President’s Opinion

This month our campaign at Qantas will really start to take off. It’s been a fierce few weeks for our members at the national carrier, but I’m happy to report that everything is going to plan and our campaign is really starting to have an impact on the airline’s bottom line (which is the only thing these people seem to care about). Heavy maintenance teams recently joined the action staging full-day stoppages and in a few days time we will be ramping up our action at airports around the country with rolling four-hour stoppages.

As our action continues, so does the action of other Qantas unions. The pilots are continuing their fight for a “Qantas Flight – Qantas Pilot” clause, and the Transport Workers Union carried out national stoppages last month over pay, conditions and job security. It’s a shame that it has come to this, but Qantas management is determined to go to war with its 35,000-strong workforce for nothing more than the sake of it.

While all this goes on, certain media outlets continue to sprout Qantas propaganda and deny the unions a right of reply. Just recently we saw the Murdoch press, yet again, attempting to drag our name through the mud. Their report on the ALAEA and its members said that we had “adopted a tough US-style ‘playbook’ for industrial action which advocates intimidating executives to win better conditions for workers.” Now I make no apologies for trying to win better conditions and job security for members, but intimidating executives? Executives who are sitting around in their plush, air-conditioned offices eating cake and counting their millions while we are on the tarmac often in the driving rain, freezing cold or under a hot sun using our decades of expertise to keep their aircraft flying?

How about writing a story about how Qantas management bullies and intimidates its workers?

The TWU’s Tony Sheldon said the company was banging on its members’ doors in the middle of the night to inform employees they would be locked out when they arrived at work. Now that’s intimidation and utterly disgraceful. Bring on the media inquiry I say.

But let’s get back to what we are really fighting for here, because it’s really quite simple. We want a fair go, and a future with Qantas. Yet what we are being offered is insecurity and neglect.  We are being asked to give Qantas a blank cheque to do whatever they want and make major changes that will affect the livelihoods of members at any moment. Why would we agree to this? Then there is the looming threat of offshoring and outsourcing. These two evils of our industry not only threaten our jobs, they threaten the safety of the world’s safest airline. Aussie jobs will go, our expertise will disappear and eventually the most undesirable outcome for all will occur, a smoking hole in the ground.

In a world where airline safety is big business, it seems airline management is more concerned about someone bringing a toothpick onboard, than a hatchet job on the plane’s engine. Where is the sense in it all?

The determination to create a new airline based in Asia will mean Qantas will be dismantled and its cash and assets sent overseas. The Qantas Sale Act may not be being breached, but its spirit is surely being ignored in this effort to send offshore our airline.  It’s ironic that Qantas management has spent millions of dollars on advertising the ‘new spirit’ of Qantas but not one red cent on retaining Australian skills and expertise.

Over the next few months, unity will be more important than ever. It’s vital that we are all in this together, and that management everywhere hear our collective voices. If Qantas is able to get away with this, the impact will be devastating not only to our profession but to the Australian landscape. We’ve seen it happen before, and we don’t want it happening again.

This month we’ll be kicking off a series of mass meetings that will take place in all ports. I want you all to make it along and show Qantas that we mean business.

Whilst on related subjects, Jetstar members are seeing the emergence of proposed changes by management in their quarter that can be designed to undermine their present standing.  There is certainly something afoot but be aware the ALAEA will be backing its members to the hilt when it comes to retaining job security and a fair go.

A recent episode where a member from a small outfit was threatened with termination without a fair hearing and natural justice proved the worth of being in the Association.  An ALAEA representative from another airline stepped in and set management on their heels, derailing any thoughts of a quick dismissal, and now a fair hearing will take place and that member will be given natural justice.  Never think you are alone, if you’re a member we have your back and we’re only a phone call away.

Stay Safe,
Paul Cousins

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