Unions welcome Fair Work Australia decision | ACTU

via actu.org.au

31 October, 2011 | Media Release | ACTU
http://www.actu.org.au/Media/Mediareleases/UnionswelcomeFairWorkAustraliadeci...

Qantas must immediately resume flying its planes following Fair Work Australia’s decision early this morning to terminate the airline’s industrial action.

ACTU Secretary Jeff Lawrence said Qantas CEO Alan Joyce now had no excuse not to restart all services after his extraordinary and pre-meditated decision to ground the entire Australian fleet on Saturday afternoon.

Mr Lawrence said Qantas employees would turn up for work today ready to do whatever was necessary to get the planes back in the air. He welcomed the government intervention which had been the circuit breaker in the dispute, and said the next priority was to resume negotiations in a spirit of reconciliation.

“This decision by Fair Work Australia removes any reason for Qantas to ground its planes,” he said. “The tribunal has sheeted home to Alan Joyce full responsibility for the actions which caused massive disruption to the travel plans of thousands of Australians and the economy.

“The decision means Qantas must negotiate about the legitimate claims over job security and outsourcing unions have been pursuing for 15 months. This is a sensible decision by the bench.

“It is a pity it took government intervention to force management back to the bargaining table after such needless disruption. But it now means we can get back to negotiating in good faith, as unions have been seeking to do for weeks.

“But Australians have a right to ask: what did Alan Joyce achieve with this decision to ground the fleet? Qantas has made headlines around the world for all the wrong reasons due to this management action. The damage to the brand is immeasurable.

“Thousands of passengers around Australia have been stranded because of Mr Joyce’s action. And Qantas’ entire workforce are now fearful about their future. And Qantas has failed in its meanspirited attempt to lock out workers pursuing legitimate industrial claims. Did Mr Joyce ever consider the innocent bystanders who would be affected by his action?

“But despite their shock and dismay at what Mr Joyce has done, Qantas workers have performed magnificently in the face of enormous pressure, and we pay tribute to them.

“It needs to be repeated that workers at Qantas are simply seeking to negotiate new pay and conditions, and some guarantees from management about job security. But bargaining at Qantas had broken down because of management’s refusal to negotiate.

“Our immediate priority now is to work with management to get the planes back in the air, but then we will approach negotiations in a genuine spirit of conciliation and expect Qantas management to do the same.

“The key issue for negotiation is the future of Qantas jobs in Australia, and there must be a continuing role for the government during these talks to ensure job security.”

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Qantas Lockout: What the #Ausunions want & what #Qantas says| The Infrequent Rant

via infrequentrant.blogspot.com

via: Keep Calm Abbott is not PM

http://infrequentrant.blogspot.com/2011/10/qantas-lockout-what-unions-want-wh...

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2011

Qantas Lockout: What the unions want & what Qantas says

As we all know Qantas has ceased its operations in response to industrial reaction; this is a lockout of workers for fighting for their industrial rights.
Here is a summary of the union position and Qantas position according to the

Australian Financial Review:

Transport Workers Union

The TWU, which is negotiating a new agreement for 3800 baggage handlers, ground staff, and ramp services staff such as caterers, asked for a 5% rise, but has already indicated this figure is negotiable and it will settle at a lower rate.
But the TWU is concerned about Qantas’s use of cheaper contract Labour that threatens the livelihood of its members.

The union says most of its workers on the agreement are paid a base salary of $38,000 a year and rely on shift penalties and overtime to make a wage that covers the cost of living. It says this overt time work has been undermined by contracting out over the past 18 months.

The TWU says it understands the company needs “operational flexibility” but wants only 20% of work to be done by contracted, compared with Qantas’s preferred level of 55%.

The TWU is also seeking:

Protection for terms and conditions in terms of safety, training and standards – to apply to Qantas staff AND contractors.

Qantas to resolve what it says are long-standing aviation security issues and a lack of safety protocols for employees.

