Kacy, In case you forget we live in a capitalist world. The unions represent their members with the objective of obtaining the best possible terms and conditions.
BHP's diagonally opposite objective is to keep costs as low as possible to maximise profits.
Simple Demand and Supply. I don't see BHP or any other miners being so community minded that they voluntarily pay more taxes than they should, nor should the unions restrain themselves with their demands....there is no community mindedness on either side. During the Hawke/Keating years unions and miners generally had the government's big stick to keep them both in line. Now after the Howard years of 'anything goes' attitude all bets are off on both sides. So to place the unions position as being 'bad for Australia' and consider the miners as the philanthropists is naive in the extreme.
