Strange Notations From a Laborious Life

I don’t like to be controversial on my blog and I prefer to stay away from political issues as everyone is different and have their own opinions.
I could be wrong about myself but I like to think that I don’t look at things in black and white because that makes you too rigid and most issues in life are more “shades of grey” and there is rarely a case where someone is completely right or completely wrong.
Now I am of the working class and vote that way, lean a little to the left but I can be quite conservative on some issues. I am a Gemini after all, and they are noted for their split personalities. There have been times when my opinion on major issues has changed on the breeze.
The major problem I have is that I don’t like getting into detail and that is where you can get yourself hung up. I am much more a big picture man.
I work with a young fellow who is a card carrying, died in the wool conservative and likes to put his views across and make political discussion in an enviroment that is very working class and finds much of what he spouts bewildering.
He is an interesting creature. Obviously from a family with a very right wing bent and he appears, for want of a better description, to be totally brainwashed by right wing propaganda. Everything to him is black and white. Labor is an evil, incompetent bunch of commies and there is no other opinion that matters! Now don’t get me wrong, I know plenty of folk who vote Liberal and they are great people but most of them are smart enough to be able to see two sides to every story and polite enough not to shove their feelings on these matters down your throat. This fellow is different. He doesn’t know how close he is to being told to get lost by several people. I’m not sure how he can work for a corporation like Australia Post and still hold the severe views he does.
I guess I forget how conservative the country is until we get some industrial action like the type we have had over the weekend with Qantas shutting down it’s operations completely in response to Union demonstrations. Some of the stuff written in feedback columns of the local online newspapers, slamming the unions is, to me, mind boggling stuff.
If you work in a job where you can negotiate your own wage and work hard for what you get, good luck to you. But there of plenty of us who have to fight for what we get and no man or woman should be walked over by an arrogant management. There are many in management around the country who would have people like me working for peanuts. And that, to me is not acceptable.
So I think unions are still a valuable part of Australia’s industrial landscape, heck, even John Howard said that! And those who are working in good jobs without the need for union membership, who decry the influence unions have in the workplace seem to be ignorant of the fact that working class men and women over the last century have had to be in unions to force the conditions we work in today to be implemented. God bless em’ all!
I suppose the problem that I have with management in this day and age is the “bottom line” is king aspect of it all. There is no such thing as service anymore. Australia Post is a great example of that and Qantas just proved themselves over the weekend to be adept at ignoring the customer at all costs while blaming others for their problems.
And for those who cite that Qantas needs to change because they are losing money on their international services I say to you that I agree completely. But that is a challenge every corporation faces at one time or another and most of them move forward by having dialogue and consensus with unions rather than conflict. Afterall, union members only want what’s best for the company too.
Perhaps Alan Joyce, the CEO of Qantas needs to give Sir Richard Branson a ring. The Virgin business model seems to be far more robust than Qantas and they don’t seem to be having too many union problems. Mr Joyce might actually learn something about management from such a call. Like, “the customer is always right”!
I for one won’t fly Qantas again.