Rights of injured workers to be treated with dignity and respect
Commitments to a mutual relationship and good faith bargaining

Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association

The ALAEA is negotiating on behalf of 1600 licensed Qantas engineers for an agreement that expired on January 1st.

It is seeking a 3% per annum pay rise and faster progression by engineers through the payscale.

The engineers’ most contentious clause is that the Qantas commit to local engineers doing heavy maintenance on the company’s growing fleet of new A380s in the coming years. Local engineers already do line-maintenance, or the day-to-day upkeep of planes, but heavy maintenance engineering starts on an aircraft only after several years of operation. A380s were introduced in late 2008.

Qantas management says it does not have the scale of operation to establish a A380 maintenance hangar in Australia that would be viable. But the union says the likely alternative of “offshoring” the maintenance to the Philippines raises safety concerns.

Australian International Pilot Association

The AIPA is negotiating the current agreement on behalf of the 1700 long-haul Qantas pilots who fly larger aircraft like Boing 747s, 767s, and Airbus A380s and A330s, and has not staged industrial action in 44 years
The union wants a 2.5% a year wage rise which it says is negotiable
The key issue is a Qantas flight/Qantas pilot clauses which would see all Qantas flights operated by Qantas pilots.

Without this clause, the pilots group say the airline’s management will look to employ foreign pilots or use the lower-paid Jetstar pilots on Qantas-coded flights. The pilots are worried Qantas’s plans to move to Asia will mean that lower-skilled foreign pilots will be flying Qantas-branded flights, raising safety concerns and reducing the amount of work available for them.

Qantas argues it cannot continue to operate if it is forced to pay all the pilots the same pay and conditions.

AIPA says it industrial action has not cost the company a cent in revenue, delayed passengers or grounded any flights and that its entire public industrial action over the past four months has been to make a positive in-flight announcements and to wear red ties with a campaign message on them.

What Qantas says

There are 15 unions involved with Qantas and in the past 15 months it reached agreements with 10,000 workers represented by 4 unions over 5 enterprise agreements or 1/3 of the Qantas workforce.

Qantas says the TWU staff are the best paid in the country – 12% high than their equivalents in Virgin Australia – and its pilots and licensed engineers are among the best compensated in the world with its long-haul pilots for example earning 50% more than their peers at Virgin.

It claims the 3 unions are seeking pay and conditions that would put Qantas staff further beyond its competitors and that they want the right to control key elements of how the company is run.

My take on Qantas’s argument that they pay more than their competitor Virgin is that a fair day’s work ought to entitle someone to a fair day’s pay. If Virgin is paying its staff an unsatisfactory wages then it ought to have industrial action taken upon it. But that does not stop Qantas from the criticism that it should receive for paying its average worker $38,000 – which is certainly not a living wage.

The unions are well within their right to protest Qantas the national carrier from outsourcing its services to other countries; and ensuring that if Qantas does that they pay equivalent and equal wages. Moreover $38,000 is a disgusting wage for a full time job in any environment which requires security checks like and international airport. Having poor pissed off workers is never a good thing in that sort of environment.

via: http://infrequentrant.blogspot.com/2011/10/qantas-lockout-what-unions-want-wh...

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Union warns Qantas strikes could last a year #qantas #Ausunions #twu

via theaustralian.com.au

THE Transport Workers Union has warned unionists are prepared to wage a year-long campaign of strikes against Qantas as thousands of airline passengers face disruption today from the latest round of stoppages by employees.

As the Gillard government stepped up its criticism of the engineers union for advising the public not to fly Qantas before Christmas, TWU national secretary Tony Sheldon said industrial action would persist until the airline backed down on its strategy to slash labour costs and move jobs offshore.

Insisting the company had "declared war" on its Australian workforce, he told The Australian: "I see our members will be taking strong action from week to week until the matter is resolved, and whether that is Christmas this year, or next year if the company is prepared to break the workforce, the workers are determined to stand up on behalf of their families and the Australian icon."

