E-Torque August 2011
Wednesday, 03 August 2011 16:25
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President’s Opinion
Ask any Australian what their perception of Qantas is, and one word will come up every time: safe. Yet that’s exactly what’s at risk if CEO Alan Joyce is allowed to continue his plan of degradation and remove the safety barriers that have been in place at Qantas for many years.
It’s through our meticulous work and dedication to the job that Qantas airlines has such an outstanding reputation. You don’t get the tag of being the world’s safest airline by cutting corners, that’s for sure. Yet there is a very real threat to the Qantas brand under Joyce and the current board, and our airline risks losing its tag as the world’s safest. In fact it’s even at risk of losing its tag as a premium airline – that’s how shoddy and numerous these cost cutting strategies are.
I can see the remake of Rain Man now with the Tom Cruise character making the statement "Every airline has had a crash!" unfortunately Dustin Hoffman's character won't be able to say Qantas this time, because that's where Joyce and the Qantas board are taking us.
Qantas management don't get off lightly either, as Chris, Gavin and Keith are all advising the board that it's the right way to go. They are certainly not standing by the system of maintenance that has made us the envy of world airlines. Now before I hear the cries that other airlines do it different and are still successful, no one and I repeat no one, like it or not has the stellar reputation that Qantas has maintained over 90 years, and no Qantas employee wants to see that go down in flames.
Under new leadership, Virgin Australia recognises the importance of being a premium airline and the importance of maintaining a solid safety record. They are actually preparing to step out of their LCC mentality towards maintenance and step up their engineering presence on the line. They are also considering on-shoring their heavy maintenance in Australia. Yes, we have been critical of Virgin airlines and its LCC model in the past, but it seems the winds of change may be blowing through, and this not only means better quality, but more jobs and more money for the Australian economy.
With the recent advent of Tiger Airlines being grounded for poor pilot training and maintenance lapses it demonstrates that the LCC model is not sustainable, its also unfortunate that our members get dragged into the mud slinging when it is continually shown that the mistakes made and corners cut are the result of poor management decisions.
Then there’s Qantas management who have such little regard for the sanctity of FWA that during our EA negotiations they are prepared to break rules and the confidentiality of our private meetings before Commissioner Kaufman. As a result we have seen selective parts of our meetings distributed to the media especially by the now infamous Qantas spokesmodels, which is extremely disappointing, but unfortunately hardly surprising. If we’ve learnt anything through this process it’s that Qantas management continues to play dirty and can’t be trusted.
What’s also disappointing is the response from CASA and the Federal Government, or should I say a lack of response. CASA still seems to be a puppet to Qantas’ every whim and the Government has shown a total disregard for the livelihoods that will be destroyed and even the millions of dollars of tax revenue that will be lost as a result of off-shoring Australian jobs to Singapore or Malaysia. I hate to say it, but what we are seeing is the beginnings of potentially another Ansett collapse in equivalent terms of lost jobs and revenue. Every single Qantas senior manager should be ashamed of their part in the degradation of this Australian icon.
The kicker now is that as of 27 June a new entity, the A Licence, made its way onto our turf. This represents a worker who is less than trade-qualified but who is now approved to work on and sign-off on work done to an aircraft. This is the thin edge of the wedge and the final straw that will break the back of the once much vaunted Australian civil aviation system that now lays in tatters. And it will be the Australian public that reaps the whirlwind that will be pure and utter greed over safety.
I find it very ironic that the same authority that grounded an airline for lapses has now allowed a new licencing classification that will seriously put in jeopardy the maintenance standard that established an era where no jet airline crashes occurred.
Virgin Australia on the one hand took the initiative and saw the A licence as a 'steeping stone' to becoming a fully qualified LAME and enshrined in their EBA a career path for the new licence category, Qantas however on the other has no such designs for them. Instead it is open slather and there will be mass redundancies of LAMEs on a scale never seen in this country. To be very clear, Qantas management do not value our expertise when preflighting aircraft, and they would rather have lesser trained, less experienced and of course lesser paid individuals carry out those tasks. Yes I know the future is coming but it is this race to bottom that I find distasteful. Qantas has the world's best practice, well now we are forced to settle for world's cheapest practice and all the connotations that brings with it. How safe will the world's safest airline be then?
In more pleasant news, I’d like to take this opportunity to call for all nominations for the 2012 AMT Maintenance Skills Competition. This will be held from 7 – 9 March next year in the sleepy town of Las Vegas. Five positions are available on the team, consisting of four team members, two mechanical and two avionic engineers, and a Captain/Coach. An ALAEA Liaison Officer will accompany the team.
Regular readers of my column will know that earlier this year we had a great result, placing second in the commercial division, which as it turned out was to be a second placing overall (you have to wonder why Qantas doesn’t pay closer attention!). Let’s see if we can go one better next year.
The ALAEA will fund reasonable travel, food and accommodation expenses for the team, but individual team members will be required to make their own arrangements for leave from work.?If you are interested, please go to our website for more information or fill out an expression of interest form here:
While you’re on the web don’t forget to check out the Qantas Pilots’ new campaign and sign their online petition: http://qantaspilots.com.au/
Keep Safe,
Paul Cousins, Federal President
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