Qantas and unions go head to head

Sunday, 24 Mar, 2006 0

Reports today suggest the Qantas will face inductrial action in three cities o9ver it’s plans to shift heavy maintenance work offshore.

About 450 workers will march to the airport terminals in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to hold rallies and inform passengers of the airline’s plans to slash jobs and send work to Asia and China.

Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) national secretary Doug Cameron said Qantas had broken its commitment to keeping heavy maintenance in Australia.

“On top of slashing hundreds of jobs and services they are now secretly sending planes to Asia for vital maintenance,” Mr Cameron said in a statement.

“(Qantas) wants to introduce a cut price maintenance service in Australia and to send more and more work overseas.”

“It is blindly pursuing a cost-cutting agenda instead of investing in Australian workers,” he said.

“Hundreds of workers in Sydney are to be sacked and others are facing major cuts in their wages and conditions.”

Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union assistant national secretary Glenn Thompson said his members had been led to believe their work would be be maintained within Australia, despite a desire to cut costs by between 15 and 20 per cent by an in-depth review between July next year and July 2008.

“We’ve got major concerns that Qantas on March 10 gave us a commitment to maintain high-skilled Australian jobs in Australia,” Mr Thompson said.

“And as a result of that, I understand that Qantas has taken a decision which goes back on their initial commitment to maintain maintenance of aircraft in Australia by seeking to offshore one of their 747-400 series aircraft.

Mr Cameron warned the airline was taking the first steps toward scrapping its maintenance services entirely.

“Everybody knows a world-class maintenance service means world-class safety and that is what workers are defending,” he said.

It is unclear at this stage what impact the ralklies will have on flights.

Graham Muldoon

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