Erm, 'bullied', no, but there was a good possibility the union may well have asked us if we would do some form of protest (work rate) if 'da management' didn't compromise on summat they were negotiating on. Not quite sure there would have been a point to them if they didn't flex their muscles now and again?
Ok.
Well it wasn't there for long after that so ....
I think you might have been right but I don't think it's quite so bad now after we suffered the big depression. Those companies that were very bad probably went to the wall (or used the excuse to go to the wall) and some hung on in the hope they could improve / weather the storm and either did or didn't. The ones who did probably improved their productivity (amongst other measures).
I worked for a UK branch of an American Co who were obsessed with 'EBIT / head count' so some of our tech guys went contract and apparently that helped. ;-)
Cheers, T i m