There is generally a high union density in the Australian aviation industry. This has
developed against the background of a centrally regulated industrial-relations regime
and the concentration of employment in a few workplaces (that is, large airports). In
Australian aviation, unions are mostly organized along occupational lines (on the
Australian context for employment relations, see Bamber, Lansbury, and Wailes
2004, chap. 5). VB and JS have taken different approaches to labor relations
compared both to each other and to Qantas, which is highly unionized.