When I was in management, I was told I could not introduce certain changes because I would get in trouble with the union. I did nevertheless as I deemed the changes to be important and no union caused problems. The simple reason was that before implementing changes I had a meeting with the workers to explain the benefits of the changes.
As such, often problems can be avoided by making sure the workers can understand the benefits of a change.
However, I had also where management refused to honour its commitments towards workers and was robbing the workers, unknown to the workers. So, I did the thing I held best and advised workers of this. They went on strike, when the company had refused my request to back-pay all shortcomings, and finally the company caved in. Evenso I was in management neither the company or the workers took against me, as both understood that I was ultimately responsible to output (production, etc) and while there was a brief strike of a few days, in the overall production was going up because workers recognised I was fair to all.
Unfair dismissal laws came about because of unfair conduct by many employers! That should be kept in mind. Then more and more workers who may have deserved to be sacked for inappropriate conduct then started to misuse the unfair dismissal laws. When I sacked a worker on the spot for indecent and immoral conduct, there was no strike because the workers knew all along that I had promised that if any worker used indecent language or other inappropriate language or conduct they would be sacked on the spot. In fact workers thanked me for providing safety and security to the workplace and getting rid of the bullies in that regard.
The Federal Government used Medicare safety next as an advertisement blitz before the 2004 election as to claim people were entitle to their rights, only to change it after the election and no advertisement then! the same now about WorkChoices (WorkPlaces)!
The-admission-of-25,000-AWA's-having-been-found-illegal underlines it is being abused on a grandscale by employers!