay, hours worked per shift, industrial allowances paid for dangerous conditions, represent a major reason for past strike action. Wages are a separate element and centred more on relativities between types and social importance, of work performed.

...Education is a topic this article does not address.The workforce is structured around qualifications more than in the past, which are a result of the educational phenomena of recent decades. Interesting it is to note, during the current Qantas strike, baggage handlers were profiled by most posters as not deserving of a decent liveable wage, as a comparison to the tertiary educated, when actually, the dispute was primarily between the Aircraft engineers union and the pilots union and Qantas management: The group amongst us jealously guarding their inalienable right to acceptable salaries, while snobbishly decrying labourers a right to strike for wage increases commensurate to inflation and cpi . (A baggage handler is on an hourly wage of approximately $22 to $24 ph + penalty rates,(overtime payments are rare), an average wage for a worker in Australia).

...Workers are too-willing to “pick each other off” as evidenced above, rather than to take a view of solidarity. An exception to low union involvement is the public service. The PS is a highly unionized by comparison, but is flawed in its conservatism towards protest, thus dis-enabled to achieve any outstanding success.

...And finally, Governments use the channel of immigration to assist in the maintenance of low wages; used in tandem with propaganda, and supporting the influx of cheap overseas labour with special application visas, and other social manipulation of immigrants with a propensity to “scab” in the Australian workforce, (Wide comb shearers strike-breaking by NZ shearers)