Today, hundreds of Qantas ground workers across the country will take further 24-hour strike action at Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth airports-the last Qantas ground workers left after 1800 others were illegally outsourced, now fighting to rebuild decent jobs at the Flying Kangaroo.
The workers, split under Alan Joyce across three separate companies QAL, QGS and AAE to drive down pay and conditions, move freight including for Australia Post, and operate the passenger network QantasLink.
With workers’ pay and conditions now even below the contractors Qantas replaced illegally outsourced workers with, the workers are calling for:
· Fair pay in line with industry standards after a decade of wage suppression
· More full-time jobs and hours
· Workers to be brought back under one Qantas banner to reduce deadly safety failings
Qantas’ scattering of its workforce among multiple subsidiaries has splintered the aviation workforce, draining experience from airports and leading to dangerously unsafe standards for both workers and the travelling public. A Qantas Freight worker was tragically killed on Father’s Day last year, with a SafeWork investigation ongoing.
TWU National Secretary Michael Kaine said:
“Qantas has tried its best to turn beloved careers into scraps of poorly-paid, unsafe work-but hundreds of ground workers today are striking for better.
“These workers used to be proud to say they work for the Flying Kangaroo, just as the public used to be proud of this airline. But that won’t happen again until Qantas properly invests in its workforce, with pay in line with industry standards, more full-time jobs, and an end to workers being pitted against each other in competition.
“It’s time for the new Qantas management to shed the spiteful corporate attitude it inherited from Alan Joyce, and actually value workers driving the airline’s billions in profits.”
