Not surprising that the EPMU officials chose to back the ERA, since they had a strong hand in drafting it back in 2000. They are fully committed to a 'partnership' with the bosses and base their negotiations on the union officials ability to be better at making profits than the bosses.

But the reason why there was no strike at Air NZ is that ALL the unions involved are playing by the rules, including the SFWU.
The first rule they observe is that they cannot go on strike until their agreements come up for negotiation. The SFWU agreement doesnt come up until May. When the bosses with the EPMU collusion approached SFWU members illegally with threats to join the EPMU the response of the SFWU leadership was to seek mediation through the court.
A more effective response would be to occupy Fyfes office and picket his residence. The same tactics would apply to the EPMU top officials.

Since any strike that involved unions not up for renegotiation would be illegal, it would have to be organised from below based on a rank and file strike committee across as many unions as possible.
Such a committee should put the demand for a united strike on the CTU leadership not in the expectation that it would agree but to force their hand and bring down all the weight of these bosses' law enforcers on the troublemakers.

To win public support for a strike its demands would have to be full re-nationalisation under workers control (only the workers have the skills to run an airline). Instead of a board of directors made up of cutthroat bosses, a board of management of the workers would run the airline.

No payment of compensation to private shareholders (parasites). The state has bailed out private shareholders many times. Like Skycity, private investors in Air NZ gamble on never losing their money.

No concessions to patriotism since there is nothing about national ownership that adds to risk free air travel in foreign made planes with foreign engines. (This is not an argument for buy NZ made planes).

The first step in this direction has to be the formation of a rank and file committee prepared to put in the hard work to organise an effective strike.

Dave Brown (CWG)