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THE decision made yesterday by Fair Work Australia means certainty for Qantas customers and all our employees.
Certainty is one thing that has been absent in recent months as three unions have taken industrial action against Qantas.
By Friday, this action had cost Qantas close to $70 million at a rate of $15 million a week. A total of 70,000 passengers had been affected by cancelled and rescheduled flights.
With no prospect of a resolution any time soon - two union leaders spoke about industrial action possibly continuing for another year - I had to consider the potential impact on our business and our customers.
In a year's time, if industrial action had continued to escalate, Qantas' operations could have been reduced by half. Clearly this would have had major implications for jobs in all parts of the company, not to mention the ripple effect throughout the Australian economy.
It is incorrect to say that Qantas was not offering its employees pay rises in the negotiations with these three unions. We have always been willing to negotiate on this and offer reasonable pay increases.
The reason we have not been able to reach an agreement is because each of the three unions has made demands that would hand over control of some of the airline to the unions. They are demands that would make it impossible for us to keep up with the big foreign carriers. The licensed engineers' union want us to keep old ways of working that other airlines have left behind, while the pilots' union wants us to pay Jetstar pilots the same wages as Qantas pilots.
It is also incorrect to say that Qantas is "offshoring" and sending jobs to Asia. ........ We are making a number of changes, including retiring some aircraft and withdrawing from some routes.
As a result, there will be around 1000 redundancies.
BUT these jobs are not going "offshore" - they simply will not exist any more.
Qantas employs over 30,000 people in Australia, in every state and territory, across more than 250 different roles. The vast majority of our employees will continue to be based in Australia. We do 90 per cent of our heavy maintenance in this country. No other airline does any heavy maintenance here.
Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down.
"The greatest thing that could happen to the nation is when we get rid of all the media. Then we could live in peace and tranquillity, and no one would know anything." - Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen
Pied Piper wrote:
In Australia, Qantas wants the right to employ contract labour ground staff to meet demand peaks. The TWU appears to have accepted this, but is demanding that the contract hire companies are unionised.
Isn't that a breach of the freedom of association provisions of the fair work act?
And yeah, the rest of it is a pretty fair summation.
I'm not sure the argument about passing on lower costs to the consumers washes though. Costs don't equate to charges much as we'd like them to, market forces determine the price that companies charge. If they lower costs, don't expect prices to come down. Profit will increase and be passed on to shareholders.
Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down.
The Qantas dispute is part of an age-old battle between labour and capital. And there's no doubt who is winning. Take a look at these charts from Business Insider, which show CEO pay in the USA is now 350 times average earnings, while corporate profits and unemployment are at record highs and the share of wages in the economy is at record lows. It's not just Alan Joyce that's getting a 71% pay rise for making his workforce take less.
Yet you chose to quote only the bit, and it was only one bit, that supported your union bashing.
You know stui, I'm constantly amazed at the people who have children, and their children have or are planning children, who think a non unionised Australia would be a good thing for these kids.
I suppose when they are offered jobs at 5 bucks an hour with no overtime penalties and no annual leave or sick benefits, the reality will set in.
Be to late then of course.
B&W - I don't Stui is union bashing and we would not want to work where the employer has total control - just as we don't want to return to the old BLF era.
The hard part is to find the common middle ground where everyone is happy.
I still find it hard to understand how I can get a flight to JFK and my bags are at the carousel (or a max of 1 minute late) when I get there - yet I always have to wait up to 30 minutes on an Australian domestic flight.
Last flight to the USA - after getting through customs in LA (5 min) bags were there in 2 min (7 min all up).
Flight back to Brisbane - 15 min to get through customs and 20 min waiting for bags (35 in all up).
How can the USA baggage handlers get it right and the Australian ones get it just so wrong ???
Coaches give you direction but skills win you matches.
sq3 wrote:My last QANTAS flight was 5 years ago - our company changed to Virgin for domestic and internationl at the time and we have never looked back.
Much better service, better prices and better loyalty program.
I do think QANTAS will be downsized or totally JetStar run in the very near future.
One of their most profitable (if not the most) was the LA business class route when they were protected - now Virgin is on that route every day.
Both sides are to blame - QANTAS and TWU.
Was both Virgin and Qantas FF
Am now only Qantas and have had much better experiences although at times both have let me down.
Like the Qantas club best.
Last QANTAS filght had to pay excess bagage for golf clubs - so tried Virgin - no extra charge.
Simple things like that have our company and family flying on Virgin.
Virgin Silver anf flying to the US many times a year - baggage allownace 63kg - nice.
shit
your right, its things like this that make you change companies however Ive never had this problem with qantas.
surf boards, car seats and signed collingwood framed premiership jumpers - never been charged
might be my qantas club membership - didnt think so though
Last edited by MJ23 on Tue Nov 01, 2011 7:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"Even when Im old and gray, I wont be able to play but Ill still love the game"
Michael Jordan
THE decision made yesterday by Fair Work Australia means certainty for Qantas customers and all our employees.
Certainty is one thing that has been absent in recent months as three unions have taken industrial action against Qantas.
By Friday, this action had cost Qantas close to $70 million at a rate of $15 million a week. A total of 70,000 passengers had been affected by cancelled and rescheduled flights.
With no prospect of a resolution any time soon - two union leaders spoke about industrial action possibly continuing for another year - I had to consider the potential impact on our business and our customers.
In a year's time, if industrial action had continued to escalate, Qantas' operations could have been reduced by half. Clearly this would have had major implications for jobs in all parts of the company, not to mention the ripple effect throughout the Australian economy.
It is incorrect to say that Qantas was not offering its employees pay rises in the negotiations with these three unions. We have always been willing to negotiate on this and offer reasonable pay increases.
The reason we have not been able to reach an agreement is because each of the three unions has made demands that would hand over control of some of the airline to the unions. They are demands that would make it impossible for us to keep up with the big foreign carriers. The licensed engineers' union want us to keep old ways of working that other airlines have left behind, while the pilots' union wants us to pay Jetstar pilots the same wages as Qantas pilots.
It is also incorrect to say that Qantas is "offshoring" and sending jobs to Asia. ........ We are making a number of changes, including retiring some aircraft and withdrawing from some routes.
As a result, there will be around 1000 redundancies.
BUT these jobs are not going "offshore" - they simply will not exist any more.
Qantas employs over 30,000 people in Australia, in every state and territory, across more than 250 different roles. The vast majority of our employees will continue to be based in Australia. We do 90 per cent of our heavy maintenance in this country. No other airline does any heavy maintenance here.
why wouldnt qantas management want to let the unions help run them ?
Theyve done such a good job running the country
"Even when Im old and gray, I wont be able to play but Ill still love the game"
Michael Jordan
- never been charged
