President’s Opinion

Where should I start?

In the last week we’ve seen the lengths Qantas CEO Alan Joyce is prepared to go to just to get his own way. He has shown what complete disregard he actually has for the Australian people as our own customer base, despite his multimillion-dollar newspaper ads telling them how “sorry” he is, how schedule has returned to normal or splashing 100,000 free tickets as a bribe for his abhorrent behaviour.  He has shown the level of disrespect he has for his own employees who have been taking minimal, completely legal protected industrial action only to be told they will be locked out until he gets his way. And he definitely has shown that he can’t be trusted with running an airline that is such an essential service to Australians and the Australian economy.  

In the lead up to the Qantas AGM, we told Qantas we would be putting our industrial action on hold. We made it quite clear that we were committed to negotiations and getting those aircraft, ‘allegedly’ grounded by our action, back in the air. That’s because unlike Qantas management, professionalism is second nature to us, we want to see this company succeed and stay as strong as possible to ensure we all have jobs into the future. But by 1730 on Saturday 29 October it appeared Alan Joyce had other ideas.

Alan Joyce’s decision to ground all aircraft and lock out employees was we believe, an act of industrial blackmail, despicable treachery and utter madness. We suspect he deliberately set out to wreck the national economy and cause irrevocable damage to the Qantas brand. He forced a situation, which was nowhere near crisis point, to a head just so he could deny us all our workplace rights.  He just snapped his fingers and plunged our industry and the Australian people into darkness.  Simply put, the Qantas board was playing backyard cricket with its employees, got bowled out fair and square, protested that the ball was wide, started crying then took their bat and ball and went home. Their action was absolutely reprehensible, and clearly the behaviour of a spoiled brat.

We spent the best part of that weekend in Fair Work Australia fighting for our rights and to hold Alan Joyce to account, to which end saw Qantas’ underbelly exposed in a series questionable decisions and documents.  We fought for a suspension of industrial action – on both sides – to ensure the negotiation process could continue in good faith. Part of the Qantas submission was to accuse us all of possible sabotage, to quote directly from Lyell Strambi’s testimony about a risk assessment dated the 20 October, “Common threats are – Intentional unsafe acts by ground staff / engineers – undiscoverable by flight crew”. In all my years of aviation involvement I have never seen our profession so insulted.  The submission also included Sue Bussell saying that the only reason for the “Lock Out” was to force negotiation on their terms as the unions had put the company in an untenable position. But the decision in the end was to terminate all action, and this followed the government’s application and thus instigated 21 days of conciliated negotiations with Qantas management overseen by FWA.  

While we are committed to further negotiations with Qantas, let me tell you I will do what is best for all of us. If negotiations look to be going nowhere by November 20, we will be forced into arbitration with Fair Work Australia. Any outcome there will be binding, and we will need to do all we can to get the best outcome in both the long-term and the short-term for members.

I’d also like to thank members for being so professional throughout this whole process. You are a credit to the industry, your company and the ALAEA, and it’s a pity the Qantas board are not. It has been a tumultuous few weeks and I know many of you will be feeling cheated and betrayed by Qantas management. But I also know you will all be back on the tools showing true professionalism in every task you perform. That’s because as LAMEs we have a duty to this airline and its passengers that goes above and beyond anything a Qantas CEO can ever do.

Keep Safe,
Paul Cousins,
Federal President

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