Qantas will use hundreds of managers to try to soften the impact of the strike today, but still expects to cancel 14 flights and delay 38 others for up to an hour.

The TWU will take strike action in two two-hour blocks during morning and evening peak travel times, except in Canberra.

Politicians seeking to leave the nation's capital at the conclusion of the parliamentary sitting week face a single four-hour strike.

The airline says 6800 passengers will be affected, with further disruption tomorrow as the licensed engineers union holds four-hour stoppages.

Qantas said TWU members in Sydney and Melbourne would be told they were not required to perform their duties - but would still be paid - between the start of their shift and when strike action commenced.

Qantas said the move would allow management staff to work from the start of the shift, "ensure the smooth running of the airport and minimise any further cancellations or delays".

Federal Transport Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday joined criticism of Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association secretary Steve Purvinas for warning passengers not to book with Qantas before Christmas.

"One of the things I don't quite understand, frankly, is the idea that it is in anyone's interests to talk down this great Australian company," he said.

Mr Albanese said he was "very concerned" about the dispute and he found the comments by Mr Purvinas "extraordinary" as "you need a strong company in order to employ people in order to have union members".

Tourism Accommodation Australia managing director Rodger Powell said the threat by unions that disruptions could continue through Christmas would have a significant impact on his sector.

Christmas was the peak holiday travel period of the year, and hotels factored increased demand for accommodation into their planning, Mr Powell said.

Capital city hotels rely on business travellers for their bread and butter and these strikes are already having an impact.

Also of concern is the impact on major events, particularly the Melbourne Cup. The huge investment by many companies in corporate hospitality could be thrown into chaos if flights were disrupted.

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Qantas and the footy finals: normal service for NRL and AFL passengers | Crikey

There is this morning no sign that anyone flying later today or over this holiday weekend to or from footy finals in Melbourne and Sydney, or with family on school holidays, is going to experience anything remotely as serious as the dire predictions that have been made by Qantas management or TWU members handling baggage or licensed engineers handling operational maintenance.

Qantas spokesperson Olivia Wirth has been on newscasts apologising for the chaos against a backdrop of a nearly-empty Sydney terminal.  TWU organisers have popped up in front of a normal looking Melbourne terminal a day after the worst rain storm in a 100 years created more delays to air travel than the peak of the Chilean volcanic ash crises in April and May.

In fact there is no direct action happening over the holiday weekend at this stage, apart from a licensed engineer stopwork meeting in Brisbane on Monday.

Maybe Qantas has botched the message. Behind the scenes it has taken extensive action to ensure that passengers, on what is normally the second or third busiest day for domestic travel, are kept informed about delays and rescheduling with so much success that it has averted the misery it keeps predicting in its public utterances.

Not even its influence on the Tourism and Transport Forum lobby has worked as planned. In what reads like pure desperation, the TTF’s CEO John Lee condemned today’s action for falling over the holiday weekend, which it didn’t, and said “No one wants a repeat of the 1989 pilots’ strike”, which is about as relevant a saying no one would want a repeat of the 1919 outbreak of  the Spanish flu either.

There are problems in air travel today for Qantas passengers. In the general scheme of Fridays, minor ones. The gap between the doom-laden rhetoric of management and the low-key actions of the unions doesn’t work for labour either. The points the pilots and engineers are trying to make about management’s offshoring strategies in terms of maintenance, and flight jobs and flight standards, are being totally lost in a non-event.

Stoppages by Customs, Immigration and Quarantine officials at international terminals are a separate matter not directed at Qantas, but at the federal government. The delays so far have failed to make arriving or departing through international terminals at Sydney and Melbourne anywhere near as bad as using Heathrow or LAX on a  normal day.

When it comes to using airports to make industrial points for either Qantas management, or its unions, Australia is hopelessly outclassed.

via crikey.com.au

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