Unfortunately the strategies of many union leaderships are quite primitive
and often based on a do or die approach for which the inevitable outcome is
in the die (or at least jobless) direction for their members. I would
suggest that this is for political point-scoring (not to mention
furtherment of political careers) and thus defeat is as much a "victory" as
actual victory because then there's a permanent grievance that can be
nutured and exploited for years.

If they were at all any way sophisticated and genuinely interested in the
welfare of their members, they would look at the writing on the wall that
is obvious in industry trends on a global basis and concentrate on
protecting the interests and comfortably transitioning the working
conditions of their members in the context of those inevitable changes -
rather than acting like King Canute. The loss of conductors on public
transport vehicles was as inevitable as night follows day. The focus needed
to be on redeployment in a favourable way or, at the worst, optimisation of
termination terms. In NSW, the RTBU is still doing a King Canute with its
opposition to all-door loading on buses. There will still be only one
inevitable outcome in the end (which has already occurred in just about
every state and territory except NSW), but how much damage is being done to
the growth and betterment of public transport in the meantime? Not
something to be proud of.

Tony P
(who was a union member and sometime delegate and official all his working
life)