Qantas attacks its workforce

Peter Mac

The airline once considered "Australia's own" is not content with 
its recently announced plan to establish a 400-strong crew base 
in London, break the company into eight separate divisions, and 
contract out its maintenance work overseas. The airline now 
intends to scrap the existing limit of 370 overseas-based cabin 
crew, with a view to basing 1000 cabin crew employees overseas 
after the existing agreement with the Flight Attendants 
Association expires on December 18.

And in a move that is highly reminiscent of those used by 
management during the infamous Patrick Stevedores dispute several 
years ago, Qantas has advised the ACTU that it no longer intends 
to directly hire employees performing ground work usually carried 
out by members of the Transport Workers Union (TWU) at Melbourne 
Airport. Instead it intends to use labour hire firms and overseas 
employees in most work areas throughout Australia.

Ms Grace Grace, General Secretary of the Queensland Council of 
Unions, warned Qantas employees that the airline is intent on 
launching a full-scale attack on its workforce.

She stated: "It is the intention of the company to reduce its 
annual wages bill by approximately $205 million per year from 
existing employees, which for award employees will mean a 
reduction of $6,833.33 per year per employee."

Qantas is now training domestic cabin crews to handle the 
airline's flights to Hong Kong, one of its most popular 
destinations, and is training certain members of its management 
to act as strike breakers in the event that international flight 
attendant staff take industrial action, as seems almost certain.

This tactic is unlikely in itself to defeat such action, but it 
illustrates just how greedy the privatised Qantas has become, 
despite its massive profit levels of recent years.

TWU members employed by Qantas at Melbourne airport were the 
first to be affected by the labour hire move, and have refused to 
work alongside labour hire employees. In a move that is again 
strikingly reminiscent of management tactics used in the Patrick 
dispute, Qantas management then threatened to take legal action 
and to forcibly remove TWU employees from the Melbourne base.

At a recent meeting, nine unions covering Qantas workers agreed 
to take joint action, and are considering establishing a single 
bargaining unit, to defeat the company's plans to attack their 
wages and conditions.

In a joint statement, the unions recently commented that the 
company had obviously been preparing its new moves for months. 
They declared: "We have two options. We can buckle in the face of 
corporate thuggery or we can show Qantas we are determined to 
fight for our jobs, our families and our future.

"This action is an attack on all unions and all workers who seek 
to defend working conditions. We must come together as a movement 
to support the Qantas workers. An attack on one is an attack on 
all."