As the thread enters its last stages before drifting of the page I want again to say it is a lie.
Rudd will govern well but he is unlikely to favor unions.
Workchoices did the opposite it set out to destroy the union movement and lower wages in a bizarre dream we can ever compete with third world country's wages.
Our prosperity comes from mining and farm exports not from unfortunately other than minority cases manufacturing, low wages only make some forever rich by making other suffer.
Some blame for the fear selling to some must be laid at the feet of some unions.
Workchoices and John Howard if nothing else have highlighted some unions are too remote from the membership.
And in my lifetime held view those unions that do not understand honest respect shown by the union to its members is returned over and again may as well be selling newspapers.
20% of Australian workers are union members 55% benefit from union won wages and conditions, union members are not radical or a threat now or ever to any one other than some true bad bosses.

No Belly I am not Joe Hockey - and the last PM controlled by the union movement was Paul Keating.

Much has been made of the Trade Union presence in the Rudd Shadow Ministry.

The current Howard Ministry -

PM -John Howard - Solicitor
Treasurer -Costello - Barrister
Transport -Vaille - Real Estate Agent, Local government
Foreign Affairs -Downer - Staffer (Fraser), Diplomat
Finance -Minchin - Solicitor
Health and Aging -Abbott - Staffer (Hewson) + Journalist
Attorney-General -Ruddock - Solicitor
Communications -Coonan - Solicitor + Barrister
Defence -Nelson - GP (plus former ALP member)
Industry -McFarlane - Farmer
Immigration -Andrews - Solicitor + Barrister
Agriculture -McGauran - Solicitor + Barrister
Science -Bishop - Solicitor + Barrister
Employment -Hockey - Lawyer
Environment -Turnbull - Solicitor + Barrister, Director
Human Services -Ellison - Solicitor + Barrister

Others prominent in the media

George Brandis - Barrister
Bronwyn Bishop - Solicitor
Petro Georgiou - Staffer (Fraser)
Danna Vale - Solicitor
Chris Pyne - Solicitor + Staffer (Vanstone)
Eric Abetz - Solicitor + Barrister
David Johnson - Solicitor + Barrister

If Trade Unions only make up about 16% of the Workforce, what percentage of the Workforce are Solicitors or Barristers?

Which group is more representative of the community?

It is 20% still not less yet and the question I wait for an answer is how much influence have business unions have over this government?
Watch lockout tonight on fox, understand the vast difference from those days and today.
But see the reason unions will never die.
Communicat amusing but not believable.

Belly,
I suppose that the Unions thought they could control Bob Hawke too when he was PM.

There may be a few airline pilots that would disagree with that notion, considering Hawke brought in the Air Force to break that particular strike.

Even the Libs probably wouldn't have gone that far back in those days.

Belly
Ok The other day a health worker and carer giver [ because they dont call them cleaners anymore] arrived at a neigbours.

The old lady asked her to take her shoes off because she had white carpert and we are in the middle of a tropical storm.

To add to her problems the front her her property had just been jug up by the councils and the cleaner had thick red mud right up her boots to her shin bone.
The cleaner told the old lady she COULD NOT take her shoes off because it was against the rules and she could get the sack for it.

Sounds to me like the members get just as bullied as the others at time.
My neigbour called us in tears so I went over and gave the cleaner a pair of bran new slippers still in the bag.

Nope! it was against the rules! So I called the head office where she worked and spoke to her co ordinator because the old lady by this time was quite upset.

No Price to Guess what head office said?

The Stupid bastards create more problems than they solve.

This of course is under Labour and their silly unions.

How to stuff a country= Vote for labour unions!

Gillard is a union thug herself. My God she sits in parliment pocking fingers and snearing at the PM.
Not that I like him but for goodness sake some manners please.