The Guardian 2 July, 2008
Qantas bosses plan all-out onslaught
Bob Briton
Qantas is fast building a reputation as a leading workplace bully. It has boasted that it has 300 strike-breakers on short-term contracts for deployment in the event of industrial action by flight attendants. It has refused to budge thus far on a wage-cutting EBA offer to its engineers and brought on a campaign of industrial action that has thrown flight schedules and travel plans into chaos. A leaked e-mail from senior management has exposed a “buggery campaign" of intimidation against staff supporting their union’s efforts.
“If we escalate and advise them they will lose pay, do you think they will work on, or walk off? Too hard to call with any certainty, could go either way but given some of the personalities I tend to favour walk off based on the peer pressure evident. Staying with a buggery campaign always an option. Dick." This is part of an exchange between senior managers Dick Hayes and Murray Harris carried in The Age newspaper that reveals the sorts of calculations going on at the top at Qantas. The workers’ possible reaction to being replaced by scab “management" engineers is also canvassed.
Engineers have had their pay docked for refusing to do overtime. “What we’ve heard is management have put together a team of people to start harassing and targeting members who are toeing the union line; putting pressure on people to do things they shouldn’t do," Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA) National Secretary Steve Purvinas said recently.
Qantas gathered a force of 100 “management" engineers and engaged a recruitment firm to bring additional strike-breakers from overseas in readiness for the next stage of the campaign against the ALAEA. A lack of cooperation from the Rudd government reportedly set back their plans to bring in guest worker engineers using section 457 visas. Some maintenance work was sent offshore to London and Los Angeles.
“We’ve never, ever been a company that has agreed when somebody has put a gun to our head", airline CEO Geoff Dixon said recently regarding the legitimate industrial action by engineers. He didn’t mention all the company’s heavy artillery targeting the workers and their union as he spoke.
In the end, a disciplined campaign of bans and rolling stoppages has brought Qantas back to the negotiating table. Further stoppages have been called off and hopes of a breakthrough for the workers have been revived. But while a ceasefire has been called in the airlines’ battle against its engineers, the war against the rest of the company’s 35,000 workers is about to hot up. About 60 percent of Qantas workers have yet to conclude Enterprise Bargaining Agreements with their budget-slashing management.
Check-in and call centre staff have borne most of the brunt of passenger frustration as services deteriorate. Their union, the Australian Services Union (ASU), is also fed up with the company line about generosity and responsibility to shareholders.
“He [Dixon] is constantly saying they’ve created 7,000 jobs but our [Qantas] membership has contracted by 1,500 to 1,800 and I haven’t seen the workload decrease," ASU Assistant National Secretary Linda White told The Australian Financial Review. Their union will also have to face off against lavishly remunerated airline heavyweights determined to hold their pay rise to a less-than-inflation three percent.
Qantas management says it is confident that staff and the public will see things their way. After a strategic planning session held in New York recently, the Qantas board announced itself well satisfied with its current course and that it would hold a number of “road shows" next month to outline its further plans.
The company is reported to be breaking up its fleet, freight and frequent flyer operations and, as has been previously announced, cutting back services to several domestic and overseas destinations. Jetstar flights will replace full service Qantas ones on a number of routes. Jetstar crew are still paid less than their Qantas counterparts. Geoff Dixon remains vague on the number of jobs to go in the current cost-cutting binge and puts it as “some hundreds". And, while the company still maintains it is on track to make a record $1.4 billion profit this year, staff expectations for their annual bonuses are low.
Last week, results of a survey of Australia’s most “authentic" brands by marketing companies Principals and Synovate were released. Two years ago Qantas topped the survey list but this year it has slipped to position 14. Late flights, slipping service standards and the behaviour of airline management during last year’s failed private equity takeover bid have been blamed for the fall from favour.
“The general public and Qantas staff didn’t think it was a great idea to privatise Qantas," the ASU’s Linda White noted. “They were right and the management were wrong. They are wrong, too, about paying people the right money. Enough is enough!"