DaveR, your post indiucates really how naive you are. I have personally known a number of union leaders. Ususally Poms or Welsh. Haven't yet had the dubious privilege of meeting a Scottish one! Although, I'm sure given enough time I will. Elliott; Halfpenny; M McDonald; Hawke; Keating; Cairns; (Justice ) Lionel Murphy; Reynolds;Mundy; etc etc at al, are , if I'm not mistaken, Irish / Scottish/ or Pommy names???!!! The unionsists I have met have been the most self interested dogs I have ever seen. I can say for a fact, that they only had their pockets and privilege in mind when they disrupted the mine negotiations in the Pilbara in the seventies and waterside problems in the 80's! Unfortunately, those ( and many others) were first class examples of where they usurped their positions when agreements were pending, only to call a stop to all negotiations at their whim. And, that's fair dinkum from a fair dinkum Australian! Not one who calls himself fair dinkum, like Rudd! Their obstinacy was absolutely detrimental in the short AND long term for their members and they said so. However, the union bosses, typically lead the Australian sheep to their slaughter to further their own power hungry egos. The above actually happened on many occassions comrades as they like to refer to each other. In the gym that I used to attend they would have their little meetings in the pool where they thought theywere out of ear(wax)shot. Little did they know that I, who use to feign memebership of the bretheren was listening to their conversations with an indelible memory. If you want a return to union decreed Labor power,vote for Labor. If you wish to retain the status quo which has given us productive growth and the lowest level of disputation in My life, Vote 1 Liberal .
