President’s Opinion

As we hurtle towards the end of the year, your Association has been working around the clock to ensure Qantas members get a fair and reasonable deal after they were forced to maintain their professionalism through one of Australia’s worst corporate dummy spits of all time.

I’m sure none of you will forget the way Qantas management treated its employees, customers and the Australian people with their act of sabotage back in October. I know I’ll never forget it. But it’s a testament to the dedication and hard work of our members and the ALAEA officials who have done all they can to ensure we get a fair deal at the end of the day.

The 21 day negotiation period imposed on us by Fair Work Australia as a direct result of Joyce grounding the airline has now expired.

I’m pleased that through the pre-arbitration conciliation process we were able to secure agreement with Qantas on a number of matters, including retention of the current Job Security Clause 11, which protects existing job functions subject to factors within the airline’s control. However there are still some outstanding matters that FWA will mediate for us.

To determine the way forward we have begun conducting nationwide meetings with Qantas members to seek their opinions and preferences on our current position. Members are strongly encouraged to attend those meetings and hear what is currently on the table. This is your opportunity to get involved and have a say.

A full list of dates and locations for the workplace meetings are on the ALAEA website.

In a separate, yet equally distressing matter, we continue to be aware of Qantas’ desire to introduce Cat A licences into Line Maintenance. This move will change the nature of certification within the aircraft engineering profession, propagating a race to the bottom that will have an untold impact on the way we do our jobs. It is clear that this is a union-busting tactic and we believe it will lead to job losses across the country.

There is no doubt this will become a growing threat to our people, and could split licence coverage of the airline’s maintenance over two agreements. This is unacceptable to the ALAEA and is a real concern to the entire aviation engineering community, who fear it will impact on safety and definitely diminish the skill base of our workforce. We continue to relay our concerns to airline management and CASA about this dedicated race to the bottom.

I’d like to finish up this year by saying a big thankyou to all our members out there who have had to put up with less than professional behaviour by your employers during the past 12 months. The aviation industry in Australia has a long and proud history and it’s always unsettling to see our profession under attack by the toe cutters who only have one thing on their minds – bigger profit margins at the expense of safety and our members’ livelihoods. This attitude not only places safety standards at risk, but also undermines consumer confidence and places a dark cloud over the entire industry. You only have to look at the choices Alan Joyce made a few weeks back, first giving himself a 71 per cent pay rise and then shutting down the entire airline the very next day. This was not an act that could be isolated – it was something that affected hundreds of thousands of people. It affected staff, customers, business operators, the hotel industry and the entire aviation industry.

Alan Joyce may think his decision delivered customers “certainty” – but if you ask me there is only one thing certain in this whole debate, and that is the irreparable damage his decision has done to the airline and the industry as a whole. It is now up to our members and all other airline employees across Australia to reverse that damage and once again restore faith in our great industry.

Over the Christmas period enjoy what time you can with your loved ones. I’m sure like me you are looking forward to doing it all again next year!

Keep Safe,

Paul Cousins,
Federal President

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